LAKE HAVASU CITY — A Lake Havasu City man pleaded for probation at his Sept. 3 sentencing hearing, even though he entered a mandatory prison plea agreement last month. Rick Ives, 58, faced up to 3.5-years in prison after pleading guilty for possessing 4-ounces of methamphetamine when arrested following an April 11 traffic stop in the vicinity of Centre Loop and Highway 95.
There was no dispute that Ives and his former girlfriend Jana Vernon, 60, purchased the drugs in California together and had returned to Lake Havasu when the vehicle they occupied was pulled over.
Ives and Public Defender Marcus Spradlin said Ives suffers PTSD from his time in the Marine Corps, and that he used meth to self-medicate and end nightmares. Spradlin said Ives did not see combat but endured trauma seeing another serviceman killed, and by witnessing a helicopter crash.
Ives noted that Vernon was placed on probation and he questioned why he should go to prison.
“I screwed up. There’s no two ways about it,” Ives told Judge Ryan Esplin. “I’m really not a bad person. I just made bad decisions.”
“You know I can’t place you on probation,” Judge Esplin told Ives. “You agreed to this.”
Esplin said that it appears Ives and Vernon were about equally culpable in the drug case. Yet, he noted that Ives’ 4 prior felony convictions set the defendants apart from one another.
Esplin ordered a 2.5-year prison term.
