Breaking News: Fishtail meth dealer seeks to withdraw guilty plea

A Fishtail man scheduled to be sentenced next month for possessing more than six pounds of methamphetamine wants to withdraw his guilty plea due to alleged “misrepresentations by the attorneys as to the quantity of drugs that he would ultimately be held responsible for,” according to court documents filed Feb. 11 in federal court.
Merrill Clark Gardner, 61, faces a minimum mandatory prison sentence of 10 years after pleading guilty last fall to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Under the terms of a plea agreement a second felony count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine would be dismissed. Sentencing is scheduled for March 3.
Defense attorneys Sandy Selvey and Paula Saye are seeking to withdraw from the case. In a joint motion filed Feb. 11, Selvey cites a letter Gardner wrote to the court in January about his reasons for wanting to withdraw his guilty plea.
“The undersigned attorneys do not feel that they can in good faith file a Motion to Withdraw the Defendant’s guilty plea as it would place the undersigned attorneys in a conflicting position with the Defendant’s position; if the Defendant continues to desire that such a Motion be filed,” wrote Selvey in the motion.
The motion also states that Saye “has had other points of conflict with the Defendant which causes her much concern.”
Selvey and Saye have recommended that a federal public defender be assigned to review Gardner’s case. Gardner has no personal property after having forfeited all of his money, his home and “just about everything he owed or possessed of value,” in a forfeiture, according to the motion.
He has been incarcerated since his June 18, 2015 arrest in Fishtail.

Background
An indictment filed last summer charged Gardner with knowingly and unlawfully conspiring with other people to possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine between January 2013 and June 2015 in Fishtail and at other locations in Montana and elsewhere.
Gardner was also charged with possessing with the intent to distribute 500 grams of a substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine during the same time period.
According to court documents, investigators directed a confidential source to meet Gardner at his Fishtail home to “discuss the distribution of methamphetamine” on June 17.
As investigators watched, Gardner left his residence and returned approximately 30 minutes later with 1 ¼ pounds of methamphetamine wrapped in gray duct tape with saw dust around the outside of the tape, according to the complaint.
The confidential informant then took the methamphetamine to investigators, where a field test “yielded positive results” for the presence of methamphetamine.
The following day, June 18, investigators executed a search warrant at Gardner’s home. Another 1 ¼ pounds of methamphetamine wrapped in gray duct tape was allegedly found in Gardner’s truck when he arrived at home as the search was being conducted, according to the complaint. A field test was positive for the presence of methamphetamine.
Brett Wade Clouse, who was with Gardner at the time of the search, told investigators he had driven Gardner to a location in Nye prior to arriving at Gardner’s home on June 18, according to the complaint.
Clouse is also charged in the case and has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, conspiracy to commit money laundering and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Investigators conducted a consent search at the Nye property where they found three more packages wrapped in gray duct tape in a large garbage can with saw dust, according to the complaint. Each one of those three packages allegedly contained 1 ¼ pounds of what field tested positive for methamphetamine.
The owner of the Nye property told investigators he had allowed Gardner to store methamphetamine on his property for at least five years and had been paid by Gardner to do so between $100 and $200 per month, according to the complaint. That brings to a total 6.25 pounds of meth recovered by authorities.