SACRAMENTO—A Rancho Cordova man convicted last week of manufacturing pot and causing an explosion in early 2014 could face nearly a decade in prison.
On Thursday, August 20, 2015, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced that Wade Andrew Stevenson, 47, was convicted by a jury of manufacturing cannabis and recklessly causing an explosion in his apartment.
In January 2014, firefighters and law enforcement received calls about an explosion and fire at an apartment on Mills Tower Drive in Rancho Cordova. When police arrived, they found an illegal butane honey oil extraction laboratory set up in the ground floor bathroom. The lab had two extraction tubes packed with marijuana leaves and 15 empty cans of butane. While there were no plants in Stevenson’s apartment, there were several smoking devices. Stevenson caught on fire and was taken to UC Davis Medical Center’s burn unit for treatment.
The intense blast destroyed not just his apartment but a neighbor’s apartment wall and window. Structural damage caused gas, water and electricity to be shut off, forcing 146 residents to be displaced from their homes
Stevenson is scheduled to be sentenced on October 2, 2015 before the Honorable Michael Sweet, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. He had been arrested after treatment at the Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento and booked into the Sacramento Jail on March 26 of this year
