GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - On April 16, 2018, April Lee West, 35, of Morristown, Tennessee, was sentenced by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, U.S. District Judge, to serve 108 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance. West was sentenced to serve an additional 24 months in prison as a result of violation of conditions associated with her supervised release from a previous sentence. These sentences will run consecutively for a total of 132 months.
West pleaded guilty to a one-count federal indictment in December 2017. According to the plea agreement on file with U.S. District Court, in August 2016, while under surveillance by law enforcement, West drove from Morristown to Knoxville to purchase 19.2 grams of crack cocaine. Upon returning to Morristown, a law enforcement officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop of West. She did not stop and a slow speed pursuit ensured. West was eventually stopped with the assistance of another officer. Before exiting the vehicle, she hid the recently purchased crack cocaine, as well as 1.2 grams of methamphetamine and various other unlawfully obtained substances including 25 pills of morphine, six pills of hydrocodone, 13 pills of Opana, two pills of oxymorphone and 20 miscellaneous depressants on her person. A search of her vehicle, after a drug canine made a positive hit on the vehicle, produced no controlled substances. However, West ultimately admitted to the officers that she had purchased the crack cocaine and was in possession of it as well as the other substances referenced above.
The Morristown Police Department Narcotics and Vice Unit investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney TJ Harker represented the United States in court proceedings.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
