Eureka man sentenced in meth possession case

A Eureka man who recently pleaded guilty to methamphetamine possession was sentenced in Lincoln County District Court on Dec. 5.

Dom L. Tumlin, 55, appeared in court on Oct. 17 with his public defender, Scott B. Johnson. Tumlin’s deal with Lincoln County Deputy Attorney Jeff Zwang called for a misdemeanor charge of drug paraphernalia possession to be dropped. The agreement includes a 3-year suspended sentence to the Montana State Prison. It will be served concurrently to a sentence he is serving in Flathead County for burglary from a 2013 conviction. According to court documents, Tumlin stole more than $10,000 from a local business where he was employed at the time.

Johnson told District Judge Matt Cuffe that Tumlin had completed treatment at a facility in Kalispell and is on a drug patch.

Cuffe ordered Tumlin to pay a $500 fine that will go the county’s drug forfeiture fund.

In the current case, according to the probable cause statement filed by Zwang, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Clint Heintz wrote that he was asked by Probation Officer Steve Watson to help him do probation checks in the Eureka area. Watson received a report on Tumlin from police in Eureka and wanted to check in on him after he left for work.

At 7:44 a.m. on Feb. 10, the officers stopped Tumlin as he drove away from his residence on Third Avenue East. Heintz searched Tumlin and found nothing illegal. But when Watson spoke to the defendant, he admitted using meth.

While a search of the vehicle Tumlin drove, including a U.S. Border Patrol K-9 unit, turned up nothing, a search of his residence found evidence of meth use.

According to Heintz, he found a metal spoon with a crystal substance on it inside a sock drawer. Heintz believed the substance to be meth. Heintz told Watson about the spoon and asked if there would be any needles to go with it. Tumlin said there were two needles in the drawer and a bag of needles in the kitchen.

Heintz asked Tumlin if he used a specific container for used needles, but he said he tossed them in the fireplace. Heintz reported that he found two used hypodermic needles inside a white sock. A field test of the crystal substance on the spoon initially tested positive for meth.

Tumlin was taken to the police station and placed in a holding cell. Due to population and quarantine restraints at the county jail, Watson released Tumlin.

According to Montana State Prison records, Tumlin, an Illinois native, has seven felony convictions in Montana dating back 33 years.

His first was in Lincoln County in 1989 for theft. Others followed in Flathead, Cascade, Lewis and Clark counties for theft, burglary, dangerous drug possession, bail jumping and deceptive practices.

According to information from the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole, in January 2019, Tumlin was granted parole with stipulations that he undergo regular counseling for chemical dependency, mental health counseling aftercare, follow court ordered conditions, not enter any location where gambling takes place, not enter any place where intoxicants are the chief item of sale and gain full time employment within 30 days of release.