Dunn Receives Nearly Five Years for Drugs

DAYTON – Monty N. Dunn, the 50-year-old Dayton resident arrested on multiple drug charges at his home across the street from the Dayton High School in February, was sentenced to 57 months in prison, with credit for time served, by a Columbia County Superior Court judge last week.

Dunn, who has been incarcerated in the Columbia County Jail since his arrest, was offered a plea agreement by county prosecutors in April. He signed the document last week, and his guilty plea was read into the record on May 20. Dunn pleaded guilty to two counts of delivery of a controlled substance (methamphetamine).

The drug charges are Class B felonies and would have meant just under three years in prison for Dunn. But with the school-zone enhancement for drug activity at his home at 721 S. 3rd St., across the street from the school, the judge tacked on another 24 months.

Dunn's girlfriend, 36-year-old Desiree D. Klein, was charged on March 9 with possession of a controlled substance (meth) and three counts of child endangerment with a controlled substance. Klein and her three children were living with Dunn in February when deputies served a search warrant and allegedly recovered methamphetamine in the home, according to Columbia County Sheriff's Office reports. Klein's trial date will be set on June 3.

Columbia County deputies, officers with the Walla Walla Emergency Services Unit, detectives from the Walla Walla Police Department and deputies with the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at Dunn's residence on Feb. 25 after receiving information that led them to believe they might find drugs in the home, which is situated across the street from the Dayton School District at the intersection with School Bus Street.

Dunn was arrested at the scene on suspicion of possession and delivery of methamphetamine. Hidden among the piles of soiled laundry, cast-aside household furnishings and trash throughout the home, the yard and the shop, investigators located and seized drugs suspected to be methamphetamine as well as drug paraphernalia, according to Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller.