The attorney for a 62-year-old Fayetteville man admitted Monday that his client broke into a neighbor’s basement, damaging a window and two doors.
But the resulting damage did not cross the $500 threshold and so William Michael Meyer is asking for a misdemeanor verdict of criminal trespassing instead, attorney Paul Liston told a jury in Fayette County Superior Court.
The jury was expected to begin deliberating the case late Tuesday afternoon.
Meyer is accused of burglary and criminal damage to property in the second degree, both felony counts. Deputies that encountered him at the home noted that he claimed he was fleeing his home after he was shot at twice by others.
The first deputy who responded to the scene testified that the subsequent investigation determined no shots had been fired in the area.
Liston in his opening statement said Meyer was under the influence of the sleeping medication Ambien when the incident occurred, but several people that evening began taking items of Meyer’s to sell including his cellphone, two pellet pistols and a computer.
Liston said his client broke into the neighbor’s home hoping to find a phone to call 911 for help.
In other court activity Monday, an area man was sentenced to eight years in prison for selling the narcotics methadone and alprazolam. Quanderius Gordon of Griffin Highway, Gay entered guilty pleas to the charges and was sentenced by Fayette County Superior Court Judge Fletcher W. Sams.
Another guilty plea entered came from Trey M. Wagner of Stayman Park, Fayetteville, who copped to theft by taking a firearm and misdemeanor theft by taking. Wagner was sentenced to 60 days in jail, five years probation and a $2,000 fine. Wagner also must pay $50 in restitution to the victim in the case.
