Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511060034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Bobbie Todd, 53, had been found guilty of seven charges earlier this year: five counts of distributing cocaine and two counts of conspiracy to distribute.
Todd was one of 27 people charged last year in "Operation Crackdown," a drug investigation by the Montgomery County Drug Task Force.
On Wednesday, Judge Ray Grubbs overruled a motion by defense attorney Fred Kellerman to set aside the verdict because the informant police used in the case had shaky credibility.
Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth's attorney, objected to Kellerman's motion, saying the court didn't find that the informant, whose conversations with Todd were monitored, to be "inherently unbelievable."
Schwab, in asking Grubbs to apply the midpoint of state sentencing guidelines, called attention to Todd's repeated drug violations.
"Since 1989, the defendant has been convicted on three separate occasions of distribution of cocaine," Schwab said. "And he's once again charged."
While Todd was not the main supplier, "he was the arms" of that person, Schwab told the judge.
Todd has been through rehabilitation programs, Schwab said, but "he has consistently had positive drug screens.
"Mr. Todd is a distributor of drugs as well as a user of drugs," Schwab said. "He has ... consistently gone back to what got him in trouble to begin with."
Kellerman urged the judge not to impose a life sentence, pointing to Todd's age and other sentences he is serving.
"The best that the commonwealth has proved is that Bobbie Todd is an addict," Kellerman said, or at worst, a "little fish in a big pond."
Kellerman pointed to Todd's hard life: he broke both legs when a tree fell on him and became addicted to pain medication while hospitalized.
Grubbs gave Todd five years in prison on each of the seven charges, for a total of 35 years. But after serving 22 years, Todd will be released placed on probation. Todd also is serving 14 months in "come-back" time for federal convictions.
Grubbs also reimposed a five-year suspended sentence for convictions Todd had in Montgomery County in 1989 for charges of distributing cocaine, but that sentence will run concurrently with the 22-year sentence.
Steven Want, the defense attorney representing Todd in the revocation hearing, said Todd had no felony charges up until 1983, then became an addict after his hospitalization for his legs and several hernia operations. A substance abuse counselor testified that Todd had previously adjusted well to treatment and after-care programs.
Scott Matous, an outpatient counselor with New River Valley Community Services Board, testified Todd had asked him to visit him in the county jail. Matous had visited about eight times since August and said he found Todd to be "very honest and very blunt" about his problems.
"I find that refreshing," Matous said.
by CNB