John Van Winkle

Offense: Distribution of pseudoephedrine with intent to manufacture methamphetamine
Sentence: 9 years
Priors: None
Year of birth: 1964
Year of sentencing: 2003
Projected release date: Mar. 4, 2011

John was paying his way through college when he met his wife. After graduation, they married and had two daughters. Brittany, John’s oldest daughter, was entering middle school when she developed a tumor on her esophagus.  Doctors performed a series of surgeries but the tumor continued to grow around Brittany’s vocal cords, forcing John and his wife to consider removing them and rendering their daughter mute.  They rejected this procedure and continued to battle the tumor with more surgeries, including one that attempted to rebuild her badly damaged throat, which proved unsuccessful.

During this time, John was the manager of a Family Dollar Store in Texas and under extreme financial pressure to pay Brittany’s medical bills and secure antibiotics she desperately needed. A criminal informant (CI) approached John about buying multiple cases of pseudoephedrine, a decongestant in common cold and allergy medicine.  The store had a surplus of pseudoephedrine in storage and John agreed. He sold the CI 55 cases on July 31, 2002 for $600 plus an additional $100 payment that John kept.  On August 23, 2002 John sold another 92 cases to the CI for $1,200.

John was never found with methamphetamine, a methamphetamine laboratory, or large sums of money from the sale of methamphetamine in his possession.  John’s crime was selling pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical to methamphetamine and a sinus medication.  However, John was held accountable for over 25,000 kilograms of marijuana equivalency, as well as all of the actions of members in the drug conspiracy. John pled guilty to the charges, believing he would be sentenced to a maximum of two years, as he had no prior convictions and had accepted responsibility for his part in the offense.  At sentencing, John was stunned to learn he would be spending nine years in federal prison under the guidelines.

Two of John’s codefendants have already been released. John’s family is not able to visit him often because of the distance between their home and his prison. His daughter Brittany now has a permanent tracheostomy—a surgical opening in her throat that allows her to breathe and emit liquids.  John’s incarceration has taken a severe toll on his family emotionally and economically.  Brittany’s tumor remains a serious concern.