CEDAR CITY — A woman and a man who pleaded guilty to drug possession after Utah Highway Patrol troopers reportedly found 25 pounds of methamphetamine in their car in early April have been sentenced in connection with the case.
As previously reported, Faily Chavez, 29, and Ramond Allen, 26, were arrested April 2 after a trooper pulled over their car for following another vehicle too closely on Interstate 15 just north of Cedar City.
During the search of the vehicle, officers found approximately 25 pounds of methamphetamine hidden underneath the floor carpet on the front passenger side.
Chavez and Allen each later pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony.
Chavez, who had been driving the vehicle, was sentenced in court Monday to serve 1-15 years in Utah State Prison. Fifth District Judge Matthew L. Bell also ordered Chavez to pay a $5,000 fine, plus a $53 court security fee.
During the sentencing hearing, Bell pointed to Chavez’s criminal history, which included a prior federal drug trafficking conviction for which she was on probation at the time of her arrest.
“It seems like you like playing this game,” Bell told Chavez. “You’re young enough, you could do differently, but your history up to this point has been terrible.
“I don’t know what’s going on with the federal side, but you can set yourself up for some mandatory, really lengthy sentences in federal court,” Bell added. “I’m really surprised, frankly, that this case didn’t go federal. And you’d be looking at a way longer time there, based on the way their guidelines are structured.”
Chavez was ordered to be taken to Utah State Prison to begin serving her sentence immediately. How much time she ultimately spends there will be up to the state Board of Pardons.
Four weeks earlier, on July 15, Bell sentenced Allen to 364 days in jail, with credit given for time already served, and fined him $2,053. After his jail time is completed, Allen is to be placed on probation for 36 months, supervised by Adult Probation and Parole, the judge ordered.
“Ordinarily, the state would recommend prison, but given the defendant’s lack of criminal history, and although he does appear culpable from the investigation, he is the lesser culpable party,” prosecutor Shane Klenk told the court during Allen’s sentencing hearing.
“He still had sufficient knowledge of it, the state would argue,” Klenk added. “Therefore, the state argues the defendant is deserving of a stiff jail sentence and probation, but not quite prison.”
Just before he imposed the sentence, Bell addressed Allen directly, saying, “I’ve been in the criminal justice system for a pretty long time. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of drug trafficking cases, maybe thousands. It’s pretty clear to me you knew at some level what was going on. I don’t know how many details you knew. Part of that is you didn’t want to know. You knew enough that you didn’t want to know the details.”
Added Bell: “I’m not suggesting that you were the primarily culpable person in this, but got yourself in a mess. You knew you shouldn’t be there, and that’s part of the reason you were making up nonsense stories as soon as the cop stopped you.”
When Allen mentioned being able to take care of his three children, Bell admonished him, saying:
Yeah, well, if that’s really important to you, you don’t go cross country with a convicted drug dealer on a trip, or if they say, ‘I’m gonna pay you to ride with me and then fly you home’ right? That’s not taking care of your kids. You can stay home, you can make money, you can do it the right way, and you don’t have to put yourself in this position. You don’t have any criminal history. That’s a good thing for you. But this is a very serious case.
Contacted for comment afterward, Iron County public information officer and deputy county attorney Trajan Evans said Allen’s lack of criminal history was the decisive factor in the state’s recommendation for him to serve jail time rather than prison.
“We believed he was more culpable than he led officers to believe and the amount of methamphetamine was exorbitant,” Evans said. “However, given his age and lack of criminal history, our office feels that justice is served by the sentence the court structured.”
One month later, after Chavez’s sentencing on Monday, Evans noted: “Unlike her co-defendant, Ms. Chavez had a criminal history that warranted a prison sentence. She was on federal probation for drug trafficking when she chose to engage in further criminal activity. Additionally, the evidence gathered showed that she was more culpable than Mr. Allen.”
Evans added that the Iron County Attorney’s Office commends Utah Highway Patrol and its troopers for their investigative efforts in the case.
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