JEFFERSON COUNTY — A 26-year-old Mt. Vernon man scheduled for trial Tuesday on meth conspiracy charges instead filed an open plea of guilty to a reduced charge.

Dewayne Moore was originally charged in Jefferson County Court with a Class X Felony conspiring to obtain 15 to 100 grams of methamphetamine with two other subjects and deliver that meth to a confidential source of the Mt. Vernon Police Department.

That charge was reduced Tuesday to a Class 1 felony in exchange for the open plea of guilt and 11 Class 2 charges for delivery of less than 5-grams of methamphetamine were dismissed.

A jury had already been selected Tuesday for Moore’s scheduled trial on all 12 charges. However, just before opening statements were to be delivered Moore entered an open plea of guilty to the reduced charge, admitting that he conspired with two other men to obtain and deliver between 5 and 15 grams of meth to a confidential police source.

A Class 1 felony is generally punishable by between 4 and 15 years in prison but due to his criminal history, Moore is eligible for extended term sentencing of between 4 and 30 years in prison.

A pre-sentencing investigation was ordered and a status hearing is scheduled for January 9, 2018.

Moore still has pending felony charges of manufacture with the intent to deliver 1 to 15 grams of cocaine, leaving the scene of an injury accident, and obstructing justice. If he is convicted on any of those charges and sentenced to prison, the sentence would have to be served consecutively to the term he receives on Tuesday’s meth conviction.

Moore has been held in the Jefferson County Jail since his July arrest with bail set at $100,000. He was acquitted in November 2016 of the 2015 shooting death of Cortez Pickett at Pickett’s Mt. Vernon home.