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William B. “Boomer” Boma, 30, became addicted to methamphetamine before he began making it on a Trempealeau County farm in the summer 2004, said his attorney Mark Eisenberg. After learning how time-consuming the manufacturing process was, Boma began traveling to Rochester, Minn., and Minneapolis to buy the controlled substance.
“He did it to support his habit. It wasn’t a money-making scheme. … There was no violence or firearms involved either,” Eisenberg said.
Boma turned around to face several family members present and apologized to them and to the community.
Boma was involved in making or distributing between 350 and 500 grams of methamphetamine, said District Judge John Shabaz. Shabaz imposed the same sentence on Boma he gave co-defendant Ryan Papenfus in April 2006. Both men pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Afterward, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Connell said Wisconsin laws that limit quantities of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine an individual can buy have made methamphetamine manufacturing cases such as Boma’s rare these days.
“We just don’t see the meth lab cases like we did just a few years ago,” Connell said.
Law enforcement officials destroyed 112 small meth labs in Wisconsin in 2003, but the total dropped to 25 last year, the state attorney general’s office reported.
While in prison, Boma can participate in drug abuse counseling and along with Papenfus is required to begin paying off the $1,462 it cost law enforcement to clean up the methamphetamine cooking site.
