Jury Finds Panasuk Guilty Of Possession Of Drugs Charge

A jury found John David Panasuk guilty to the charges of possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia during a trial held in district court on Thursday, March 17.

District judge David J. Cybulski has ordered a pre-sentencing investigation prior to providing a sentence.

During his closing arguments, public defender Christopher White described the investigation as a “comedy of errors.”

Panasuk’s vehicle was driven by the arresting officer to the Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice’s station on May 19, 2021, because an officer said there wasn’t a wrecker available. After obtaining a search warrant, the meth was found on May 25 where the female passenger said that she put it.

Some of the evidence tape was cut prior to the search taking place.

White noted there were two different descriptions, one secured and the other not secured, of the impound area.

Testimony was that a drill was placed in the vehicle after the evidence tape was cut. White questioned why would Panasuk place a drill in the vehicle and not remove the meth that was located in a cigarette pack on a front seat console.

“It could have been anybody,” White said of a person who cut the tape and entered the vehicle. White noted that both passengers in the vehicle had histories of using substances.

Roosevelt County attorney Frank Piocos noted that the jury’s decision whether Panasuk was guilty needed to come down to the elements of possession and knowledge.

“The meth didn’t come from the sky,” Piocos said in his closing arguments. “A human being put it there, and that human being was Mr. Panasuk.”

Piocos said that when Panasuk was stopped, he asked for immunity, not for his vehicle to be searched and was willing to provide information about others. Piocos noted that Panasuk’s reaction wasn’t that he was innocent or that he simply wanted his vehicle back.

“If Mr. Panasuk didn’t think there was any meth in the vehicle, what explains his behavior?” Piocos said.

As far as the cut evidence tape, Piocos said it would be different if the just over 4 grams of meth was missing. “Is it the defense’s stance that someone planted it? No one testified that someone planted it,” Piocos said.

The jury was out a little more than an hour before coming back with its decision.