LUBBOCK, Texas - A woman who was found to have more than 160 pounds of marijuana in her rental car on Christmas Day 2013, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 24 months in federal prison, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Christini Lynn Brashear, 45, of Rocklin, California, pleaded guilty in November 2014 to an indictment charging one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Today, Judge Cummings ordered that she surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on May 8, 2015.
According to documents filed in the case, on Dec. 25, 2013, the Abilene Police Department received multiple calls regarding a small sport utility vehicle that was on Interstate 20 traveling east at approximately five miles per hour. Officers located the vehicle and found it parked on the shoulder of the highway with Brashear asleep at the wheel. Officers called for emergency medical assistance for Brashear and advised her she was being taken to the hospital. She consented to an officer driving her car to the hospital to avoid having it towed, and she admitted using and possessing methamphetamine, which she turned over to the officers.
The officer driving Brashear’s vehicle noticed a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle and later confirmed that the smell was coming from several duffle bags in the back that contained approximately 166 pounds of marijuana, individually bagged in one-pound clear plastic bags. The vehicle also contained multiple cell phones, two road atlases, and a note pad with hand-written directions to Houston, Texas. Rental papers for the vehicle show that it was rented to Brashear in Sacramento, California, on Dec. 22, 2013, and it was due back to that location on Dec. 26, 2013.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Abilene Police Department investigated. Deputy Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise Williams prosecuted.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
