HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. – A Hernando County jury took just 14 minutes on Monday to find 56-year-old Thomas Roger Chrystie guilty of trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of paraphernalia.
The brief deliberation followed a trial featuring testimony from Hernando County Sheriff’s Office deputies and expert analysts from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Prosecutors also presented physical evidence collected during a multi-year investigation. Following the reading of the verdict, Judge Stephen E. Toner ordered Chrystie into custody, where he will remain while awaiting his formal sentencing date.
The case against Chrystie began in December 2023 during an undercover street-level narcotics operation run by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office Vice and Narcotics Unit. Investigators discovered Chrystie was involved in distributing large quantities of methamphetamine within the county.
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As part of the operation, undercover officers set up a controlled buy with Chrystie. During the transaction, Chrystie handed over a crystalline substance to law enforcement. A presumptive field test on the material returned a positive result for methamphetamine, showing a total packed weight of 28.9 grams.
The Sheriff’s Office then sent the seized drugs to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Crime Laboratory for definitive chemical confirmation.
State officials credited the conviction to the collaborative work of local law enforcement partners alongside Assistant State Attorneys Lyndsey Pruett and Kasey Whitson, who led the prosecution.
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