ROANOKE MAN CONVICTED OF SELLING DRUGS NEAR SCHOOL

Jury Gives Crack Dealer 20 Years

David Lee Thomas, 23, sold about half a gram of crack worth $50 to a police
informant last summer.

A Roanoke jury upheld the city's reputation for being tough on crack dealers
Friday, recommending 20 years in prison for a man it convicted of dealing
drugs near an elementary school.

Testimony in Roanoke Circuit Court showed that David Lee Thomas, 23, sold
about half a gram of crack worth $50 to a police informant last summer in
the Lincoln Terrace housing project.

The jury sentenced Thomas to 15 years for the distribution charge and
another five years for conducting the deal within 1,000 feet of Lincoln
Terrace Elementary School, Regional Drug Prosecutor Tom Bowers said.

Bowers called the verdict the latest indication that Roanokers are fed up
with drug dealers and the havoc they cause in the community.

When police began an undercover investigation last year, "the Lincoln
Terrace housing project was out of control," he told the jury. "In essence,
it was an open-air drug market."

Authorities credited a woman who once lived in the project with coming
forward and volunteering to work as an informant. Because she was well-known
and could easily infiltrate the drug-dealing community, the woman was able
to make 125 purchases that led to the arrests of 54 people.

"She put her life on the line many times for this community," Bowers said.

Thomas, a longtime Lincoln Terrace resident, denied selling the drugs,
saying he spent the day visiting family members and playing basketball.

"Had he known on June 18 that he would be accused of selling crack cocaine,
maybe he would have gone someplace else," defense attorney Rena Berry told
the jury.

Because Roanoke juries have traditionally imposed tough punishments for
people convicted of dealing crack, most defendants opt to plead guilty in
hope of receiving a lighter sentence from a judge.