ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996 TAG: 9610080056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
Tommy Byers had his own little pot factory in the bedroom closet of the apartment he shared with his wife and two children. When his wife and kids were away, he sold marijuana out of the apartment, too - as much as 20 pounds at a time.
Yet his wife defended him Monday at a sentencing hearing in Botetourt Circuit Court as a good family man who never hurt her or the kids. He never got rich selling marijuana, Tracy Byers said. All he managed to do, she said, was feed his own addiction.
"If he could grow it and smoke it, instead of taking money away from me and the kids. What am I supposed to do? Leave him because he has a problem?"
Tracy Byers said her husband smoked as much as an ounce of pot a day. She pleaded for Judge George E. Honts III to put her husband in a treatment program instead of jail.
"He is charged with taking what you're calling an addictive drug," Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom told Tracy Byers, "and spreading it to other people."
Noting evidence that Byers has continued to smoke pot since his arrest, Honts sentenced Byers to a total of 13 years, of which Byers will actually serve five. Byers will be on supervised probation for eight years after his release, and Honts also recommended Byers serve his time some place where he could be in a drug treatment program.
Byers pleaded no contest July 16 to one count of conspiracy to distribute more than five pounds of marijuana, three counts of distributing marijuana and one count of manufacturing it.
In February, authorities learned that Byers took a four-day trip to Minnesota to pick up 20 pounds of pot, evidence at Byers' July trial showed.
At that trial, Branscom summarized evidence showing that when Botetourt County deputies raided Byers' Coyner Springs area apartment, all they found were his personal marijuana growing setup and about six ounces of pot. But Botetourt Detective Kenny Parker and State Police Investigator Ben Caldwell were able to piece together what Byers did with the pot by tracking down the pot-selling network he sold to. Byers unloaded the entire 20 pounds in three days.
Realizing he was caught, Byers made a detailed confession to Parker.
In court Monday, Byers' attorney, Greg Phillips, called the confession "a 25-page noose" and "the most incriminating statement anybody ever made."
Yet it showed Byers' cooperation, Phillips said, and led to the indictments of the three pot dealers Byers sold the 20 pounds to - Timmy Meredith, Christopher Giles and Richard Keeling. Meredith had made the trip with Byers to Minnesota to pick up the marijuana.
Giles and Keeling were each sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail for conspiracy to distribute less than five pounds of marijuana.
Branscom said he had to drop a similar charge against Meredith, however, because Byers agreed to testify against him but never showed up. Without Byers, Branscom said, he had no case.
Byers was cited for failure to appear, but after Monday's sentencing, Branscom dropped the charge.
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