Posted on Tue, Aug. 11, 2009
Life sentence in meth lab explosion sends message
By SARA SHEPHERD
The Kansas City Star

Bryan G. Leonard was running one of the biggest meth labs the Kansas City area has ever seen.

He had been freed early several times from previous drug sentences, prosecutors said. And when law enforcement knocked on his door Sept. 5, 2007, Leonard was ready — activating an escape plan that leveled his house, put officers’ lives at risk, endangered the public and even killed his own dog.

On Tuesday, a federal judge told Leonard he would not get off the hook again and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple said the stiff sentence was designed to hold the defendant accountable for his actions and to send a message to anyone else considering similar crimes.

Leonard, 33, pleaded guilty a year ago to running a methamphetamine lab in his garage at 4800 N. Norwood Road, in unincorporated Platte County near Riverside, and also to blowing up the house and leading police on a high-speed chase.

Authorities found remnants of weapons including an assault-style rifle and a submachine gun in the charred debris. According to the plea agreement, a tipster said he had seen even more weapons at the home, including two Claymore mines.

During a hearing Tuesday, Kansas City Police Department forensic specialist Seth Cooper, who has processed evidence at about 500 meth labs, said Leonard’s lab was unlike any other he’d seen in the area.

Many meth labs can fit in a gym bag, Cooper said. Cooks might use a coffee pot to produce an ounce of the drug at a time.

Leonard’s lab filled his whole garage. He had flasks up to 5 feet tall, hundreds of pounds of pseudoephedrine, gallons of chemicals and the ability to make more than 5 pounds of meth per batch.

Cooper said Leonard and his co-defendants admitted to purchasing more than 300 pounds of pharmaceutical-grade pseudoephedrine, enough to produce more than 200 pounds of meth.

Evidence from the house was charred, but a trailer on the property contained hundreds of undamaged chemical containers and various pieces of equipment used to manufacture the drug.

Earlier in the hearing, the judge saw photographs and video footage of the Sept. 5 explosion.

Frame by frame, a fireball engulfed the house. Flames licked the tops of surrounding trees.

Before the explosion, Metropolitan Drug Task Force members knocked on the door to follow up on a tip that Leonard was running a lab. According to the plea agreement:

Surveillance cameras dotted the property. The house’s windows were covered with black plastic. Chemical odors wafted from the garage.

Officers heard music and voices inside, but no one answered.

Two detectives left to get a search warrant. Officers who waited saw Leonard bolt from the house with co-defendant April Coots.

When Detective James Manley yelled “Police officer!” and drew his weapon, Leonard started shooting toward him and another detective. Leonard was still shooting at officers when the house exploded, sending him flying in the air.

Coots surrendered, but Leonard kept shooting as he ran down a hill to a Jeep parked by a pond.

Leonard sped down a pre-constructed escape path through the woods, emerging with two flat tires, Manley testified Tuesday.

Before police captured him, Leonard jumped a ravine and drove through English Landing Park, forcing pedestrians off a walking path, Manley said. He sped alongside railroad tracks and through a stop-arm before trying — and failing — to crash through a gate at Intercontinental Engineering-Manufacturing Corp.

Coots, 26, and another co-defendant, 43-year-old Melissa Fox, described in the plea agreement as Leonard’s live-in girlfriends and conspirators, were sentenced Tuesday to 20 years without parole.

Five more co-defendants are scheduled to be sentenced today. The last defendant’s sentencing is set for Sept. 17.

Before his sentencing, Leonard apologized to his family, the court and law enforcement officers at the hearing, including those he shot at on Sept. 5, 2007. He said he was sorry for “becoming a drain on society” instead of the positive influence he could have been.

Leonard’s attorney, Miller Leonard, said that his client had taken accountability for his actions through the plea agreement and that a 30-year sentence would be harsh enough.

The attorney pointed out that, under that proposal, Bryan Leonard would be in prison until he was 63 and on probation until he was 73.

But the judge sided with Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Wolesky, who advocated a life sentence.

Leonard had been in and out of jail for drugs before, Wolesky said, and he just got better at what he did.

After risking the lives of numerous people, Leonard “cackled” about the day’s events, Wolesky said.

Leonard was initially held in the Platte County jail, where all inmate calls and visits are recorded.

In expletive-heavy excerpts played Tuesday, Leonard bragged about being “straight-up gangsta” and said, “I guess I did it right … who else done leveled a house?”

He even joked about writing a rap song, pitching a line about how thorough he was. Then, “Oops, forgot the trailer!”

“straight-up gangsta”