DECATUR COUNTY, IN — After entering a guilty plea, Serena Stuart was sentenced Monday to serve a total of 12 years by Decatur Circuit Court Judge Tim Day for Dealing Methamphetamine, a Level 4 Felony.
Three of those years were agreed to be served on home detention, and two more years were agreed to be on probation, with the remaining seven years open for the Court to determine how they would be served.
Judge Day ordered a final sentence of four years in prison, four years of home detention, and four years of probation.
Stuart was arrested as part of a lengthy investigation into some of Decatur County’s oldest ties to dealing methamphetamine and other drugs.
Decatur County Prosecutor Nate Harter said investigators monitored a drug deal between Stuart and a confidential informant that ultimately formed the basis of the charges to which she pleaded guilty.
During the sentencing hearing, Harter played audio of the drug deal for Judge Day, in which the favorite children’s movie “Moana” played in the background behind a conversation with an evidently young female child present in the residence.
Harter said Stuart worked with her mother Rebecca, who was also sentenced for Dealing Methamphetamine, to distribute a quantity of meth to the confidential informant.
“I was appalled that this mother-daughter team was dealing methamphetamine with the child’s cartoons playing right there in the shared living space,” Harter said. “The plea deal
we fashioned gave Ms. Stuart some credit for beginning her path to recovery but also gave Judge Day the ability to hold her accountable for pushing poison into our community.”
Harter recognized law enforcement personnel for their work on the case, specifically the lead investigator, Greensburg Police Detective Mark Naylor.
“It’s one thing to be in the grips of addiction, to be a user,” Harter added. It’s different and morally worse to endanger your neighbors and friends by selling them poisons that will harm their bodies and souls. This is a distinction my office will continue to pursue in Decatur County.”
