Charges Dropped for Meth Lab Suspect

UPDATED: Just four months after Kevin Haywood's Jan. 13 arrest, charges have been dropped for the Sonoma man, who police arrested after finding an alleged meth lab in his downtown Sonoma residence.

"In criminal law as prosecutors we have to prove a case reasonable doubt, we couldn’t proceed to trial with the case," said Assistant District Attorney Christine Cook.

Prosecutors postponed Haywood's arraignment three times, while waiting for the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct toxicology results.

When the toxicology reports - which tested for "controlled substances and precursors to controlled substances,” said Cook, came in on April 13, prosecutors declined to file charges based on "all evidence, including the toxicology reports." 

Haywood, the 44-year-old son of Haywood Winery Founder Peter Haywood, was incarcerated for five days at the Sonoma County Jail following his arrest on Jan. 13. The charges submitted against him in a police report – all felonies – included manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of illegal drugs and possessing those drugs within 1,000 feet of a school (the residence where Haywood was staying sits across the street from the K-8 Sonoma Valley Christian School and 300 feet from the Sunshine School preschool).

Haywood's ordeal began the afternoon of Jan. 13, when Sonoma Police Sgt. Spencer Crum spotted him walking downtown on Third Street East and stopped him for questioning about a series of home burglaries occurring in Sonoma over the past couple months. Crum told a Patch reporter last week that Haywood was a person of interest in that investigation.

While Haywood was detained, police searched him and discovered a marijuana cigarette; police later searched the downtown home where Haywood had been staying, and found what they described as the crude beginnings of a meth lab in his bathroom. The bathroom contained certain tell-tale materials commonly used by meth cooks, but it did not have a heat source and had not begun to produce methamphetamine, according to Crum.

Haywood's probation status, which stems from an arrest for petty theft, allowed police to engage in random searches of him and his property. Haywood has been arrested 12 times since 2004.

The house where Haywood was staying – which his mother has since put up for sale – is the Nash-Patton Adobe building, a historic home that sits less than a block away from the town Plaza. The house is where John H. Nash was held prisoner by William T. Sherman for refusing to cede his post as Alcalde of Sonoma in 1847. The home is now owned by Kevin Haywood's mom, Anita Haywood.