BEATRICE – A Blue Springs man will serve a Nebraska prison term for three counts of drug possession and one count of theft by receiving stolen property.


Gage County District Judge Rick Schreiner sentenced 46-year-old Paul Pond to three years in state prison…two years on the drug convictions and a consecutive one-year term for the theft count. The drugs involved in the convictions were methamphetamine, Vyvanse and Serax. Pond earlier pleaded no contest to the charges while three other charges and an infraction were dismissed.


Pond appeared in court through video from Lancaster County Corrections. His arrest for the Gage County violations happened in August of 2023, when law officers served a search warrant on a wooded property about three-quarters of a mile east of Blue Springs. They had sought the warrant to look for items believed stolen in area burglaries.


Pond and a woman were living in a camper on the property. Authorities recovered from the camper jewelry items, drugs and drug paraphernalia and a machete. Outside the camper, they seized three chain saws, a battery charger and a wooden level that had been stolen during burglaries in Blue Springs and Wymore.


In a second case, 65-year-old James Eloge of Beatrice was given a two-year probation sentence Thursday, in Gage County District Court, after earlier pleading guilty to charges of attempted possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person and possession of methamphetamine, both felonies.


Eloge was arrested in late October of 2024, following the serving of a search warrant at a home along North 7th Street in Beatrice. Authorities had obtained the warrant during an investigation into distribution of drugs.
During the search, law officers recovered drugs and a sword with a 36-inch blade.


Eloge was barred from having the weapon because of a past felony conviction.