ASHLAND —
Two days after a judge rejected his attempt to keep certain evidence from being used against him at trial, a defendant in an alleged Florida-to-Kentucky pill-trafficking operation decided to plead guilty.
On Wednesday, attorney Steve Owens of Pikeville, who represents Rico Devaughn Tillman of Ashland, filed a motion in U.S. District Court for his client to be rearraigned for the purpose of changing his plea.
Judge David L. Bunning scheduled the hearing for 11 a.m. Monday. Tillman’s trial had been set to begin Aug. 13.
Tillman’s decision to change his plea came after a hearing on Monday on a motion by Owens to suppress evidence that was seized from Tillman by a Boyd County sheriff’s deputy following a traffic stop. Following the hearing, Bunning denied Owens’ motion to suppress.
Owens argued the deputy, Jesse Delaney, didn’t have the right to search his client and that the search violated Tillman’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron L. Walker Jr. countered that the search was perfectly legal because Delaney had “reasonable and articulable suspicion” criminal activity was taking place and/or his safety was at risk when he conducted what is known as a “Terry frisk” of the defendant.
According to court records, Delaney stopped the vehicle Tillman was driving — a maroon Honda Accord owned by Charlie Nicole Angell of Ashland, another of the defendants in the case — on Feb. 27 because Tillman wasn’t wearing a seat belt. A pat-down search of Tillman turned up a bag of marijuana, OyxContin and Xanax, a set of brass knuckles and $2,870 in cash.
The sheriff’s department then obtained a search warrant for the vehicle. That search turned up a tan purse containing six plastic bags of cocaine, a .45-caliber handgun and $5,400 cash.
Tillman was one of two defendants in the case who hadn’t pleaded guilty, the other being Eldridge Carnell “Mookie” Primus, whose address isn’t shown in court records. The other six — Angell, Richard Allen “Rick” Young of Fort Myers, Fla., Darnell DeShawn Butler of Ashland, Hammond J. Coleman of Hurricane, Leonard E. Vaughn of Ashland and Christina Mayhone of Huntington — have entered guilty pleas and are awaiting sentencing.
The defendants are accused of conspiring and trafficking in oxycodone between November 2008 and February of this year. Each faces up to 20 years in prison.
Authorities believe Young was a major pill supplier to local drug traffickers, including his seven co-defendants, and he had ties to a Boyd County pill operation headed by Anthony “Tony” McKenzie and his brother, Billy. Both McKenzies pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced to prison. Six other defendants in that trafficking case also pleaded guilty.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or
(606) 326-2654.
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