Flora Man Receives 15-Year Prison Sentence in Shelby County

Print

Published on November 24 2021 1:36 pm
Last Updated on November 24 2021 1:36 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

Flora resident Nicholas Barfield has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

The 42-year-old Barfield was sentenced in Shelby County for unlawful participation in methamphetamine manufacture with a prior possession of meth conviction, which makes the offense a Class X Felony. Barfield was sentenced to a concurrent six-year prison term for aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer.

Barfield will be required to serve at least 75% of his 15-year sentence.

Barfield was arrested in January after Shelby County sheriff's deputies attempted a traffic stop. Barfield's vehicle headed southbound through Herrick, where it left the roadway and traveled through a field, hitting a ditch, which disabled both headlights. The vehicle re-entered the roadway and headed east to the Tower Hill blacktop. The vehicle struck a guardrail, then traveled 100 yards of the roadway into a field where it became stuck.

Barfield left the vehicle and fled on foot. With the assistance of a K9, deputies tracked Barfield to a nearby wooded area where he was located laying on his stomach in a creekbed. Authorities say Barfield resisted arrest and refused to identify himself. A meth lab and a liquid substance containing more than 436 grams of methamphetamine was discovered in the vehicle after Barfield was taken into custody. 

Barfield has a 2004 Clay County conviction for possession of methamphetamine manufacturing chemicals and received a two-year prison term. In 2012, Barfield was sentenced to eight years in prison for meth manufacturing in Clay County. He was also sentenced in 2012 to five years in prison for possession of methamphetamine in Richland County.

Shelby County State's Attorney Nichole Kroncke complimented the efforts of the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, stating, "Shelby County deputies have once again, through diligent investigative efforts and the dependable assistance of K9 Kilo, removed a repeat methamphetamine trafficker from our community."