https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/372/meth3.shtml

Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels was shot and killed January 19 as he attempted to arrest a parole violator who was cooking methamphetamine at a home lab near Virgil, in the northeast part of the county, according to Associated Press and local news reports. Sheriff Samuels went to the home to serve a parole violation warrant on 23-year-old Scott Cheever, who had been previously imprisoned for aggravated robbery in 2000 and bringing controlled substances into a correctional institution in 2003.

While Sheriff Samuels reportedly knew of Cheever's history, he was not aware that Cheever's home was the site of an active meth lab. When the sheriff and two deputies arrived to serve the warrant that morning, Cheever allegedly shot and killed Samuels, but deputies managed to arrest three other people in the house and charge them with meth offenses. Cheever, however, held off police for another seven hours, occasionally shooting at them, until he was subdued with pepper spray and arrested.

Now Kansas and federal prosecutors are moving to ensure that Cheever faces the death penalty. The Kansas Supreme Court last month struck down the state's death penalty law, so federal prosecutors have moved to charge Cheever in an effort to ensure he fries. US Attorney for Kansas Eric Melgren announced in a statement Monday that he will seek a federal indictment of Cheever and ask the Justice Department to grant permission to seek the death penalty. "We believe that we owe that to Sheriff Samuels, that we owe that to his family, that we owe that to all law enforcement officials in the state of Kansas," Melgren said of seeking a death sentence.

In addition to providing fodder for death penalty advocates in the Kansas legislature, the killing is also certain to add pressure for legislators to move forward with legislation that would restrict the sales of over-the-counter medicines such as Sudafed, which contain precursor chemicals used by home meth cooks. Kansas authorities have complained that since neighboring Oklahoma passed a similar law last year, meth heads have flooded north seeking their cold pills.

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