FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A man accused of trafficking narcotics out of at least three city homes – one in which police found drugs locked away in a room labelled ‘Man Cave’ – received more than 16 years in prison Thursday, according to federal prosecutors.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced 47-year-old Jamic C. Johnson, also known as Jamie C. Johnson, to 195 months in prison – 16 1/4 years – for his plea of guilty to charges of possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, possessing a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Fort Wayne Police began receiving tips on Johnson’s drug-dealing habits in January 2018, according to court records and prosecutors.
Among these tips, investigators were told:
- Johnson and his mother had been “major narcotic traffickers since the late ’90s.”
- He had been dealing heroin and other drugs out of two homes on Pontiac Street and stored and dealt drugs out of a home North Camden Drive.
- He had threatened to kill a woman and her father after an argument, and then threatened to plant drugs in their house.
Johnson also met multiple times with a man identified as Lance Morningstar, who police said was a known drug trafficker. On Oct. 5, 2020, Morningstar ended up in a shootout with police after an argument with another person at a local Travel Lodge, court records said.
Morningstar lived but was arrested.
After the shooting, police watched as Johnson and his wife went to the Travel Lodge, tried to pick up Morningstar’s vehicle without anyone’s knowledge and attempted to take it to a rental facility to hide it, court documents said.
Weeks later, on Oct. 28, 2020, police served a warrant at Johnson’s home.
They busted open a room that was secured with a combination lock bearing the sign “Man Cave,” court documents said. Inside this room officers found large quantities of methamphetamine, smaller quantities of cocaine, a drug ledger, a loaded pistol, a loaded shotgun hanging on the wall and other drug evidence.
In other parts of the home, officers found ammunition, magazines, pills and a scale.
Johnson tried to suppress the evidence found at the home, especially that found in the basement room.
“What happens in the man cave stays in the man cave,” wrote U.S. District Judge Holly Brady in denying Johnson’s attempt. “Not so for Defendant Jamic Johnson.”
Once Johnson serves his time in prison, he will be subject to five years supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration with the help of the Allen County Drug Task Force and the Fort Wayne Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Anthony W. Geller prosecuted the case.
