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Haywood due in court Thursday

 

Kevin Haywood, the 44-year-old Sonoma resident arrested for assembling the materials for a suspected methamphetamine lab in the historic Nash-Patton Adobe on First Street East, is due back in Sonoma County Superior Court Thursday, March 17, for possible filing of formal charges.

The court appearance, which could include filing of an official complaint, is set for 8:30 a.m. in Department 9.

Haywood has been free on $103,000 bail since shortly after his Jan. 13 arrest, when Sonoma police, questioning him about a series of local restaurant burglaries, executed a search warrant on the home.

Inside, police found a cache of dangerous chemicals traditionally made to cook meth. The manufacturing process had not begun and no chemicals had been mixed or released freely into the building, which is owned by Haywood's mother, Anita Haywood.

Anita Haywood was not present and had not been living in the home during her son's occupation of the home, which has now been put up for sale with an asking price of $1.2 million.

Immediately after discovery of the meth components, police vacated the building and the scene was processed by a team from the Clandestine Lab Enforcement Program, a division of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement within the state Department of Justice.

The prosecutor handling the case for the Sonoma County District Attorney was not available for comment on Monday, and D.A. spokesperson Terri Menshek said she understood the attorney was out sick. Menshek said she did not know why Haywood had not been formally charged, but a public information officer for the Department of Justice said long delays in prosecution are not unusual in drug cases.

"I had a case that took four years to go to jury trial," explained Michelle Gregory, "and that was for less than an ounce of meth."

 

Gregory said it is normal procedure for the Bureau of Narcotics not to complete lab testing on seized chemicals until receiving specific requests from prosecutors. "Typically," she said, "we'll wait until a trial date."