Joplin man sentenced to 14 years on meth charge

A Joplin man was sentenced to 14 years in prison during a hearing this morning in U. S. District Court in Springfield.

The sentence for David James Erickson, 44, was less than the 19 years the government asked for in a sentencing memorandum filed earlier this week, saying Erickson's lengthy criminal history indicated he had no respect for the law.

For two decades the defendant has been involved in the manufacture, possession, and distribution of methamphetamine. Here, his offense conduct is more of the same and involves all three of those facets of the methamphetamine business. 

In 2021, a search warrant was executed at his residence and law enforcement located methamphetamine, along with various components to a methamphetamine lab to manufacture the drug. 

On March 14, 2022, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle leaving the defendant’s residence and located more than 240 grams of methamphetamine in the vehicle. Following the stop, one of the vehicle’s occupants indicated they had picked up the methamphetamine from the defendant and were intending to sell it. 

Following the traffic stop, on March 30, 2022, a search warrant was obtained and executed on the defendant’s residence and law enforcement located more than 325 grams of methamphetamine, a drug ledger, and a digital scale. 

The defendant’s criminal history is abysmal. Littered with drug-related convictions, it is demonstrative of someone who has no respect for the rule of law and has not yet been deterred from committing crimes. 

In 2002, the defendant was convicted of possession of drug paraphernalia, which was amended down from the original charge of felony possession of a controlled substance. Two years later, the defendant was convicted of felony conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance. In 2012, the defendant was convicted of felony manufacturing a controlled substance felony attempt to manufacture a controlled substance, and felony possession of a controlled substance. 

Six years later, in 2018, the defendant was convicted of felony trafficking drugs in the second degree, wherein he was found in possession of more than 90 grams of methamphetamine. 

While the defendant’s criminal history is largely drug-related, he also has a felony conviction for receiving stolen property, a misdemeanor conviction for domestic assault and a misdemeanor conviction for excessive BAC. 

Additionally, representative of the defendant’s lack of respect for the rule of law, and the sheer blatancy with which he chooses to violate it, the defendant has 34 traffic convictions, of which at least 11 are for driving while his driver’s license was revoked or suspended. 

Such actions do nothing but show that the defendant does not care about the rule of law, will deliberately violate it to suit his needs, and is not deterred in his criminal ways by law enforcement or criminal justice intervention. 

The defendant’s criminal history also demonstrates that he has been given numerous opportunities to change his ways and turn his life around. He has been afforded treatment, deferred judgment sentences, probationary sentences, and incarceration sentences of varying lengths of time, however, none of these measures have woken the defendant up and deterred him from the criminal conduct which this Court must now consider. Such failure to learn from his previous sentences has demonstrated that a long prison sentence is both warranted and necessary in this case.