It was a prime location: an upscale home backing up onto Alvamar Golf Course in western Lawrence.

But police allege no one was living there. Instead, they say, it was being used almost exclusively to grow marijuana – and that as a result, it had electric bills three times higher than that of neighboring homes.

The strange case of the home at 3710 Hartford Ave. is now unfolding in District Court as two men, Steven A. Soby, 22, and Nolan H. Smith, 24, stand accused of growing marijuana there in mid-2004.

A new occupant since has moved into the home, according to a city directory.

Smith and Soby appeared Tuesday in District Court, where Judge Stephen Six scheduled their trials for late August and mid-September.

Each is charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession with intent to sell marijuana, possession of oxycodone, possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to pay a drug-tax stamp.

Police keep watch

Members of the city-county Drug Enforcement Unit began investigating Soby and Smith after four informants – who are given the nicknames “CI-1,” “CI-2,” “CI-3” and “SI-1” in court records – told police they had either bought marijuana from the defendants or knew them to be involved in drug trade.

Police learned the men were living in a duplex at 4976 Stoneback Drive near Clinton Parkway and Wakarusa Drive. But they also checked city records and found that the water bill for the home on Hartford was in Soby’s name and the electric bill was in Smith’s name.

Officers conducted surveillance of the Hartford home, according to a court motion, and although they once saw Soby backing out of the garage, they reported that it didn’t appear anyone was living there. The lights were out, and the grass wasn’t kept, they reported.

Meanwhile, police twice took trash from outside the duplex on Stoneback and found marijuana and items consistent with an indoor growing operation.

About a week before Soby and Smith were arrested, drug officers Micky Rantz and Dean Ohman went onto Alvamar Golf Course, observed the rear of the home on Hartford and noted that garden plants in the yard appeared to be dead or dying despite a bag of Miracle-Gro that was seen nearby.

Also, police checked utility records and found that the electric bills for the home were $244.50 for May 2004 and $213.16 for June 2004. By comparison, a neighbor’s home had bills of $65.48 and $79.51 for the same time period.

Pieces of a puzzle

When officers executed a search warrant at the home on July 9, 2004, they found “a large quantity of marijuana and marijuana cultivation materials,” according to a court document. The exact number of plants isn’t listed in court records.

Soby’s defense attorney, Billy Rork, unsuccessfully sought Tuesday to have that evidence suppressed. He said the informants had little credibility and that their information was stale.

“Unidentified informants of untested reliability made bald accusations that the accused was dealing and/or growing marijuana,” Rork wrote.

He questioned whether officers had the right to be on the golf course, and he said they failed to notice a group of healthy tomato plants in the backyard that would have made the Miracle-Gro seem less suspicious.

Overall, he argued, what police gathered wasn’t enough to link the home on Hartford to illegal activity.

“At the very least, the officers should have conducted a controlled buy, which did not happen in this case,” Rork wrote in a motion.

But Assistant Dist. Atty. Trent Krug argued in a motion that the tips from informants were just “one piece of the puzzle,” and that officers had observed Soby and Smith moving belongings to the home on Hartford.

Six denied the defense motion.

“I do determine that there was probable cause for the search warrant that was issued in the case,” Six said.

Six also looked at a photograph and disagreed with Rork’s assessment that the garden behind the home was well-tended.

“Some parts of it are yellowing,” he said.