MONROE - A 22-year-old man who said his life spiraled into a "sporadic, uncontrolled roller coaster of addiction" will spend the rest of his 20s in the prison system for his involvement in a meth-cooking operation at a rural Juda house where he and friends squatted last spring.
Clayton Stewart Welte was sentenced Friday in Green County Circuit Court to three years in prison and five years on extended supervision. He had been in jail on bond since August.
He pleaded guilty in November to felony charges of possessing methamphetamine, manufacturing and delivering amphetamine and bail jumping. The convictions are connected to three arrests in 2017.
As part of a plea deal, numerous other charges were dismissed but "read in," meaning the judge could consider them in sentencing. These included burglary, maintaining a drug-trafficking place, possessing drug paraphernalia and nine counts of felony bail jumping.
A report on Welte's background that Judge James Beer read aloud in court Friday painted a picture of an otherwise promising young life derailed by what Beer termed "chronic conduct."
Welte graduated from Brodhead High School with a good grade point average and went on to study engineering for three semesters at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh before flunking out.
In Welte's words, he spiraled downward after a bad breakup.
"I surrounded myself with the wrong people," he told the court.
His mother gave him his first taste of meth when he was 20 years old, to help him handle a panic attack, according to the report Beer read in court. Welte studied chemistry in college and started making meth "as an experiment."
His mother, Sarah Christine Teubert, 40, Brodhead, is also charged in connection to meth activity at the rural Juda house.
She "has serious substance abuse issues," Welte's attorney Robert C. Howard III said.
Teubert has a plea and sentencing hearing Feb. 6 on felony charges that she went "smurfing" at area pharmacies. "Smurfing" is a term for the coordinated overbuying of pseudoephedrine to accumulate the large quantities needed to cook meth. Meth users often "smurf" in exchange for the drug.
Welte has three other co-defendants:
- Richard D. Hauser, 36, Brodhead, faces seven felony charges, including burglary, possessing methamphetamine, manufacturing and delivering amphetamine, knowingly possessing methamphetamine waste and bail jumping. He was subsequently charged with 13 more felonies in November in connection to the bust of a meth lab in the 1700 block of 11th Street in Monroe. Both cases are still pending.
- Jacob Edward Johnson, 37, Juda, was cited and fined for purchasing more than 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine and had two felony charges dismissed. He's currently incarcerated in the state prison system on unrelated meth-possession convictions from 2015.
- Caleb Thompson Vazquez, 26, Juda, was sentenced earlier this week to two years on probation for two misdemeanor convictions of possessing drug paraphernalia. He also entered a two-year deferred prosecution on a related felony burglary charge.
The investigation into Welte and his co-defendants began with a complaint May 18 that people were trespassing in a vacant house on Rufi Lane in the Town of Sylvester, according to court documents.
A responding deputy noted it was "a known drug house that had recently had its tenants evicted." Welte's mother, Teubert, was one of the evicted tenants.
When officers arrived, they found Welte on the premises, twitching and "tweaking" on meth. He was arrested.
He was already a known meth user to police.
Ten days earlier, a concerned citizen in Brodhead asked police to check on a man downtown with "shaggy hair, no shirt, wearing gray sweatpants." When officers located Welte, he had slurred and erratic speech, exaggerated mannerisms and "wasn't making much sense." An on-scene medic measured his blood pressure at 170/110, which is in the high-risk range and can cause life-threatening problems.
A pat-down turned up a baggie of meth in his back pocket, labeled "Clayton Welte's crystal meth." He told police he was "homeless, felt dehydrated, was wandering from one house to another without clothing and wasn't eating."
At the scene of the Rufi Lane house, officers seized tools and ingredients for cooking meth from the house, including lithium batteries, Coleman fuel, over-the-counter decongestant (pseudoephedrine) and ice packs that had been cut open for the ammonium nitrate granules inside.
A Gatorade bottle found on the premises had a white sludge inside that chemically reacted when picked up and "nearly exploded in one of the agent's hands." A clean-up crew from Chicago was brought in to remove the volatile meth waste at the house, a deputy later testified.
Welte was jailed but later released on a $10,000 signature bond.
Less than three months later, Welte was again arrested. According to police reports filed with the criminal complaint, he was high on meth and wandering around barefoot at a campground in Brodhead on Aug. 9 when he encountered a young woman and, in apparent drug-addled aggression, punched her in the face.
"Mr. Welte accumulated some very serious crimes in a short amount of time," District Attorney Craig Nolen said at the sentencing Friday. Meth "may be seen as only detrimental to the person using," but there is collateral damage that affects the public at large.
"While he has a limited crime record, he was definitely on the path to engage in extremely dangerous behavior," Nolen said.
Nolen and Howard, Welte's defense attorney, jointly recommended a harsher sentence than the one suggested in a Department of Corrections pre-sentence investigation report on Welte. Judge Beer followed their joint recommendation in his sentencing.
Howard explained that a longer sentence was needed to allow Welte to complete drug counseling in prison.
"This is someone who has lost control of his life," Howard said, adding that Welte has already made good progress in his recovery while in jail.
Welte was never a major drug dealer but someone who collaborated with others on a small scale, Howard said.
"Really what we're talking about here is someone at a crossroads," Howard said.
When given the opportunity to speak, Welte said he regretted his actions. He said that after years of living on a "sporadic, uncontrolled roller coaster of addiction," he was relearning in jail how to live a steady, regular life.
