Richards was sent to prison last year only after he tested positive for methamphetamine and marijuana, failed to complete an anger-management course he started four times and didn’t pay court-ordered fees to a halfway house, court records show. Even then, the two-year sentence was reduced to about seven months after credit for good behavior and some jail time already served. After his release, Richards was arrested weeks later for public intoxication. Soon, he was living in a tent in a homeless encampment in the woods near the Coldwater Golf Links in Ames. He told an acquaintance that he had an…