A former Sioux Falls realtor calls prison home.
 
38 year old Brian Deneui was convicted of making meth in his house near two Sioux Falls schools and in South Dakota that automatically means a stiffer penalty. 

In April of last year, police raided Brian Deneui's home and found meth-making materials and meth residue on plates, spoons and pipes. Prosecutors say the biggest concern was that this meth lab was near two Sioux Falls schools. 

"Meth labs in any location are horrible within this community, but Mr Deneui picked a location that was three houses from Patrick Henry and a block away from St. Mary elementary where hundreds if not thousands of students go to school everyday," said Paul Bengford, Minnehaha County Deputy State's Attorney. 

The judge told Deneui he had no choice but to give him a longer sentence, because by law, sentences must run consecutively if the incident happened in a drug free zone. 

So he gave Deneui 12 years behind bars for not only having meth, but maintaining and making meth near two Sioux Falls schools. 

Prosecutors said police had watched Deneui for two years because his name was showing up on store logs for buying multiple packages of psuedoephedrine, a key ingredient in making meth. 

"This is one where stores were being vigilant, we got calls from K-Mart, we got calls from Walgreens about suspicious psuedoephedrine purchases," said Bengford. 

On several occassions, neighbors even called Mid American Energy because they thought they were smelling a gas leak. But according to prosecutors, what they were really smelling was Deneui cooking meth.

Deneui will be eligible for parole in five years.