MEDICAL MARIJUANA HEIST LEADS TO PRISON TERM

Bryan Clark Combs told the judge he was planning on getting some help
for his alcohol and drug addictions -- until he "stumbled upon the
garden."

The 23-year-old Riddle man was sentenced by Douglas County Circuit
Judge Joan Seitz to 15 months in prison and two years of post-prison
supervision Thursday for raiding a legal medical marijuana garden in
Riddle Sept. 25.

Combs was caught with copious quantities of the medicinal crop by the
man he stole it from, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Rick
Wesenberg. He pleaded guilty to possession of a substantial quantity
of marijuana and possession of methamphetamine in a case that
highlighted what Wesenberg off-handedly described as "the perils of
medical marijuana."

"I made a bad mistake, and I was planning on doing some rehab before I
stumbled upon the garden," Combs told Seitz. "I'm a bad alcoholic and
a drug addict ... I just want to turn everything around while I'm
still young."

Craig Wilson, a friend of the victim's who also had his medical
marijuana plants stolen, said they heard a rumor that Combs had
recently acquired several "wet" plants, so they went to his apartment
on Maple Street with some friends to confront him about it.

"They opened the door, (and) there was like a party going on there,"
Wilson said. "I said, 'Come out here and talk to us.'"

Wilson said once some of the people had cleared away they could see "a
bunch of marijuana sitting on the table."

The victim told Combs he was calling the police, prompting the party
to quickly disperse, with Combs jumping out of a bathroom window and
running away.

"The odor of fresh marijuana was almost overwhelming," reports the
investigating officer in his probable cause affidavit. "In plain view,
I saw numerous marijuana stems on the floor in the living room. Some
were bagged in a large lawn trash bag, others were just scattered
about. Everywhere I looked I saw residual marijuana leaves strewn
about the floor."

The officer reported that 3.6 pounds of marijuana were seized that
night, some of it drying on broiler pans, some stored in large
sandwich bags, and some of it hung up to dry.

"There was a large bud hanging from an oscillating fan in the living
room," he states.

A note in one of the bedrooms read "Gone to store for baggies, Bryan
and Buckwheat."

The victim recognized the marijuana as his own due to its "distinctive
discoloration that occurred during the growing process," according to
the affidavit.

"He told me he used fertilizer on the plants a couple of months prior,
and the fertilizer burned the plants," the officer reported.

As further proof that the plants were his, Wilson said his friend went
back to his house and retrieved the stalks of the plants that had been
cut and was able to match them to the top half of the plants in Combs'
apartment.

Combs was arrested the next day.

Wilson said he never reported the theft of his own
plants.

"I'm not used to calling the cops for marijuana things," he
said.

Wilson grows marijuana for a degenerative back condition and other
chronic ailments. He said this was his first crop.

"It was something that I started at the end of the summer," he said.
"It was like growing tomatoes, but something different."

Seitz said Combs is eligible for an alternative incarceration program,
such as boot camp, if he is accepted.