ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
A Blacksburg man will be incarcerated for three months for felony possession of marijuana after he was indicted and pleaded guilty Tuesday in Giles County Circuit Court to the reduced charge.
As part of a plea agreement, William Lawrence Stormont, 23, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. All but three months of that was suspended.
The second man arrested on the same charge in March - 33-year-old Michael Brent Estes of New Castle - pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession in General District Court in June. The reduced charge resulted when the prosecution agreed it could not prove Estes ever had physical control of 10 pounds of marijuana seized during the arrest.
Stormont's conviction resulted from an undercover investigation by the Giles County Sheriff's Office and state police. The investigation culminated with an undercover officer attempting to buy marijuana from Stormont early on March 27.
Undercover officers met Stormont and began negotiating the purchase of 5 pounds of marijuana, according to Lt. Gary Price of the Sheriff's Office.
Price said Stormont brought a 2-pound sample of the marijuana to the meeting and talked about price while conferring with another person via a cellular phone. When it became clear Stormont would not take the undercover officer to the remaining marijuana, the signal was given for the state police's tactical team to make the arrest.
After Stormont was arrested, Price said, officers went to find the person Stormont was talking to and the remaining marijuana. That's when Estes was arrested in his car, which was parked next to Stormont's car. Authorities searched Stormont's car and found a cooler with 10 pounds of marijuana.
Estes was in his own car and never had possession of the marijuana in the cooler, which resulted in his reduced sentence, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Garland Spangler.
Price said Estes was charged because officers witnessed him driving Stormont to the meeting and leaving him.
A total of 12 pounds of marijuana and two vehicles were seized during the arrest. Price would not comment on the types of vehicles seized, but said the estimated value of the marijuana is $20,000.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB