Man gets 15-year sentence for possession

Published 11:00 am Thursday, October 19, 2023

A man facing a felony drug charge pled guilty in Whitfield Superior Court on Tuesday and received a 15-year sentence for the offense — albeit, with a very specific condition attached.

Charles Edward Smith was convicted of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Conasauga Judicial Circuit Judge Cindy Morris said the defendant faced a minimum sentence of 10 years for the offense and a maximum sentence of 30 years for the possession with intent to distribute charge.

Prosecutors, however, agreed to suspend Smith’s sentence if he served one year in the Georgia prison system — and stayed out of Whitfield and Murray counties for the remaining 14 years.

“What that means is that when you leave this circuit, you’ve got to serve whatever time you’re going to serve in confinement, then you do not return for the remainder of your sentence,” Morris said. “Because it is a special condition, if you’re found in Whitfield County or Murray County during that term of that sentence, the state could move to revoke your balance.”

That banishment, she continued, extends to the portions of Interstate 75 and U.S. 41 contained within Whitfield.

Smith also pled guilty to one count of felony shoplifting during the Tuesday proceedings.

For that offense, Morris said Smith faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Prosecutors indicated the defendant took over $500 worth of merchandise from Walmart “with the intent to appropriate that to his own use without paying for it.”

That plea resulted in a concurrent one-year confinement sentence. As part of the sentence, Smith will receive credit for time already served in pretrial detention.