Crime & Safety

Demolition Begins on Condemned Meth House on Uniondale (Photos)

Stow Police and the city's building inspector boarded up a home at 2106 Uniondale Dr. in December because it was uninhabitable and being used, again, to manufacture methamphetamine.

The home on Uniondale Drive that was found to be the site of a methamphetamine lab twice is now being torn down by Dave Helmling Excavating.

And it's apparently one of the worst homes the company has torn down ever. Dave Helmling told the Stow Sentry about 40 cubic yards of trash were taken out of the home on Tuesday.

 first went to the home, at 2106 Uniondale Dr., in September after receiving an anonymous tip about possible illegal drug activity. 

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Officers said they went to the home and witnessed the men making meth in the garage and arrested Stephen Gene McKinney, 41, and the homeowner Lewis Gene Butler, Jr., 39, for . Police also found guns on the property.

McKinney was charged with illegal manufacturing of drugs (first-degree felony), weapons under disability (third-degree felony), possession of drugs (fifth-degree felony). 

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Butler was convicted of his charge of illegal manufacturing of drugs in March. 

Then, police about the same home on Uniondale. 

"Power from Ohio Edison was, in fact, being illegally obtained," . "Further, the house and garage were again being used to manufacture meth."

Butler was not home when the city's building inspector came to board up the house this winter because it was uninhabitable. 

A third tip from a resident about Butler's vehicle directed police to him and another woman Angel M. George, 19, who also lived in the Uniondale home, in January. Butler and George were charged with illegal manufacture of drugs, illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs, possession of criminal tools and endangering children.

Law Director Brian Reali told the Stow Sentry that a dangerous building ordinance allowed for the home to be torn down.


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