News (Media Awareness Project) - CN NS: Years Of Good Behaviour Can't Save Crack Dealer From |
| Title: | CN NS: Years Of Good Behaviour Can't Save Crack Dealer From |
| Published On: | 2001-12-13 |
| Source: | Daily News, The (CN NS) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-08-31 10:25:06 |
YEARS OF GOOD BEHAVIOUR CAN'T SAVE CRACK DEALER FROM PRISON
He's kept out of trouble for the two years he has been free on bail, but it
wasn't enough to keep a crack dealer from getting jail time.
Justice Walter Goodfellow sentenced Thomas Gordon Gray to two years and
three months yesterday for running "a retail outlet" from his Gerrish
Street home in Halifax.
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge called cocaine trafficking an "evil
trade" that has far-reaching consequences.
"The trafficker is a retailer of poison," he declared. Cocaine destroys
lives and breeds crime," the judge said.
Gray is the last of 28 people charged in a fall 1999 police sweep, known as
Operation Crack-Pot, to be dealt with by the courts.
Two rocks
Undercover officers bought two rocks -- or about .4 grams -- of coke from
him in September 1999 in two separate transactions worth about $40. In both
cases, Gray handed over the amount of crack requested and produced a
plastic bag with at least 10 more pieces of tinfoil inside that appeared to
contain cocaine.
Gray, 62, pleaded guilty in May to two trafficking charges.
Defence lawyer Robert McCleave had argued his client's drug trade "had more
to do with need than greed."
Gray couldn't pay his bills after a broken leg left him unable to work,
McCleave said, so he resorted to trafficking until he got caught up.
He peddled the drug on and off for about a year, but had stopped by the
time he was arrested.
Gray has since been working several jobs at once to make ends meet,
McCleave said, often spending more than 30 hours a week taking care of a
local church's grounds.
He also takes care of an elderly boarder.
The judge said he was influenced by glowing letters from the church and
some of Gray's employers, but the conditional sentence sought by the
defence wouldn't have been enough of a deterrent.
Goodfellow noted that Gray's last criminal conviction was in 1985, and said
his prospects of rehabilitation were good.
He dismissed a proceeds-of-crime charge in return for Gray coughing up half
of the $640 that police seized from his home.
He's kept out of trouble for the two years he has been free on bail, but it
wasn't enough to keep a crack dealer from getting jail time.
Justice Walter Goodfellow sentenced Thomas Gordon Gray to two years and
three months yesterday for running "a retail outlet" from his Gerrish
Street home in Halifax.
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge called cocaine trafficking an "evil
trade" that has far-reaching consequences.
"The trafficker is a retailer of poison," he declared. Cocaine destroys
lives and breeds crime," the judge said.
Gray is the last of 28 people charged in a fall 1999 police sweep, known as
Operation Crack-Pot, to be dealt with by the courts.
Two rocks
Undercover officers bought two rocks -- or about .4 grams -- of coke from
him in September 1999 in two separate transactions worth about $40. In both
cases, Gray handed over the amount of crack requested and produced a
plastic bag with at least 10 more pieces of tinfoil inside that appeared to
contain cocaine.
Gray, 62, pleaded guilty in May to two trafficking charges.
Defence lawyer Robert McCleave had argued his client's drug trade "had more
to do with need than greed."
Gray couldn't pay his bills after a broken leg left him unable to work,
McCleave said, so he resorted to trafficking until he got caught up.
He peddled the drug on and off for about a year, but had stopped by the
time he was arrested.
Gray has since been working several jobs at once to make ends meet,
McCleave said, often spending more than 30 hours a week taking care of a
local church's grounds.
He also takes care of an elderly boarder.
The judge said he was influenced by glowing letters from the church and
some of Gray's employers, but the conditional sentence sought by the
defence wouldn't have been enough of a deterrent.
Goodfellow noted that Gray's last criminal conviction was in 1985, and said
his prospects of rehabilitation were good.
He dismissed a proceeds-of-crime charge in return for Gray coughing up half
of the $640 that police seized from his home.
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