Welte will be serving his sentence at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun and is eligible for prison boot camp and the Challenge Incarceration Program for substance-abuse treatment, Beer said.
Clayton Stewart Welte was sentenced Friday in Green County Circuit Court to three years in prison and five years on extended supervision. He had been in jail on bond since August.
He pleaded guilty in November to felony charges of possessing methamphetamine, manufacturing and delivering amphetamine and bail jumping. The convictions are connected to three arrests in 2017.
As part of a plea deal, numerous other charges were dismissed but "read in," meaning the judge could consider them in sentencing. These included burglary, maintaining a drug-trafficking place, possessing drug paraphernalia and nine counts of felony bail jumping.
A report on Welte's background that Judge James Beer read aloud in court Friday painted a picture of an otherwise promising young life derailed by what Beer termed "chronic conduct."
Welte graduated from Brodhead High School with a good grade point average and went on to study engineering for three semesters at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh before flunking out.
In Welte's words, he spiraled downward after a bad breakup.
"I surrounded myself with the wrong people," he told the court.
His mother gave him his first taste of meth when he was 20 years old, to help him handle a panic attack, according to the report Beer read in court. Welte studied chemistry in college and started making meth "as an experiment."
His mother, Sarah Christine Teubert, 40, Brodhead, is also charged in connection to meth activity at the rural Juda house.
She "has serious substance abuse issues," Welte's attorney Robert C. Howard III said.
Teubert has a plea and sentencing hearing Feb. 6 on felony charges that she went "smurfing" at area pharmacies. "Smurfing" is a term for the coordinated overbuying of pseudoephedrine to accumulate the large quantities needed to cook meth. Meth users often "smurf" in exchange for the drug.
Welte has three other co-defendants:
- Richard D. Hauser, 36, Brodhead, faces seven felony charges, including burglary, possessing methamphetamine, manufacturing and delivering amphetamine, knowingly possessing methamphetamine waste and bail jumping. He was subsequently charged with 13 more felonies in November in connection to the bust of a meth lab in the 1700 block of 11th Street in Monroe. Both cases are still pending.
- Jacob Edward Johnson, 37, Juda, was cited and fined for purchasing more than 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine and had two felony charges dismissed. He's currently incarcerated in the state prison system on unrelated meth-possession convictions from 2015.
- Caleb Thompson Vazquez, 26, Juda, was sentenced earlier this week to two years on probation for two misdemeanor convictions of possessing drug paraphernalia. He also entered a two-year deferred prosecution on a related felony burglary charge.
The investigation into Welte and his co-defendants began with a complaint May 18 that people were trespassing in a vacant house on Rufi Lane in the Town of Sylvester, according to court documents.
A responding deputy noted it was "a known drug house that had recently had its tenants evicted." Welte's mother, Teubert, was one of the evicted tenants.
When officers arrived, they found Welte on the premises, twitching and "tweaking" on meth. He was arrested.
He was already a known meth user to police.
Ten days earlier, a concerned citizen in Brodhead asked police to check on a man downtown with "shaggy hair, no shirt, wearing gray sweatpants." When officers located Welte, he had slurred and erratic speech, exaggerated mannerisms and "wasn't making much sense." An on-scene medic measured his blood pressure at 170/110, which is in the high-risk range and can cause life-threatening problems.
A pat-down turned up a baggie of meth in his back pocket, labeled "Clayton Welte's crystal meth." He told police he was "homeless, felt dehydrated, was wandering from one house to another without clothing and wasn't eating."
At the scene of the Rufi Lane house, officers seized tools and ingredients for cooking meth from the house, including lithium batteries, Coleman fuel, over-the-counter decongestant (pseudoephedrine) and ice packs that had been cut open for the ammonium nitrate granules inside.
A Gatorade bottle found on the premises had a white sludge inside that chemically reacted when picked up and "nearly exploded in one of the agent's hands." A clean-up crew from Chicago was brought in to remove the volatile meth waste at the house, a deputy later testified.
Welte was jailed but later released on a $10,000 signature bond.
Less than three months later, Welte was again arrested. According to police reports filed with the criminal complaint, he was high on meth and wandering around barefoot at a campground in Brodhead on Aug. 9 when he encountered a young woman and, in apparent drug-addled aggression, punched her in the face.
"Mr. Welte accumulated some very serious crimes in a short amount of time," District Attorney Craig Nolen said at the sentencing Friday. Meth "may be seen as only detrimental to the person using," but there is collateral damage that affects the public at large.
"While he has a limited crime record, he was definitely on the path to engage in extremely dangerous behavior," Nolen said.
Nolen and Howard, Welte's defense attorney, jointly recommended a harsher sentence than the one suggested in a Department of Corrections pre-sentence investigation report on Welte. Judge Beer followed their joint recommendation in his sentencing.
Howard explained that a longer sentence was needed to allow Welte to complete drug counseling in prison.
"This is someone who has lost control of his life," Howard said, adding that Welte has already made good progress in his recovery while in jail.
Welte was never a major drug dealer but someone who collaborated with others on a small scale, Howard said.
"Really what we're talking about here is someone at a crossroads," Howard said.
When given the opportunity to speak, Welte said he regretted his actions. He said that after years of living on a "sporadic, uncontrolled roller coaster of addiction," he was relearning in jail how to live a steady, regular life.
Welte will be serving his sentence at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun and is eligible for prison boot camp and the Challenge Incarceration Program for substance-abuse treatment, Beer said.