A local man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to meth-related charges.
Anthony Lee Grindstaff, 34, entered a guilty plea to a charge of initiation of process to manufacture methamphetamine in Criminal Court Tuesday, a released statement from the District Attorney’s Office said. Grindstaff was sentenced to 12 years in the Tennessee Department of Corrections by Judge Lisa Rice. He will have to serve at least 35 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole, the statement said.
The charge against Grindstaff arose from a Sept. 15, 2013, incident when the Elizabethton Police Department received a description of a vehicle involved in a suspected shoplifting incident at Wal-Mart. Officers stopped the vehicle and the driver was identified as Grindstaff.
“A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed an active one-pot methamphetamine lab as well as stolen Coleman kerosene fuel from Wal-Mart,” the statement from the District Attorney’s Office said.
On Tuesday Grindstaff also entered a guilty plea on charges of aggravated burglary and theft under $500 from an unrelated July 2013 case. On those charges he received a six-year probationary sentence which will be served consecutively to the 12-year sentence on the meth charge.
Grindstaff has a pending kidnapping charge in Unicoi County, which the District Attorney’s Office said is set for trial in January.