Iron Mountain man faces up to twenty years on meth charges

IRON MOUNTAIN — An Iron Mountain man found guilty of several meth related charges appeared in Dickinson County Circuit Court this morning for his sentencing.

Charles Slaton will face seven to twenty years in prison for charges of operating and maintaining a meth lab, operating and maintaining a meth lab in the presence of a minor and retail fraud in the first degree. He will recieve credit for 116 days already served. In addition, Slaton will have to pay restitution to the Iron Mountain Wal–Mart, where he committed the retail fraud and to his landlord, where the meth lab was located. The amount is still being decided.

“I’m willing to do anything for my family so I can become the man and the father that they need…I’m not the monster that everyone thinks I am. Yes, the past six months I have made some really poor choices, but I am only human and I let my addiction run rampant,” Slaton said in his statement to the judge.

“You need to get well because as you know, if you don’t beat this thing, you’ll never raise your daughter. You’ll be dead or in prison,” Judge Richard Celello added.

Slaton was originally arrested in October along with his fiancé Erica Courney. Iron Mountain Police and the Department of Human Services found the lab during a welfare check on Slaton’s daughter. The child tested positive for meth–amphetamines and is now in the custody of Courney’s parents.