Woman released after admitting meth smuggling

A Brooklyn, N.Y., woman accused of smuggling methamphetamines into Vermont has reached a plea deal.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140929/THISJUSTIN/709299937

Woman released after admitting meth smuggling By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT | September 29,2014 PHOTO BY ERIC FRANCIS India Chapman pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamines after being charged with smuggling the drug into Vermont. WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Brooklyn, N.Y., woman accused of smuggling methamphetamines into Vermont has reached a plea deal. India Chapman, 22, pleaded guilty in White River Junction criminal court to methamphetamines possession, amended from a felony to a misdemeanor charge. She was sentenced to 16 days in jail, with credit for time served since her arrest Sept. 10, then released. Chapman, who has no previous criminal record, was a passenger in a car along with three men when they were pulled over for speeding in Springfield by Sgt. Michael Studin. The officer said the group’s story about the route they had been traveling and their reasons for heading to Burlington didn’t make sense to him. After he spotted evidence of marijuana and possibly other drug use in the car he asked for consent to search the vehicle. “I asked Chapman what had been given to her (to smuggle) and in a high-pitched tone she said ‘nothing’ as she again turned her body toward the road and looked away,” Studin wrote in his report. At the police barracks, he said, Chapman turned over a red condom containing what police estimated was almost $5,000 worth of crystal meth. Chapman told police this was her second smuggling trip to Vermont and she was expecting to be paid $400. Two female relatives took Chapman home to Brooklyn after her change-of-plea hearing.