A 29-year-old Summerside woman has been sentenced to two years, less one day, in jail after being busted for dealing methamphetamine and other drugs twice in a little more than a month.
Keshia Merie Ellis was sentenced Nov. 6. She pleaded guilty on Sept. 13 to three charges of possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine, hydromorphone and cannabis) for the purpose of trafficking, and one count of possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine).
The charges are from March 13 and April 26.
In relation to the possession charge, Ellis received a suspended sentence.
Regarding the more serious trafficking charges, she received credit for the equivalent of 10 months she has already spent in custody.
In addition to the time in jail, she must also serve 24 months of probation, provide a DNA sample to the national criminal database and pay $500 in victim surcharges.
She must also forfeit various items that were seized during the police raid on her home, including more than $4,140 in cash, drug paraphernalia, scales, break and enter tools, a hatchet and hunting knife, throwing knives, a canister of pressurized bear spray and an air soft pellet handgun and clip.
According to the agreed statement of facts between the Crown and Ellis’s lawyer, during the spring of 2018 police received intelligence that Ellis was dealing crystal meth from her Harvard Street home in Summerside.
On March 13, the Prince District Joint Forces Operation Unit (JFO), which is a joint drug-crime focused police unit consisting of Summerside and Kensington police and RCMP, got a search warrant for Ellis’s home and moved in at about 6:30 p.m. that day.
Police confiscated a number of items including scales, which later tested positive for methamphetamine and cannabis residue. A search of a phone on the property revealed messages indicative of negotiations for the purchase of hydromorphone.
Ellis was charged and released, however, police almost immediately started getting reports that she was again dealing drugs from her home.
The JFO got another search warrant on April 26 and police again raided the home. Among the items seized was 1.5 grams of crystal methamphetamine and empty hydromorphone capsules.
