Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 13, 1993 TAG: 9302130037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
COCAINE STRATEGY REJECTED
Former Martinsville-Henry County Citizen of the Year Linda Powell stuck with her story Friday that she bought, sold and snorted cocaine only to infiltrate a drug ring.Her account didn't convince a Franklin County jury in late December, and it didn't convince Circuit Judge B.A. Davis III Friday.
Davis upheld the 21-year prison sentence the jury set for Powell. The jury had recommended giving her three years in prison for each of seven convictions for accommodating cocaine sales.
The term "accommodation" means Powell bought drugs for another person, but did not profit from drug sales.
Offered a chance to make a statement before her sentencing, Powell, a former bank vice president, took the stand.
"I would like to say that I do feel that I went too far," she said. "If I had it to do over, I certainly wouldn't do it again.
"I've lost my job, I've lost my home, I've lost almost everything in the world that's important to me except my son."
Powell asked to serve no jail time, so she could be around to see her son grow up.
Jeff, a fifth-grade pupil in Martinsville, sat and watched his mother's sentencing, just as he had watched her get convicted.
Powell left the courtroom Friday with her son and her estranged husband, Abe. Davis allowed her to remain free on the $13,000 real estate bond her husband posted last May when she was rounded up in a Martinsville-Henry County drug sweep.
Powell and her attorney, R.R. "Jim" Young Jr., have until March 16 to decide whether to appeal her convictions. Young indicated Friday an appeal was possible.
Before the sentencing, Young asked Davis to set aside the verdict. The jury had been blinded by the "horror that most citizens" feel toward drug use, Young said.
"The main thing in a drug case is to talk about drugs whether or not it's relevant," Young said. "If you're charged with killing a dog, talk about drugs - you'll get a conviction."
Franklin County prosecutor Cliff Hapgood, who took over the case because Martinsville prosecutor Randolph Smith had been Powell's neighbor, successfully diverted the jury's attention from what really happened, Young said.
In her late December trial, Powell had said she had to snort cocaine in order to work her way up the drug-dealer chain to "the big boys."
Since Powell admitted at the beginning of the trial that she bought, sold and snorted cocaine, Young said Hapgood should have been prevented from putting on evidence to prove that she did it.
During the trial, Hapgood relied on testimony by former disc jockey Sheila "Duck" Stevens that Powell could deliver $200 or more of cocaine in just a couple hours.
"If she was that much against drugs, and she wanted to get Mr. Big, then why was she fooling with Sheila Stevens, who was nothing but a two-bit user?" Hapgood asked Friday.
Young called the informants and admitted drug dealers and users who testified against Powell "the scum-bums of the world."
Davis gave Powell 30 days to decide whether to appeal the verdict. If she decides not to appeal, on March 16 she will be taken to a women's prison to serve her 21-year sentence.
With a previously clean record, Powell would be eligible for parole in about 3 1/2 years.