JUDGE CUTS DRUG DEALER'S LIFE SENTENCE TO 33 1/2 YEARS

A former Sand Mountain drug kingpin got a new prison sentence of 33
1/2 years instead of life last week.

Roy "Teeny Man" West had been sentenced to life in prison after his
conviction five years ago of running an illegal drug operation that
sold drugs from North Carolina to New Mexico.

But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this year sent West's case
back to U.S. District Judge William M. Acker Jr. for
resentencing.

The appeals court threw out West's continuing criminal enterprise
conviction, but asked Acker to reinstate West's conspiracy conviction.
At the time of West's 1995 sentencing, Acker had set the conspiracy
conviction aside.

West got the life sentence be cause the jury considered him the
principal administrator of the criminal enterprise.

But the two changes in his conviction brought about by the appeals
court opened West to a new sentence of 360 months to life in prison
based on sentencing guidelines.

Acker, who called West an "outlaw," ordered the 300-pound man last
week to serve 400 months, or 33 1/2, years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob McGregor said the government could have
retried the 57-year-old West, but chose not to.

"In our opinion, the 33 1/2 years is a life sentence," McGregor said,
adding that West is in poor health.

West, a federal fugitive for nine years before his arrest in February
1995, has served 5 1/2 years and still has about 25 calendar years,
according to McGregor, who was joined in court by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Joyce Vance at the sentencing. West is serving his time at a
federal prison in Texas.

Many of West's family and friends packed Acker's courtroom as his
appeal attorney, Victoria Little of Georgia, asked for leniency.

Trial testimony showed West conspired to distribute marijuana, cocaine
and methamphetamine across the South through an organization that grew
hundreds of pounds of marijuana and cooked thousands of pounds of
methamphetamine between 1986 and 1995.

The testimony came from co conspirators, many of whom had cut deals
with the government to avoid prosecution.