A 40-year-old Nevada man was sentenced Wednesday for a shipment of illegal drugs to Petersburg last fall but is done with his jail time.
Eric Nash Jennings was arrested on a houseboat in South Harbor last November after receiving a package that contained heroin, methamphetamine and a depressant called G-H-B, commonly called the date-rape drug because it can be used to incapacitate victims.
Under an agreement negotiated by the prosecutor and defense attorney, Jennings agreed to plead guilty to one charge of misconduct involving a controlled substance. Other drug charges and a tampering charge were dismissed by the state.
Jennings’ defense attorney had filed a motion to suppress evidence from a search warrant. Postal inspectors intercepted the package, obtained warrants and opened it. After finding the drugs inside, samples were replaced along with a tracking device and the package was delivered in Petersburg. Police say Jennings had the package delivered to Petersburg Fisheries and picked it up there before returning to a boat in the harbor and opening it. His attorney challenged the search warrant because a drug dog in Juneau did not alert to the package, signaling it had drugs in it. However, superior court judge Trevor Stephens denied that motion this year.
Judge Stephens on Wednesday accepted the terms of the plea agreement, sentencing Jennings to three years of jail time with two years of that suspended, leaving him a one-year sentence. He was released from jail at the end of June after completing the time he’s required to serve under that sentence. Court records also show Jennings was released from Lemon Creek Correctional Center in early April because of health concerns and COVID-19 cases at that facility. He returned to Petersburg but then went back to jail once his court-approved living arrangement fell through.
Jennings was in Las Vegas for his sentencing and attended by telephone from Las Vegas. He’s on probation for three years and is expected to apply to complete that probation outside of Alaska under and interstate compact.
