Redwood Falls man sentenced for drug offence after being caught riding in a stolen car

A Redwood Falls man was sentenced last week for drug offenses after being caught last year riding in a stolen car.
On May 21, 2020, at about 12:47 a.m., an officer with the Lower Sioux Tribal Police Department obsrerved a vehicle with a Colorado license plate westbound on Reservation Highway 101. Since at that time a Tribal ordinance required sheltering in place and reservation closure during that hour, the officer stopped the vehicle.
The driver presented the officer with registration for the vehicle, and stated it was a rental car from Willmar. The driver stated the vehicle had been rented to her friend, but she was undertain of her friend’s name. A passenger in the vehicle, Anthony Preston Leith, age 27, of Redwood Falls, backed up the driver’s statement, but was also unable to provide the name of the friend they claimed had rented the car.
The police officer returned to his squad car, did a more detailed vehicle check. He learned the vehicle had been reported stolen in Lyon County, that the driver had a suspended license, and that another passsenger had an active warrant out of Redwood County.
As the officer was ordering the driver and passenger out of the vehicle, he located a small black coin purse in Leith’s pants pocket, which contained a tube of what tested as methamphetimine.
On Sept. 20, Leith was sentenced for Controlled Substance Crime in the Fifth Degree to 39 days in the Redwood County jail with 26 days credit for times served, and three years supervised probation.