UPDATE: Ironwood woman guilty of transporting methamphetamine into Gogebic County sentenced to prison

GOGEBIC COUNTY, Mich. (WLUC) - UPDATE: An Ironwood woman who was found guilty of transporting methamphetamine has been sentenced to prison.

Michelle Kitto was sentenced Thursday in Gogebic County following her convictions on July 21 according to Nick Jacobs, Gogebic County Prosecuting Attorney.

Kitto received a prison sentence of a minimum term of 8 years to a maximum of 20 years for the charges of possession with intent to deliver meth, possession near a school and library and conspiracy.

She also received a jail sentence of 256 days in jail for the drug house charge. The sentences are to be served concurrently with one another.

An Ironwood woman was found guilty of transporting methamphetamine from Superior, Wis. into Gogebic County after a three-day jury trial.

54-year-old Michelle Lee Kitto was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, possession of methamphetamine within 1000 ft. of a library and school property (two separate counts), conspiracy with her former boyfriend, John Wodie to possess with intent to deliver methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house.

According to Gogebic County Prosecutor Nick Jacobs it took the jury less than 50 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict.

The Gogebic-Iron Area Narcotics Team (G.I.A.N.T.), made several controlled buys using a confidential informant at Kitto’s home a month before her arrest resulting in the prosecuting attorney authorizing criminal charges against Kitto and Wodie.

The drug team held the arrest warrants so they could conduct further surveillance using GPS technology attached to Kitto’s vehicle which was authorized by the prosecutor with a search warrant.

The GPS was able to track Kitto making several trips to Superior, WI over the course of November and early December. With assistance of the drug task force in Superior they monitored Kitto and Wodie going to a known drug dealer’s home to purchase and return to the Ironwood area with the meth.

In December 2022, Kitto and Wodie were stopped on US-2 in Ironwood after GPS flagged them returning from Superior, Wisconsin.

Kitto and Wodie were detained and arrested at the scene and search warrants were then executed on the vehicle and their home. Approximately 48 grams of meth was found in the trunk of the car and scales, smoking apparatus, meth and numerous gem bags used to package meth were found in the home.

The first four criminal charges carry up to 20 years in prison. Maintaining a drug house is punishable by up to 2 years and a 25,000 fine. After the verdict the defendant was taken into custody by the Gogebic County Sheriffs Dept. and her bond was revoked. Sentencing will be scheduled within the next 45 days pending completion of a pre-sentence investigation. Kitto was previously convicted of maintaining a drug lab involving manufacturing meth several years ago.

Wodie is currently serving a prison term of 13 to 20 years for his participation in the December 10 incident.