Former Malta man breaks terms of release, faces possible prison time

A 23-year-old former Malta man, charged with two counts of felony distribution of dangerous drugs, changed his plea of not guilty to guilty two weeks ago in Phillips County Court.

Jaymz Shippen was initially arrested and charged with the two counts of criminal distribution in June of 2012 but was later granted deferred prosecution as he agreed to several conditions, two of which were that he pay court costs of $400 and $110 to the Tri-Agency Task Force and that he not move from the state of Texas where the court allowed him to live with his uncle.

Court record show that Shippen neither paid the fines nor stayed near his uncle as he moved to California without the court’s permission. The conditions were ordered by the court after Shippen was arrested for selling marijuana in Malta in 2012.

On June 19, 2012, a Tri-Agency Task Agents met with a confidential informant and the informant said that he had received a text message stating that a local man had “green” for sale – “green” is a street term for marijuana.

At 7:35 p.m., the informant met with the task force at a predetermined location. The taskforce agents gave the informant an electronic transmitter to record the suspected drug transaction along with $60 to purchase “1/8 ounce” of marijuana from the man who sent the text. The informant got back into their car to drive to the place where the transaction would take place with the task force following from a distance. The informant drove to the Malta house and entered. The taskforce listened to the conversation via the wire the informant was wearing and heard two men talking, one of them was the defendant, Jaymz Shippen. (The other person recorded was arrested and tried in a separate case.)The agents heard the two men talking about how they would be getting five pounds of marijuana the following Friday and that they could also supply the informant with Ecstasy tablets.

The informant left the home and met back with the agents. The agents took the wire from the inform-ant as well as a baggy containing marijuana. The informant said that Shippen had left the house at the Malta address and returned with the marijuana. The total weight of the purchase was 4.9 grams and tested positive for marijuana.

On June 22, the informant contacted the taskforce agents and said that he could buy another $60 worth of marijuana. The same process of the first drug buy was conducted with the go-between per-son again giving the money to Shippen.

Shippen was later arrested, released on bond and then made his initial appearance on July 8, 2013.

Shippen pleaded not guilty at his initial appearance but on September 6, 2013, Shippen admitted to the charges and was allowed to move to Texas in order to live with his uncle and find a job. Two of the conditions of the deferred prosecution agreement was that Shippen shall pay courts costs of $400 and restitution to the Tri-Agency Task force in the sum of $110 over three months and that Shippen live only in Texas within 25 miles of his uncle.

In March of 2014, Shippen’s uncle contacted the Phillips County Attorney to report that his nephew had moved to California without permission. On May 28, 2014, the State of Montana alleged in a peti-tion that Shippen had violated the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement and Shippen admit-ted to the violation by failing to pay court costs and restitutions and by moving from the state of Texas without permission. A bench warrant was issued.

Two weeks ago in Phillips County Court, Shippen changed his plea to guilty. Persons convicted of crimi-nal distribution of dangerous drugs shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a term of not less than 1 year or more than life and may be fined not more than $50,000 or both.

Sentencing is set for August 11, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. in the courtroom of the Phillips County Court House in Malta