Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 13, 1995 TAG: 9506130093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Benjamin E. Willett, owner of Benovie Graphics in the Wasena neighborhood, pleaded no contest Monday to seven drug charges in Roanoke Circuit Court.
A judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to convict Willett, but delayed a final ruling until an Aug. 9 sentencing hearing, according to Dennis Nagel, regional drug prosecutor.
Willett, 32, is expected to maintain at sentencing that he was not in the drug business to make a profit, but instead supplied small amounts as a favor to a small circle of friends.
But a ``friend'' who came to Willett's store four times between March and September 1994 was really a police informant who wore a hidden tape recorder while vice detectives watched with video cameras from outside the store.
After four drug transactions were recorded on tape, a grand jury indicted Willett this year on charges of distributing small amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana.
Willett had been scheduled for a three-day jury trial starting today, and would have faced five life terms in prison. In a written plea of no contest, defense attorney William Maxwell reserved the right to argue that the offenses were an accommodation - meaning that they were not committed with the intent to profit.
If Judge Robert P. Doherty accepts the accommodation argument, Willett's potential punishment would be reduced to a maximum of 61 years, Nagel said.
Police learned of the drug deals at Willett's store, which is in a cluster of businesses just south of the Wasena Bridge in Southwest Roanoke, after the friend was arrested on an unrelated narcotics charge, Nagel said.
The friend then agreed to inform on Willett and other suspected drug dealers in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence. A second person charged in the Benovie Graphics case, employee William E. McCray, 34, faces trial this week on two charges of distributing methamphetamine.
Authorities have said it is unusual for drugs to be sold from a commercial business, and that such activity is harder to detect than street sales because some of the common signs - frequent comings and goings of customers, the use of pagers, and large amounts of cash - are easily intermingled with legitimate business practices.
In March, residents of Wasena complained to City Council about drug dealers and crack houses that have created disturbances in what is considered a peaceful, middle-class neighborhood. Authorities have said they do not suspect a link between those problems and the drugs sold at Willett's store.
Willett remained free on bond after Monday's hearing. Maxwell said his client continues to operate his business, which provides silk-screening on T-shirts, hats, jackets and signs.
by CNB