Vista

A Vista man already serving a life sentence for trying to kill two sheriff’s deputies received an additional 30 years Monday for conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine and carrying a machine gun during a drug transaction.

The sentence handed down to Mark Raymond Phelps, 29, will be consecutive to the life term plus 14 years given him April 14 for shooting at the two deputies last summer.

“Certain people have to be removed from society and this is one of them,” said U.S. District Judge Howard Turrentine.

Afterward, Phelps’ attorney, Terry Kolkey, objected to the long term, saying Phelps was being punished again for the attempted murders of the sheriff’s deputies.

“I thought it was real excessive. I really feel strongly it was unjustified,” Kolkey said. He had suggested a five-year term, which was the sentence given to a co-defendant, Raymond Turnipseed, 32, of Carlsbad.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Tom Stahl said Phelps was being prosecuted for the drug charges, not for the attempted murders.

Asked for his reaction to the sentence, the prosecutor said: “I think that’s great. This guy is a menace.”

Phelps was convicted in June of two counts of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, illegal transfer of a machine gun, and carrying a machine gun during a drug transaction. He could have received a 40-year sentence.

Phelps and Turnipseed were charged with the drug violation on Aug. 4, 1987, after they negotiated to obtain chemicals to make methamphetamine at their clandestine laboratory in a Carlsbad garage.

In March, Phelps was convicted in Superior Court of attempted murder of Deputy James Bennetts, who was wounded in the shoulder, and of Deputy Alfred MacKrille, who was uninjured.

Bennetts was shot July 31, 1987, when Phelps sprayed his patrol car with machine-gun fire after a chase in Vista. Phelps shot at MacKrille two days later outside a furniture store in San Marcos.