FALLON METH SUPPLIER RECEIVES PRISON TERM

FALLON - A Fallon man who reportedly started using drugs at 9 years
old went to the Nevada State Prison Tuesday for selling
methamphetamine to area drug users.

Anthony Osborne Slote told investigators at the division of parole
and probation that he sold narcotics in Fallon for about a year,
according to District Attorney Arthur Mallory.

"Now is the time to say something about people who sell meth in our
community," Mallory told District Judge Robert E. Estes at Slote's
sentencing hearing. "He was supported by his mother and his wife and
made money by selling methamphetamine."

Estes told Slote, 25, that Nevada law allows probation for drug users
who want to change.

"Mr. Slote, looking at your record, I have no doubt whatsoever that
when you were younger you were riding pretty free and loose with your
life. I have no doubt you were told when you get a little older, it's
a different ball game ... You know what drugs have done to your life.
As you're selling them, how many people were put on the same road you're on?"

Slote will spend 12 to 36 months in the Nevada State Prison for
offer, attempt or commission of an unauthorized act relating to a
controlled substance. He was also fined $2,000.

Defense attorney Paul Yohey said Slote began using drugs when he was
9 years old and methamphetamine after he turned 12. Yohey said
Slote's wife is pregnant and he has a 3-year-old daughter.

"We can always send him to prison. We might consider putting him on
probation and in drug court," said Yohey. "If he doesn't do it, he
doesn't do it."

According to a report prepared by the North Central Narcotics Task
Force, Slote sold methamphetamine at least three times in September
to a confidential source. The sales were made in a rented room at the
Value Inn.

"The information received by investigators indicates that Slote is
the supplier to numerous methamphetamine users in the Fallon,
Churchill County area," the police report states.

His wife, Samantha Johnson, and Michael Shell were also implicated in
the sales. Johnson, 24, was arrested with Slote in December on
suspicion of manufacturing a controlled substance.

Slote was initially charged with six felonies in connection with the meth sales.