90 DAYS, FINE ON MARIJUANA CHARGE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 26, 1993                   TAG: 9301260064
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short
90 DAYS, FINE ON MARIJUANA CHARGE
A Montgomery County man has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and fined $500 in Circuit Court on a charge of possessing 10 pounds of marijuana. David Andrew Spangler, 49, pleaded no contest to the charge in December. Judge Kenneth Devore found him guilty, but delayed sentencing pending a background report.
Peggy Frank, assistant commonwealth's attorney, told Devore in December that in September 1991 officers searched Spangler's Den Hill Road home on a tip that there was marijuana there. Police found several packages of marijuana; some of it was drying and some had been weighed and packaged in saleable amounts, Frank said. Plastic bags, paper bags and an aluminum pan also were used to store the marijuana, she said.
Police also seized $500 in cash. Spangler said the marijuana was his, but said it was for personal use, Frank said. It was an unusual amount of marijuana to be considered for personal use only, the prosecutor said. The $500 that was seized was ordered to be applied to the fine and court costs.
A Virginia State Police special agent testified in December that the tip about Spangler's marijuana came from a private citizen, not a police informant. The officer told Joe Painter, Spangler's attorney, that Spangler had not been under investigation before the tip came in.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB