Cycle of addiction, drug sales leads to prison

A woman whose father is serving life in prison for murdering her mother’s boyfriend received a 2-5-year sentence for selling drugs on Monday.

April Marie Ryburn was around 14 years old when James Steven Robinson ambushed and shot Lemuel William Thompson III on July 14, 1993, at a Ruhenstroth home.

Defense attorney John Malone said Ryburn had gone through real tragedy in her life.

“It’s unimaginable to go through what she did,” he said. “Let’s just say it would have been better if she had different parents. It’s not surprising she has the substance abuse problems she has.”

Ryburn, 41, admitted to selling methamphetamine.

“I knew what I was doing was wrong,” she said. “I want to know how to live sober.”

Prosecutor Matt Johnson pointed out that if Ryburn were just an alcoholic she wouldn’t be facing five years in prison.

Ryburn was arrested in connection with a May 8 drug transaction involving 7.7 grams of methamphetamine.

She previously served time in prison after she failed treatment and other programs. She told District Judge Tom Gregory that she’d participated in eight detox programs.

She was convicted of slinging methamphetamine in August 2004 after she was arrested in a Topaz Ranch Estates drug raid. Ryburn’s mother was also arrested in the April 22, 2004, raid where several people were smoking methamphetamine while her child was in the house.

Gregory said he didn’t see her as a good candidate for probation in sentencing her to prison. She was given credit for 69 days time served.

• A former controller at the Hard Rock Hotel Casino at Stateline admitted Monday to embezzling more than $70,000 .

Robert Merrald Schrader, 55, faces up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and will have to pay back the money.

According to court documents, Schrader used the corporate credit card to make $58,000 in unauthorized charges and made six checks payable to his own bank account amounting to around $15,000. The thefts occurred between Aug. 4, 2019 and Aug. 12.

District Judge Tom Gregory set a Jan. 25, 2021, sentencing date where he told Schrader to have a plan for paying the restitution.

• A Sparks woman who admitted her involvement in a methamphetamine trafficking ring received a suspended 2-5-year prison sentence Monday.

Alexis Rae Johnson, 29, was the second person sentenced in the ring that sold 4 ounces of methamphetamine July 21.

She, Susan Hinton and Demariea Antoine Doucet, 27, were arrested on warrants issued out of East Fork Justice Court on Sept. 17.

Hinton was sentenced to 8-10 years in prison.