Charles Skibbe
photo by Dunlap Police
A Rossville man who reportedly told law enforcement officers he traded methamphetamine for a gun so he could kill his ex-wife is scheduled to appear Friday in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga on drug and weapons charges.
Charles Henry Skibbe, 56, was arrested March 11 in Dunlap for drug possession and felony possession of a firearm.
Unable to make his $50,000 bond, he has remained in the Sequatchie County Jail.
That changed this week, however, when Sequatchie County dismissed its charges against him after a federal grand jury indicted Skibbe for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and other charges.
He was then transferred to the Hamilton County Jail by U.S. marshals.
The statement about his former wife was part of the testimony during Skibbe's hearing in Sequatchie County, when the judge set Skibbe's bond at $50,000 and made one of the conditions of the bond that he "was not to go near the victim."
Skibbe is scheduled to appear at 11:30 a.m. Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Steger. He has been indicted on charges that he:
· Did knowingly possess . . . a firearm, despite having previously been convicted in court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
· Did knowingly possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime for which he may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, that is, distribution of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance.
· Did knowingly, intentionally and without authority distribute a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine.
Skibbe’s arrest on March 11 grew out of a sting by the Dunlap Police Department, Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
“An undercover agent with TBI arranged to meet Skibbe at the Walmart (in Dunlap) where Skibbe would be trading methamphetamine for a firearm,” according to an affidavit of complaint filed March 11 by Detective Robert Raber of the Dunlap Police Department.
“The undercover agent was wired with audio recording device where officers could hear Skibbe talking,” the complaint said. “Skibbe handed the undercover agent approximately 3.78 grams of methamphetamine in a red bag in exchange for a handgun. Skibbe took possession of the Taurus Millennium .40 caliber handgun and placed the gun in his truck seat.”
Following the suspect’s arrest, the report noted, officers found “two more bags of white crystal ice substance. Upon weighing . . . the first bag weighed approximately 0.90 grams and the second bag weighed approximately 0.68 grams.”
According to Detective Raber’s affidavit of complaint, Skibbe was convicted of felony grand theft auto in Florida in 2013. Earlier, in Wisconsin, he had been convicted for second-degree recklessly endangering safety in 1996 and as a “felon in possession of a firearm” in 1999.