Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

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August 31, 2012

Fla. man sentenced to 13 years

Kenneth Hart The Independent

ASHLAND — A Florida man whom authorities say was a major supplier to local pill traffickers will spend the next 13 years in a federal prison.

Richard Allen “Rick” Young last week was sentenced to 156 months by U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.

Young pleaded guilty to the charge in May. Seven of his co-defendants also have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Under federal sentencing rules, Young will have to serve 85 percent of his term. Bunning recommended he be incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Coleman, Fla., but his placement will be up to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Bunning also recommended Young participate in the BOP’s drug treatment program, and sentenced him to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Young waived his right to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Young was responsible for funneling roughly 45,000 oxycodone pills into Kentucky from Florida between November 2008 and February of this year, according to court records. Young would obtain the pills from one of his co-defendants, Eldridge “Mookie” Primus, then distribute them to contacts in Kentucky, or people traveling back to Kentucky from Florida, his plea agreement states.

Young supplied thousands of a pills a month to a Boyd County-based pill-trafficking operation headed by Anthony “Tony” McKenzie up until the time McKenzie was arrested, according to the agreement. On Sept. 17, 2010, McKenzie and one of his associates, Charles Meadows, returned from a meeting with Young in Georgia. Young supplied them with about 4,000 pills at a price of $18 to $20 per pill. A later search of McKenzie’s residence resulted in the seizure of $30,519, which represented the proceeds from the sale of the pills.

McKenzie, his brother, Billy, and six other defendants and six other defendants all pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced to prison terms.

Young also supplied thousands of oxycodone pills to two of his co-defendants, Charlie Nicole Angell of Ashland and Hammond J. Coleman of Hurricane, W.Va., according to the plea agreement.

Angell and Coleman have both entered guilty pleas in the case, as have defendants Rico Devaughn Tillman, Darnell DeShawn Butler and Leonard E. Vaughn, all of Ashland, and Christina Mayhone of Huntington. Each faces up to 20 years in prison. Primus is the only defendant in the case who hasn’t pleaded guilty.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or

(606) 326-2654.

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