TWO INLAND CASES UNDERSCORE METH'S DANGERS

One was ingenious, the other a catastrophe that killed three young
children. But the two Riverside County methamphetamine labs shared one
trait -- they helped Inland authorities show the rest of the country the
costs and dangers of clandestine labs.

A lab at a Nuevo junkyard, found in October 1990, underscored the
environmental and monetary costs that labs pose. A secret,
hydraulic-powered door opened to a stairway down into the earth that led to
a warren of tunnels. Inside, two men were running a methamphetamine lab in
a 30-foot passenger bus buried under 15 feet of dirt.

A batch of methamphetamine was bubbling when authorities arrived and found
a lab that could produce 10 pounds of the drug each day.

It cost more than $100,000 to remove the toxic bus piece by piece and
dispose of it and other contaminates.

One of the cooks was sentenced to four years in prison, the other got a
year behind bars.

The other lab, in an Aguanga mobile home, became a test case that now lets
prosecutors file murder charges when people die in meth labs.

The day after Christmas 1995, Kathey Lynn James was making methamphetamine
in her home. Her 8-year-old son, Jimmie, told a Riverside County Superior
Court jury his mother was cooking "white medicine" when flames erupted from
the kitchen stove.

The fire killed his three siblings, Dion, 3, Jackson, 2, and Megan, 1, who
were playing in their new Power Rangers pajamas.

The story made headlines across the country. In November 1996, jurors
convicted James of second-degree murder even though she did not intend to
kill the children. She was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison.

Authorities believe it was the first time a death caused by a lab explosion
resulted in a murder conviction. The state 4th District Court of Appeal in
San Bernardino upheld the verdict in March 1998, saying it was inherently
dangerous to manufacture drugs in the home.