Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993 TAG: 9306180239
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Robert J. Ferrell, 45, asked Roanoke Circuit Judge Roy Willett for mercy, saying his business couldn't survive without him, and his family couldn't possibly afford to pay a $150,000 fine a jury set in April.
Ferrell told Willett that he had been on his own since the age of 3, and spoke of his son and of his garage - RJ's Body Shop and Used Cars on 11th Street Northwest.
"If you come through my lot and got your head down and no smile, I'll cheer you up," Ferrell said.
More than a dozen friends, family members and associates of Ferrell's attended the sentencing.
Attorney Joe Bounds filed post-trial motions to get the sentence reduced. Jonathan Apgar, who also represented Ferrell, said it would be "simply a catastrophe" if Ferrell was ordered to pay the full fine.
But Regional Drug Prosecutor Alice Ekirch told the judge that Ferrell "was not a low-level street dealer" and urged Willett to impose the full sentence.
Ferrell was convicted of selling $350 worth of cocaine to a state police informant last July. He had faced four similar charges, but a plea agreement in May substantially reduced the amount of time he could have been ordered to serve.
In the agreement, one 20-year sentence was suspended and another was imposed to run concurrently with the jury's sentence. Two other charges were dropped.
The state also agreed not to seize Ferrell's business or home and not to prosecute on another, marijuana-related, charge, Ekirch said.
"The plea agreement is quite beneficial," Willett said.
Willett suspended the entire fine, but told Ferrell "The court has given you all the relief I feel I can give you" in imposing the full 20-year sentence.
He said Ferrell's drug dealing "eats at the very fiber of the community."
by CNB