Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995 TAG: 9511080079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A .44-caliber revolver and 132 grams of crack cocaine - equal to a little more than half a cup - got Jerome "Doobie" Jones 10 years in federal prison Tuesday.
The 19-year-old Roanoke crack dealer told the judge he wanted to work with elementary-school children when he gets out and warn them that the business he chose "is not really worth it."
"I see a lot of downfalls in it," he testified at his sentencing in federal court in Roanoke. "I see me not being able to see my son while he grows up. I see me not being able to help my mother."
Jones had been arrested for dealing crack twice as a juvenile before the January arrest that sent him to federal court. But he received only community service and probation on those charges, so he never saw being arrested as a deterrent, his attorney said.
Prosecutor Jennie Waering agreed.
"If nothing happens to you, what's the punishment?'' she asked.
If he got off too easy after his first two arrests, the third made up for it.
"I don't know what the answer to this problem is. I doubt very seriously anybody does," U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson told Jones as he pronounced sentence. "I don't know whether the court makes it worse. But anybody who comes in here who already has two priors has already started down a path - only you know what it is."
Jones' attorney, Jeff Rudd, had asked Wilson to give the teen-ager four or five years, so he could get out of jail before he was 25. "Anything more than what I've asked for would amount to throwing his life away."
Jones and his brother, Eric "Nike" Jones, were targets of a neighborhood watch last year in Wasena by residents who believed the two had turned a friend's home into a crack house. They were arrested in January; police found guns, money, crack and marijuana in their mother's house.
Nike Jones, who wasn't as involved in drugs as his brother, was killed in a shooting last month. A suspect, Michael Crump, will be in court tomorrow for a preliminary hearing.
Doobie Jones' sentence was five years less than he normally would have gotten under federal sentencing guidelines. Because of the amount involved, he faced a mandatory 10 years on the charge of dealing crack cocaine. And a gun connected with drug trafficking is an automatic five years on top of that.
But Jones got a break because he cooperated with the government, providing information on his dealing and testifying against his brother. Waering filed a motion saying Jones had provided the government substantial assistance. Such a motion is the only way for a defendant in federal court to receive a sentence less than the mandatory guidelines.
Whether taking Jones off the street will make a dent in the crack cocaine market is questionable. Immediately after his arrest, police say, the supply dried up. But the money is good and the demand is there, offering an incentive for someone else to take up the slack.
"I hope every drug dealer taken off the street helps somewhat," said Roanoke vice Detective Tommy Buzzo, the lead investigator on the case. But he said it seems as if every dealer arrested is replaced by two more.
"Jerome Jones was not the only one who has done this," Rudd said. "You take Jerome Jones out of the picture, someone else is ready to step into his shoes."
by CNB