Knox Woman Sentenced to Ten Years in the DOC

Heather Gutierrez
Heather Gutierrez
A Knox woman was sentenced Thursday to ten years in the Indiana Department of Corrections after a plea agreement between the defendant and the state was accepted by Marshall County Superior Court 1 Senior Judge Walter Palmer.

Heather Gutierrez, 34, was charged with Conspiring to Manufacture Methamphetamine, a Class B felony. She admitted that she agreed to cook pseudoephedrine-based products at a property that is a family housing complex and is immediately adjacent to a public park.

Gutierrez and eight other people were either arrested or identified as having a part of the meth production. The offenders were in the process of the manufacturing of methamphetamine with children, ages two and five, present. Officers indicated in the police report that the smell was overpowering when they entered the dwelling to diffuse the situation. The children were taken to the emergency room to be decontaminated. They were released to the Department of Child Services.

Many of the suspects in this case had jumped from second floor windows in order to escape the scene.

Judge Palmer sentenced Gutierrez to ten years in prison with no part of the sentence suspended.