BY DAVID GRANT LONG

A man who pleaded guilty in December to growing marijuana on his 600-acre ranch near Mancos recently began serving a 75-day jail term as a condition of the two-year probation sentence he received last month.

Richard Eric Stimler, 50, was arrested in August after Montezuma County Sheriff’s Detective Brooks Bennett spotted a large garden of maturing pot plants in Weber Canyon while conducting aerial surveillance.

Bennett, who was flying over the area in a National Guard helicopter as part of the sheriff’s annual eradication effort, said the bright green plants stood out sharply against the natural vegetation and were easily recognizable as marijuana.

After obtaining a search warrant for Stimler’s property, sheriff’s officers and other members of a regional drug task force uprooted several hundred robust plants from the hillside garden, which was watered with PVC pipes fed from a cistern on the ranch. The investigators also discovered a high-tech indoor growing area concealed in the basement of a newly constructed barn.

As part of the plea bargain, additional charges against Stimler that included distribution of marijuana, possession of more than eight ounces of marijuana and sentence-enhancers involving growing and selling the weed for a living were dismissed. As a condition of his probation, Stimler was also required to pay fines and fees amounting to $2,690.

Garnet Myers, who also lived at the ranch and was arrested on identical charges, also pleaded guilty in December to cultivating marijuana, but her sentencing hearing was continued until June.

Sheriff Joey Chavez said last summer that he intended to explore the option of seizing the ranch under forfeiture laws that apply to private property used in drug trafficking.