Fort Smith man draws seven years after charges sorted out in plea deal

A plea agreement on charges of Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia resuted in a Fort Smith man receiving seven years in jail as a habitual offender on both charges with time set to run concurrently as well as another eight years suspended in Sebastian County Circuit court action on Thursday.

David Lee Roten, who had a mixtuRe of ten different felony and misdemeanor charges level against him after an April 23 arrest, also faced Absconding, Petition to Revoke, Contempt, Criminal Trespass, and Failure to Appear counts levied against him from that arrest. The plea enabled him to have several charges dropped or waived aside because of time served.

The drug charges were from January 21 of this year, which is what triggered the Petition to Revoke. In that case he was charged with a female co-defendant.

The 30-year-old Roten had been previously sentenced to 48 months in the Arkansas Deprtment of Corrects with 192 suspended for a series of 2018 commercial burglaries.