PROSECUTORS PREDICT LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE CRUZ TO BE SENTENCED FRIDAY

Javier Cruz had worked as a government informant since his drug arrest
in 1991. This May, he said he was "in the jungles of Colombia" and not
coming back to face prison.

When drug kingpin Javier Cruz is sentenced Friday in U.S. District
Court in Roanoke, he probably will get slapped with life without parole.

That's because federal prosecutors now say they won't be giving him
any official credit for helping them arrest and convict a long list of
fellow cocaine dealers.

But in practical terms, the sentence probably won't make much
difference one way or the other.

Unless something changes between now and then, Cruz's chair will be
empty in the federal courtroom.

That's because he fled from the reach of the U.S. government this
spring. He's presumed to be in his native Colombia.

So, Judge James Turk will sentence Cruz in his absence.

With prosecutors' support, Cruz could have qualified for a big cut in
his sentence. Without it, it seems certain he will get life without
parole -- the punishment required under federal sentencing guidelines.

During a brief hearing Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott
indicated the government wouldn't give Cruz credit for "substantial
assistance." By fleeing, Mott said, Cruz had broken the terms of his
plea bargain and thus no longer qualifies for credit.

Cruz's attorney, Bill Cleaveland, said that will likely tie Turk's
hands when it comes to deciding Cruz's punishment.

A finding of "substantial assistance" would have given Turk wide
latitude. He could even have given him a suspended sentence, although
Turk had indicated he would give Cruz some prison time and Cruz had
said he expected to get 10 years.

Cruz had worked as a Roanoke Valley-based informant for the government
since his drug arrest in 1991. At the request of federal prosecutors,
Cruz had been allowed out on bond pending his sentencing.

In May, Cruz disappeared from his new home in Florida and called his
parole officer to say he was "in the jungles of Colombia" and not
coming back to face prison.

Cleaveland said he talked to Cruz on the phone in June, and thought he
had persuaded him to return to the United States with the hope he
could patch things up with federal authorities and still get credit
for his undercover work. But Cruz never called back.

"I think he missed an opportunity to be awarded for tremendous
cooperation," Cleaveland said. "It was a foolish, foolish thing."

After Wednesday's hearing, Cleaveland blamed The Roanoke Times for
Cruz's decision to run.

He said newspaper stories that ran in late 1996 "shed an unfair light
on Mr. Cruz" and caused him to lose confidence in the justice system.
"Ultimately, that proved to be too much for him to handle."

A series of stories in The Roanoke Times revealed that Cruz had faced
a murder charge for killing a man in North Carolina in 1987, but that
he had pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was set free after
serving 16 months in the Salem-Roanoke County Jail. A North Carolina
prosecutor said federal drug agents had intervened on Cruz's behalf in
the homicide case. Federal officials have denied that.

The managing editor of The Roanoke Times defended the newspaper's
coverage of the Cruz case.

"Our reporting about Javier Cruz was both responsible and fair and
served to inform citizens of the Roanoke Valley about an important
public safety issue," Rich Martin said. "Any doubts about the criminal
justice system are raised by the way federal authorities handled this
case -- not by our reporting of what happened."

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"