Jury recommends maximum sentence for drug trafficker

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November 18, 2009

By KENNETH HART - The Independent The Daily Independent Wed Nov 18, 2009, 11:45 PM EST

CATLETTSBURG — A Boyd Circuit Court jury on Tuesday recommended the maximum sentence for a man it convicted on a drug-trafficking charge.

Jurors recommended James T. Sullivan be sentenced to 10 years in prison for first-degree trafficking.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Sullivan will have to serve 20 percent, or two years, of his sentence before he is eligible for parole consideration. He can also shave time off his sentence by earning statutory “good time” while he is incarcerated.

“I think is a pretty clear indication that Boyd County citizens and Boyd County jurors are going to be tough on drug traffickers,” Boyd Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice said. “This sentence sends a very strong message.”

First-degree drug trafficking is a Class C felony that carries a sentence of five to 10 years.

Sullivan, 46, of Westwood, was one of three arrested in a Dec. 14, 2008, drug raid at a residence in the 400 block of 31st Street in Ashland. Boyd County sheriff’s deputies, with assistance from Ashland Police Department officers, seized more than 500 oxycodone tablets, with an approximate street value of $11,610.

The pills came from pain clinics in Florida. In addition to the drugs, officers found pill bottles with Florida addresses on them.

Sullivan had 100 30-milligram oxycodone tablets, packaged in a cellophane wrapper, in his right boot at the time of his arrest. According to testimony at his trial, Sullivan had just purchased the pills from another of the suspects, Fredrick Shannon Justice, 35, for $1,800.

Justice earlier pleaded guilty to first-degree trafficking and was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison.

According to David Justice, there was no evidence introduced at trial that Sullivan had actually sold any of the pills. However, an exchange of money isn’t necessary to prove a trafficking charge, he said.

The quantity of pills Sullivan was caught with was persuasive evidence in and of itself that he intended to sell them and not keep them for his personal use, he said.

Tuesday’s verdict and sentence concluded a two-day trial. It was the first jury trial for Judge George W. Davis III since he was appointed to the circuit bench in July to replace Marc I. Rosen, who took senior judge status.

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