Jake Geiger pleads guilty to supplying meth at Gympie, Qld

A 30-year-old Gympie man who spent a year in jail for dealing meth was back in court this week after police found text messages from him on another drug dealer’s phone.

Jake Geiger leaves Gympie Dsitrict Court on Wednesday July 17, 2024, after pleading guilty to one count of supplying meth.

A Gympie father of three jailed in 2019 for trafficking meth landed back in court for supplying another drug dealer with the narcotic while on parole.

Jake Geiger, 30, was arrested by police after sending messages to 27-year-old Astrid Forrester Turner which were discovered when police seized her phone.

Forrester Turner was convicted in April 2024, for running a “street level” drug dealing operation.

She pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking, four counts of supplying dangerous drugs, and one count of possessing an item used in the commission of a crime, and was sentenced to three years’ jail with immediate parole.

Gympie District Court heard on March 31, 2022, Geiger offered to supply Forrester Turner with 1.75g of meth.

Crown prosecutor Michael Andronicus told Gympie District Court on Wednesday, July 17, this was offered by Geiger with the full knowledge Astrid Turner intended to “on-supply” it.

Compounding his legal problems was a previous conviction for trafficking at the Supreme Court in 2019 after he was caught with 40g of meth, and $75,000 suspected to be the proceeds of a drug offence.

Jake Geiger leaves Gympie District Court on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, after pleading guilty to one count of supplying meth.

He was sentenced to four years jail, and was released on parole after serving one.

Geiger’s lawyer told the court he had a disrupted childhood and grew up exposed to drug use and domestic violence.

He left school in Year 9, and at age 12 he ran away from home, riding his bike from Cooran to Gympie, the court heard.

He eventually reconciled with his mother, who sat quietly crying in the court’s gallery as he was sentenced on Wednesday.

Judge Jennifer Rosengren questioned whether Geiger was trying to fix his life after his jail stint.

She said there was a great deal made about his rehabilitation during the Supreme Court sentencing and “one would’ve thought he wouldn’t be back here again, but here he is”.

“I would have thought 12 months in jail would be enough to ram the message home to him,” she said.

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Judge Jennifer Rosengren was “exasperated” by Geiger’s return to the courts, and while sentencing him to serve a 12-month jail term by way of an intensive correction order warned if he came back once again on a drug-related charge he would be serving time behind bars. Photo Patrick Woods / Gympie Times

She told Geiger she was “exasperated” by his return to court.

Judge Rosengren noted he had written a letter of apology, and character references had been provided by his mother, his employer, his partner and his future mother in law, and accepted it was “painful” for him to be on the receiving end of this lecture.

But as someone who battled his own drug addiction, he was in a unique position to appreciate “how much more painful it is for those people who you’re helping to destroy their lives”.

Judge Rosengren accepted Geiger’s guilty plea to one count of supplying meth, and instead of putting him behind bars again she ordered her serve a 12-month jail sentence by way of an intensive correction order.

The order came with a stern warning.

“If you come before the courts again with another case involving methamphetamine, you are in (jail),” she said.