Fentanyl dealer who shot a stranger in Richland sentenced to 12 years in prison
RICHLAND – A Richland father of five was sentenced to 12 years in prison after law enforcement was alerted to his fentanyl ring after he shot a man who slashed his tires.
The case started when Jonathan Scott Ard, 30, was sitting in his car in a Richland neighborhood smoking a fentanyl-laced pill in December 2020.
Apparently unaware that Ard was in the car, a man came along and slashed the tires.
Ard pulled out a gun and shot the man in the knee. Then he grabbed a bag from the the car and ran into an Armistead Avenue house, where he lived in the basement.
He came back outside, walking past the wounded man on the ground, and grabbed a second bag from his car.
According to court documents, it was a case of mistaken identity and the tire slasher had damaged the wrong car. Neither man knew the other.
Richland police arrived and surrounded the house until Ard surrendered. They could see the partially smoked pill in Ard’s car and, after obtaining a search warrant, found more than 500 fentanyl-laced pills in the car and the basement.
Ard was initially arrested in connection with the shooting and taken to the Benton County jail.
Jailhouse fentanyl calls
Much of the evidence that led to federal charges against Ard and his associates was based on Ard’s recorded telephone calls and video visits from jail, said Stephanie Van Marter, assistant U.S. attorney.
Conversations included instructions from Ard on where to pick up pills containing fentanyl and discussions of buying and selling illicit drugs.
Evidence was gathered, including on the cell phones of those Ard conspired with, that showed Ard admitting to working with co-defendants later named in the federal case to sell fentanyl-laced pills, methamphetamine and heroin.
After Ard was released from the county jail, a federal arrest warrant was issued.
He was arrested in his car with a loaded firearm and 400 fentanyl-laced pills, heroin and drug paraphernalia, police said. More drugs and a gun were found inside a hotel room that Ard, Jerrod Justin Hale and Jasmine Rae Campbell were using.
A search of Ard’s phone turned up more drug-related evidence and pictures and social media posts idealizing a criminal lifestyle.
Van Marter said prosecutors focused on his fentanyl distribution as fentanyl has become the main cause of overdose deaths across the nation.
Fentanyl also has been the leading cause of deadly overdoses in the Tri-Cities region since 2020.
Ard pleaded guilty in federal court in June to conspiring to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl and being a felon in possession of a gun.
That followed his sentencing in Benton County Superior Court to three years and five months for unlawful possession of a firearm in the Richland shooting. Charges of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and a deadly weapon special verdict were dismissed.
This week, Van Marter asked that U.S. Judge Edward Shea sentence Ard to 12 years and seven months in prison.
“The community is safer the longer he remains in custody,” she told the judge during the Wednesday sentencing hearing in the Richland federal courthouse.
Ard’s criminal history started at the age of 14 with a violent theft offense and then an assault on a student who Ard thought was bisexual, leaving the student with a broken cheekbone. A month later he assaulted another student.
That was followed by convictions for domestic violence, DUI/reckless driving, invoking assault, disorderly conduct and malicious mischief.
A January 2019 second-degree robbery charge for a Kennewick home invasion with guns led to a sentence of nearly two years.
Ard continued his criminal conduct both in and out of jail after the 2020 shooting, Van Marter pointed out.
His criminal history paints “a picture of a violent offender,” the prosecution argued in court documents.
One of Ard’s co-defendants in the case, Jordan Lemus, has been sentenced to about five years in federal prison.
Two other co-defendants, Hale and Campbell, are awaiting sentencing, with the prosecution recommending a 10-year term for Hale.
But federal prosecutors argued Ard is most culpable among his co-defendants and deserved a higher sentence.
Ard’s attorney, Ulvar Klein, of Yakima, argued that much of Ard’s criminal history consisted of misdemeanor offenses and asked that Ard be given a sentence of 10 years, which would be below federal sentencing guidelines.
Ard has been stuck in a cycle of alcohol and drug abuse since he was young and turned to dealing drugs to support his addiction, Klein said.
“Any money he made evaporated as quickly as it came in,” Klein said in a court document. “Jonathan has barely maintained a ragged existence living in his mother’s basement while money came and went.”
Ard has been incarcerated since his sentencing related to the Richland shooting and in his two years in jail has recognized “the insanity of his prior lifestyle,” Klein said in a court document.
Ard told the judge that when he got out of prison after the sentence related to the home invasion he was working two jobs. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he “made a lot of terrible choices,” he said.
After he finishes serving his federal sentence, he wants to leave the Tri-Cities to get away from bad influences and work to support his five children, he said.
He asked to take substance abuse classes while in prison.
Shea ordered a 12-year sentence to be served concurrently with his Benton County Superior Court sentence, plus five years probation, saying Ard’s criminal behavior had escalated.
Ard has a history of violence and he distributed vast amounts of fentanyl, continuing his involvement in drug dealing while in jail, the judge said.
His crime was serious and had “an extraordinary impact on the community,” Shea said.
“We can only hope that prison time will be a deterrent this time,” Shea said.