NORTHAMPTON - One of two men accused of growing marijuana in a rented Southampton home admitted guilt Friday, while his alleged accomplice faces trial next week.

Bryan L. McIntyre, 49, pleaded guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to possessing with intent to distribute a class D drug.

Following a joint recommendation by McIntyre's lawyer and a prosecutor, Judge Judd Carhart sentenced him to two years' probation.

Attorneys in the case described McIntyre as a subordinate of Steven E. Crippen, who they said rented the 225 Brickyard Road house and supplied the more than 600 marijuana seedlings and growing equipment that police seized there April 28, 2008.

Crippen, 54, is set for a jury trial next week on a charge of possessing with intent to distribute a class D drug (subsequent offense).

Defense attorney Malcolm Smith said Crippen and McIntyre, both contractors, came to the area with plans to build a house.

"That dissolved, and this enterprise was substituted," Smith said.

Late last year, one of Crippen's attorneys, Harry Miles, challenged the search warrant that spawned the case. Miles claimed police obtained the warrant under false pretenses, lying to court officials about smelling the marijuana from outside the house during a heavy rainstorm.

Miles tried to prove his point with testimony from two expert witnesses: a specialist from the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center's Smell and Taste and a meteorologist. A different judge, Bertha Josephson, ultimately ruled the search warrant was valid.

Josephson's 12-page ruling, dated Dec. 1, 2009, reveals some of the case's background. Crippen rented the house from Eugene Labrie. Labrie became suspicious of his tenants because they never seemed to leave the house, and because a bright blue light emanated from the basement around the clock.

He called a friend on the Springfield Police Department, Sgt. John Kent, who performed a background check and learned Crippen had a prior criminal record with convictions for marijuana distribution. Josephson called this favor "improper."

Labrie took his concerns and the information Kent provided to the Southampton Police Department in January 2008. Officer David Neal drove by the property several times over the next three months to check for suspicious activity. But he took no direct action until April 28, 2008, when he went to the rental home with Labrie and Kent to keep the peace when Labrie asked Crippen and McIntyre to move out. That's when Neal claimed he smelled the scent that eventually led to criminal charges.

Prosecutor Mary Lou Szulborski said Friday that the seized marijuana was at an early stage of growth.

"If those plants had matured it would have been worth a lot of money, thousands of dollars," she said.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.