Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507240039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Pierre Banks received the sentence in Roanoke Circuit Court - along with an additional five years because he was arrested while on probation for a previous cocaine charge.
Banks, 23, was the first person in Roanoke to be sentenced in a bifurcated trial, which allows juries to learn more about a defendant's criminal background before they decide punishment in a second, sentencing phase.
The General Assembly passed a law last year creating bifurcated trials. Under the old law, juries did not learn of a defendant's criminal record if he or she did not testify.
The jury sentenced Banks to the maximum after learning that he was in court for his third drug charge, having been convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute in 1989 and 1991.
Defense attorney Melvin Hill had asked Judge Clifford Weckstein to reduce the 10-year sentence, which, he said, was higher than Virginia's sentencing guidelines recommended.
Weckstein declined to alter the sentence, believed to be the toughest in the city for a charge of simple possession.
Earlier testimony showed that Banks was arrested last November in Northwest Roanoke on an outstanding traffic warrant. When he was taken to the city jail, police noticed white powder on his face and then extracted a small, partially disintegrated rock of crack from his mouth.
At a jury trial in May, Banks denied having the drug in his possession, and he said Friday that he plans to appeal.
Regional Drug Prosecutor Dennis Nagel said Banks was ``a con man who was caught in his lie and needs to be punished.''
by CNB