Charles E. Peeler, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announces that on March 1, 2018, Senior United States District Court Judge W. Louis Sands sentenced Keith Gaines, age 43, of Bainbridge, GA, to 176 months imprisonment for the offense of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Gaines plead guilty to the offense on Dec. 18, 2107.
The evidence supporting the plea showed that on April 22, 2016, agents of the Bainbridge Department of Public Safety executed a search warrant at in Decatur County, Georgia. During the search, agents located a cookie tin which contained crack cocaine and powder cocaine weighing 38.51 grams. An arrest warrant was issued for Keith Gaines.
On May 3, 2016, agents received a call about a man wearing a ghillie suit walking in the area of the City of Bainbridge purchasing department warehouse. Concerned that the man might be planning to burglarize the warehouse, agents attempted to make contact with him. As officers began to walk toward the man, he bent down and placed something on the ground before ducking behind a nearby rail car and taking flight on foot. Agents located this person, identified as Keith Gaines, laying on the ground on his stomach in a densely wooded area. The officers took Mr. Gaines’ wallet to verify his identity and located a small quantity of cocaine inside it.
The next day, Mr. Gaines made a phone call from the Decatur County Jail to an unknown male on the jail’s recorded phone line. In this call, Mr. Gaines informed the male that he had buried something near the big tree where he been taken into custody. Agents travelled back to the area and located two sandwich bags which had been buried. The bags contained powder and crack cocaine.
Agents discovered that during the booking process, Mr. Gaines had given the number to which the call had been placed as the number of a relative. They interviewed the relative, who stated that Mr. Gaines had called him and asked him to go retrieve the drugs but that he had not attempted to do so. The substances seized from the residence at the time of the search warrant and located in the wooded area near where Gaines was arrested were submitted for chemical analysis and determined to be 64.13 grams of cocaine.
“Mr. Gaines was designated a career offender based on at least five prior cocaine convictions" said United States Attorney Peeler. “He has made a career of almost 25 years of peddling this poison on the streets of our communities. We hope that this sentence will not only end that career for Mr. Gaines but deter others who might consider following the same path."
This case was investigated by the Bainbridge Department of Public Safety. Assistant United States Attorney Leah E. McEwen prosecuted the case for the United States.
Questions concerning this case should be directed to Pamela Lightsey, Public Information Officer, United States Attorney’s Office, at (478) 621-2603.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
