HE FLED TO COLOMBIA

Life term is likely for Cruz

Javier Cruz will not be in court Friday for his sentencing. 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 have given a suspended sentence, although he had indicated he
would give Cruz some prison time. 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: Mike Gogulski