CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Monday sentenced a man caught with methamphetamine and other drugs just weeks after his release from prison to 12 ½ more years in prison.
On May 19, 2023, officers with the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force and the Kennett Police Department conducted a court-approved search of a home in Kennett after hearing that a drug supplier had a pound of meth there. Roderick Omar Wheeler Jr. was staying at the home with his uncle after being released from the federal Bureau of Prisons on April 28, according to Wheeler’s plea agreement and a government sentencing memorandum. During the search, 90 grams of crystal methamphetamine; 280 grams of synthetic marijuana (K2), 33 tablets of ecstasy, 8 grams of fentanyl and three digital scales were found. Wheeler also had $1,520 in cash that had been used earlier by the task force to buy meth.
Wheeler, 27, pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one felony count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
Wheeler was sentenced to 78 months in prison in 2016 on gun and drug charges after being caught after a police chase with a pistol and marijuana, the sentencing memo says. He was released in 2021 but later sentenced to 14 more months in prison after violating the conditions of his supervised release. In 2014, Wheeler was found by police in a vehicle with a brick of marijuana underneath the seat. Wheeler had one ounce of meth concealed in his underwear that was discovered while he was being booked into jail.
The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force and the Kennett Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter prosecuted the case.