GREENFIELD – A man who admitted to dealing methamphetamine is back in jail after police accused him of committing similar crimes, officials said.
Gurinder Khera, 20, 981 Sheets Court, Greenfield, was arrested this week after prosecutors filed three criminal counts against him, all related to drug dealing or illegally possessing a weapon. He faced similar charges last year after police determined he was selling drugs out of his home in Greenfield’s Copeland Farms subdivision.
In April, Khera pleaded guilty to dealing methamphetamine and admitted to carrying a handgun without a license. He spent eight months in an Indiana Department of Correction prison and had started a nine-year stint on probation when police received a tip last month from a community member who suspected Khera was selling drugs again, according to court documents.
Officers began monitoring Khera’s home as part of their investigation into the new allegations, court records state.
On one afternoon in mid-February, they searched the home alongside two U.S. marshals, who were working with Delaware County officials to track down evidence for a separate investigation, court documents state.
Inside Khera’s home, investigators found marijuana, the magazine from a gun and drug paraphernalia, according to court documents. A search of Khera’s cellphone revealed images they say suggest Khera was dealing again, police say, including one video that shows a man, believed to be Khera, counting a large amount of money with a handgun sitting nearby, documents state.
Text messages on the phone show Khera writing to others about having Xanax and pistols, according to court documents.
Hancock County investigators found similar evidence when they raided Khera’s home in October 2015 at the conclusion of a months-long investigation into this drug activity, officials said.
Police began investigating Khera after intercepting several suspicious packages en route to his residence, some which contained drugs and guns, officials said. When they searched the home, they found more than a pound of marijuana and at least 10 grams each of cocaine and meth, police said.
Khera originally was charged with five felony drug charges and two misdemeanors.
He later pleaded guilty to dealing methamphetamine as a Level 4 felony, along with a Class A misdemeanor of carrying a handgun without a license. He accepted a plea agreement from prosecutors that called for him to serve a 10-year sentence with no more than four years being spent in a jail or prison.
The agreement left Judge Terry Snow to make the final determination about where Khera would serve his time and how long he would be locked up.
Snow decided to send Khera to prison and allow him to serve the remaining time on probation after hearing testimony from Khera’s family, who immigrated to the United States from India in the 1990s and opened a restaurant in Henry County five years ago.
They said not having the man’s help in running the family business would be a burden.
Khera was sent to prison last April, and he was was released in late December after just eight month thanks to a law that allows offenders to receive goodtime credit, records show.
Now, Khera faces new criminal charges: unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, a Level 4 felony; maintaining a common nuisance, a Level 6 felony; and one Class B misdemeanor of possession of marijuana.
Khera appeared in court Thursday to plead not guilty to the charges. He is being held in the Hancock County Jail on a $7,500 cash bond. He must serve at least 15 days in the facility before he can be released, records show.