Heather Lynn Stiltner Sentenced in U.S. District Court
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 25, 2013 |
The United States Attorney’s Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on October 23, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, Heather Lynn Stiltner, a 35-year-old resident of Billings, was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 136 months
- Special assessment: $100
- Forfeiture: Firearms
- Supervised release: Five years
Stiltner was sentenced in connection with her guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
In an offer of proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan P. McCarthy, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On October 5, 2012, employees from the UPS store in Billings flagged a suspicious package that was to be sent from Billings to Phoenix, Arizona. The package was intercepted at the UPS freight office on South 20th Street in Billings by a UPS investigator. The UPS investigator received consent from the store owner to open the package, and the package contained $11,000 in cash. The shipper of the package listed her address as a Billings address.
The investigator also discovered that since June 2012 there were 15 packages sent from the Billings address to the Phoenix address and 15 packages sent from Phoenix to addresses in Billings. The investigator notified the Billings Police Department about the package. A Billings Police officer responded to the scene, and a canine sniff test was performed. The canine positively identified the presence of narcotics.
On October 31, 2012, detectives spoke with the owner of the UPS store. The owner stated that one week earlier a woman came into the store inquiring about the package. The owner took a photo on his cell phone of the license plate on the car the woman was driving. The detectives then found that the vehicle was registered to Stiltner. The detectives obtained a photo of Stiltner and showed it to the UPS store employee. The employee identified Stiltner as the person who sent the suspicious package.
On November 2, 2013, detectives executed the search warrant for Stiltner’s residence in Billings. Detectives found the following items during the search: a torch, 9mm ammunition, a digital scale, a safe, ammunition inside the safe, two cell phones with numerous text messages that appear to be related to drug distribution, $3,700, a crystalline substance in a plastic bag, a Bersa handgun B7449 under the mattress, a Pink Lady Revolver under the mattress, a pink piece of paper with the Phoenix address on it, a rifle and magazine inside a black gun case, and additional plastic bags with crystal substance.
The total amount of methamphetamine seized from Stiltner’s residence was 306.49 grams. The methamphetamine was subsequently sent to the DEA laboratory for testing, and the results revealed that the total amount of actual (pure) methamphetamine was 253 grams.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the “truth in sentencing” guidelines mandate that she will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, she does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for “good behavior.” However, this reduction will not exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Task Force.