KINGSTON TOWNSHIP – Two people charged for a mobile lab explosion in Luzerne County’s Back Mountain have agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges in court.
Court records said Jennifer Arnold was driving an SUV near Frances Slocum State Park in November, when a container filled with a mix of chemicals exploded on the passenger seat floor, in between Lee Marshall’s legs.
After the hearing, Marshall told Newswatch 16 that he hopes his experience will be a lesson for anyone who might try to make or use the powerful, illegal stimulant known as methamphetamine.
“I was burned very badly. I am healing and proceeding,” said Lee. "It is an insidious disease. I hope that by someone seeing the news and seeing what can happen, they won`t do what they think they can do on YouTube.”
Kingston Township Police Department Sgt. Michael Moravec said the call of a vehicle fire that turned out to be a mobile meth lab explosion was a first for first responders in the rural area.
“The last thing he should have been doing was doing the cooking of the methamphetamine in a vehicle, going down the road and have it explode in the position where it did,” said Moravec.
As part of the deal to plead guilty to lesser charges, Arnold and Lee also signed documents that said they will pay restitution to cover the cost of experts who had to clean up the mess.