Monitor Editor
STARKE— A 48-year-old Keystone Heights man was sentenced to four years in prison for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of Southside Elementary School, possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl and keeping a young girl in deplorable conditions.
John Franklin Burns pleaded no contest to the Sept. 1 offenses of selling a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell within 1,000 feet of a school, child neglect without great bodily harm, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and use or possession of drug equipment.
According to court documents, a Starke police confidential informant purchased one-half of a gram of methamphetamine from the defendant at Dee’s Mobile Home Park, which is approximately 350 feet away from the school.
Later the same day, officers executed a search warrant of the home.
“Upon entry into the residence,” wrote arresting officer Johnathon Guinn in an arrest report, “a young girl…was located inside a room with drugs, drug paraphernalia and a large knife all within reach of (the child) on a dresser.”
The drugs were later identified as 3.2 grams of methamphetamine and 0.5 grams of fentanyl. Burns and the girl were the only people in the home. Guinn added that the home was in disarray and had no power.
Before the search began, officers already had a warrant for Burns’s arrest for selling methamphetamine.
Guinn wrote that he added the child neglect charge “based on the conditions (the girl) was found in and the location of the fentanyl, methamphetamine and knife.”
