PRISON FOR MAN IN POT CASE

GREENSBORO -- A man convicted in U.S. District Court of digging up
marijuana from the old Chatham County landfill in October 2000 was
sentenced to more than five years in prison Friday afternoon for conspiring
to obtain and sell the drug.

David Wayne Stout, 38, of Kernersville, one of five men who unearthed 258
pounds of dope that sheriff's deputies had buried, fought back tears as he
apologized to the court, his family, friends and community.

"I lost my business and I set a bad example for my children," he said. "I
wish there was some way I could repay them, and I know I can't do that now.
... I made a stupid mistake and it's nobody's fault [except] for my own."

Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. ordered that Stout be placed on supervised
probation for six years following his release from prison, and required
that he complete 300 hours of community service during that time. Stout
also must undergo substance abuse treatment and pay a $100 fine.

Stout's attorney, Amos Tyndall of Chapel Hill, said his client would appeal
the decision.

Stout's sentencing ended a small chapter in an embarrassing Chatham County
marijuana case that has dragged on for more than 25 months. The sheriff's
office, which seized 5,000 pounds of the drug during a sting in February
2000, allowed all of the evidence to be stolen -- four-fifths of it from a
surplus Army truck parked behind the department, and the rest from a
shallow pit at the old county landfill. Most of the marijuana remains
unaccounted for.

Stout was convicted in August of conspiring with James Benjamin Harris, 36,
and Gary Leslie Causey, 39, both of Snow Camp, to possess and distribute
more than 110 pounds of marijuana. Harris and Causey were sentenced to 18
and 17 months of prison respectively, but their sentences were later
reduced by three months each. Stout's sentence is longer because he did not
cooperate with FBI agents working on the case. At Stout's trial, Harris and
Causey testified about digging up the marijuana with Stout and a fourth
man, who has not been indicted, on a cool Friday night in mid-October 2000.
Causey's father, Ted, who had heart trouble and has since died, drove them
from Causey's race shop in Snow Camp to the landfill, then returned to pick
them up.

The men followed a map drawn by Jody Mitchell Brafford of Goldston, a
county backhoe driver who testified that he stole marijuana from the
landfill in daylight three times the week after he helped bury it.
Brafford, who pleaded guilty to distributing about 80 pounds of the drug,
was sentenced to three years of probation and 12 successive weekends in jail.

In December 2000, Harris was caught trying to sell about 50 pounds of the
marijuana to an informant. That same day, he helped trap Causey by
delivering money to him, then Causey turned in his father. Harris and
Causey later teamed up to record a personal conversation with Stout about
the theft.

During the sentencing Friday, Stout's girlfriend, Angie Tindall, wept
behind him in a row full of supporters. Stout, who owned a power-washing
business, had helped support Tindall and her two children for eight years.

"I know you feel awful," Tilley said to Stout. "When you go out, turn
around and look at all those people who came here on your behalf, because
having all those people who care about you is something pretty special."