MARION COUNTY — A 50-year-old Kell man has been sentenced to more than a decade in the Illinois Department of Corrections after he pleaded guilty today in Marion County court to the lesser of three meth related felonies.

Harlis Atteberry Jr., pleaded guilty today to possession of less than 15 grams of meth precursors – a Class 2 felony – and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The guilty plea was in exchange for dismissing two Class X felonies for aggravated protection of the manufacture of more than 400 grams of meth and possession of between 400 and 900 grams of meth.

According to police reports, Atteberry was found in possession of a firearm while in the process of manufacturing methamphetamine. It was later discovered that what appeared to be a handgun was a starter pistol.

Atteberry had been released on parole in August 2012 from the Illinois Department of Corrections, having served just over seven years of a 15 year sentence on a Class X conviction for manufacturing between 100 and 400 grams of meth – his second or subsequent offense under the Methamphetamine Act.

Atteberry had twice previously been convicted of meth related crimes, once in Marion County and once in Clay County, both times in 2002.

His criminal history dates back to a 1984 burglary conviction in Jefferson County, and includes felony convictions over the ensuing years with prison sentences from Clay, Jackson, and Marion counties.

Atteberry was wanted on an IDOC warrant at the time of the latest arrest, when deputies allegedly found a “shake and bake” meth lab in a freezer in the Kell home and another in his brother Edgar’s bedroom. Meth precursors were allegedly found in the trash, and a surveillance system was also reportedly found connected to a TV in the kitchen.

Edgar and two others were also arrested at that time.