Government says Joplin meth trafficker should spend 25 years in prison; he wants 15

In a sentencing memorandum filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Assistant U. S. Attorney Anthony M. Brown recommended a 25-year prison sentence for a Joplin methamphetamine trafficker.

Travis K. Brown, 53, pleaded guilty to the trafficking charge in January and is scheduled for sentencing 3:15 p.m. October 17 in Springfield.

Noting Brown's seven felony convictions over the past three decades, Brown said, "The defendant’s repeated criminal conduct and inability to be successful on supervision shows that a 300-month sentence of imprisonment is an appropriate sentence given the facts and circumstances of this offense."

Based upon the defendant’s history and characteristics, the nature of the offense, and repeated criminal conduct, a 300-month sentence would reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law, and provide punishment that is sufficient, but not greater than necessary. 

The defendant has continued to engage in criminal behavior after repeated terms of probation and incarceration. Nothing short of a lengthy period of incarceration, followed by a term of supervised release, will promote respect for the law in this defendant. The defendant has continued to engage in criminal conduct from the time he was eighteen years old to this date, and a 300-month sentence would be a deterrent to the defendant and those who wish to continue to engage in dangerous criminal activity within this community, while sending a message to others that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.

Details in Brown's current case were spelled out in a detention motion filed in August 2022:

Brown is a convicted felon who was found in possession of a firearm on one occasion and approximately 221 grams of actual methamphetamine on a separate occasion. A five-year-old child was inside Brown’s residence when the methamphetamine was seized.

Brown’s first arrest occurred on August 2, 2020, when Joplin, Missouri, Police Department officers were called to Brown’s residence because a woman had been shot.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found Brown’s girlfriend L.S. sitting at the kitchen table with a gunshot wound to her abdomen. The firearm used to shoot Brown’s girlfriend was sitting on the kitchen table.

Brown’s girlfriend told police that Brown had just finished cleaning his gun when he accidentally shot her.

The officer checked the handgun through computer systems and learned that it was reported stolen from Webb City, Missouri.

Brown was sitting on the front porch when officers arrived. Brown gave officers consent to recover the firearm from the residence. Brown made spontaneous utterances to the officers that the gun was sitting on the kitchen table, that the gun was silver and a Smith and Wesson, and that the shooting was accidental.

Brown was interviewed the next day. Brown told officers that he had retrieved his gun “to mess with it.” Brown said the gun discharged and struck his girlfriend who was sitting on the other side of the kitchen table from him.

Brown said he did not know how the gun discharged. Brown refused to say how he obtained the stolen firearm.

Brown has prior felony convictions for possession of methamphetamine, manufacturing methamphetamine, second degree arson, and receiving stolen property. Brown was on probation when officers arrested him on August 2, 2020.

While at the scene, officers called Brown’s probation officer. Brown’s probation officer told the officers that Brown is aware that he was prohibited from possession firearms due to him being a convicted felon.

Brown’s second arrest occurred on June 29, 2021, when Joplin, Missouri, Police Department officers executed a state search warrant at Brown’s residence. Inside the residence were three individuals: (1) Brown, (2) Brown’s girlfriend L.S., and (3) his girlfriend’s 5-year-old child.

Inside a safe, officers located bags of methamphetamine, a digital scale, Alprazolam and Hydrocodone pills, and two cell phones.

The Drug Enforcement Administration Crime Lab analyzed the bags of methamphetamine found in the safe and determined that one contained 195 grams of 100% pure methamphetamine and the other contained 27.11 grams of 99% pure methamphetamine.
In total, 221 grams of actual methamphetamine were recovered from the safe.

The next day, officers interviewed Brown after reading him his Miranda rights. Brown immediately said, “It’s mine.”

Brown stated that he had been selling for three or four months and had sold approximately one-half pound of methamphetamine during that time.

Brown's attorney, assistant federal public defender Paul R. Duchsherer, who also filed a sentencing memorandum today, said 15 years would be the ideal sentence and noted how Brown's difficult upbringing had set the stage for his life of crime.

Travis lost his father, Stanley Smith, when he was only 7 years old. Travis remembers his mother, Cindy Smith, took her husband’s death very hard and it was some time before Cindy was able to move past their loss. 

Perhaps because of his young age at the time of his father’s death, or perhaps because he didn’t want to burden his already grief-stricken mother further, Travis never addressed his own grief at the time. What role this failure to confront his own loss at the time may have had on Mr. Brown’s later issues is unknown, but Travis recognizes now that he would benefit from mental health counseling during his incarceration for this offense. 

Other than this loss of a family member, Mr. Brown’s childhood was fairly ordinary without any other extreme events that Travis can remember. His family struggled financially from time to time over the years, but not any more than other families in his hometown did. 

Looking back now, Travis has difficulties pointing to one specific event or occurrence from his adolescence that caused him to fall so completely into his drug addictions at such a young age. 

For whatever the reason, Travis began daily marijuana use when he was only 12 years old. This certainly says something for not only his neighborhood at the time but for the level of adult supervision that was obviously lacking in his life. Travis recalls working at a local hamburger joint when he was 14 years old and giving his paycheck to a buddy’s mother who would buy the teenage boys alcohol and marijuana. 

This early exposure to drugs and alcohol caused Travis to have problems focusing on school and he dropped out during his junior year. He was eventually able to obtain his GED in 1990, but that was the extent of his education because his introduction to methamphetamine began when he was just 20 years old. Whatever impact marijuana or alcohol had on Travis during his teenage years was nothing compared to how much methamphetamine changed him and his relationships with those around him. 

Just twenty years old, Travis was already a full-blown addict, surviving only to support his habit no matter the cost. Drug addiction generally affects every facet of one’s life, and Travis was no exception.

One of Mr. Brown’s biggest regrets after more than 30 years of daily methamphetamine use is all the pain he has caused those closest to him. With the destructive lifestyle of a young addict come the almost unavoidable consequences. Travis had few practical life skills and was ill-equipped to become an independent and productive adult. His immature nature is revealed within the offenses he committed thereafter.

The 28 months he has been behind bars since his arrest is the longest he has ever been sober, the memo said. 

It is also the longest Travis has ever been sober. During these two years in custody, Mr. Brown has had time to reflect upon his offenses and the need to make life-altering changes. He is ready for a change.