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Anaheim Man Pleads Guilty To Drug Charge

SANTA ANA (CBS) — A 53-year-old Anaheim man was sentenced to one year in jail and placed on probation for four years Friday for setting up a methamphetamine lab in the home where he lived with his 87-year-old aunt.

Thomas George Hogue pleaded guilty today to one felony count each of manufacturing methamphetamine and elder and dependent adult abuse, according to court records.

Hogue could have faced up to eight years in state prison if he was convicted at trial, prosecutors said when he was charged in January.

Hogue, who was the caretaker of his bedridden aunt, was making methamphetamine in a laboratory in the living room, said Farrah Emami of the Orange County District Attorney's Office when Hogue was charged in January.

Anaheim police discovered the lab Jan. 10, after the woman's granddaughter called to ask that officers conduct a welfare check because she had not heard from her grandmother in about three months, Emami said.

Hogue was arrested when he returned home while police were still at the scene, according to Emami, who said another relative began looking after Hogue's aunt.

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