By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – A 49-year-old Birmingham man will spend the next few years in prison after he pleaded guilty in late August to trafficking methamphetamine in Alabaster in 2016.

Jerry Michael Beavers, who lists an address on Smith Drive in Birmingham, pleaded guilty to the felony during an Aug. 21 hearing in front of Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Hewitt Conwill.

As a result of Beavers’ guilty plea, Conwill sentenced Beavers to a total of three years in prison followed by two years of supervised probation. Once he is released, Beavers also must surrender his driver’s license for suspension, and must complete a substance abuse treatment program while he is incarcerated.

Through a plea agreement with prosecutors, a possession of drug paraphernalia charge was dropped against Beavers.

The Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested Beavers on Aug. 20, 2016, and charged him with the three drug crimes. He was released from the Shelby County Jail on bonds totaling $506,000 the same day he was arrested.

Trafficking methamphetamine is a Class A felony, which is the highest level of non-capital offense in Alabama law, and could have carried a sentence of life in prison.

According to his arrest warrants, Beavers was found to be in possession of about 50 grams of methamphetamine while he was in the 500 block of U.S. 31 in Alabaster on Aug. 20, 2016.

To be charged with trafficking methamphetamine, a suspect must “knowingly have in actual or constructive possession” at least 28 grams of the controlled substance, according to state law.

When he was arrested, he also was allegedly found to be in possession of alprazolam and oxycodone, leading to his unlawful possession of a controlled substance charge.

His possession of drug paraphernalia charge came when he was allegedly found to be in possession of a “straw filled with narcotic residue, a glass pipe and scales” when he was arrested, according to his warrants.