MEDICAL MARIJUANA ROBBERIES BRING STIFF SENTENCES

Convictions of Six Men in Two Recent Lane County Cases Carry a
Collective Total of 62 Years in Prison

Potential criminals, take note: Marijuana growers may seem like soft
targets, but hard time awaits those who rob them in Lane County.

This month alone, Lane County Circuit Court judges have sentenced six
men to a collective 62 years in prison for armed robberies of area
medical marijuana growers.

Local law enforcement officials say the spate of convictions doesn't
constitute a pattern, noting that all those convictions arose from
just two home invasion robberies this fall.

But prosecutors and even some judges say the prison terms send a
message that criminals cannot rob marijuana growers with impunity.

Circuit Judge Mary Ann Bearden made that clear this month when she
sentenced 45-year-old David Bryan New to 15 years in prison for
robbing the Oakridge home of a state-registered medical marijuana grower.

His Eugene nephew, Wayne Thomas New, 41, and fellow Californian Byron
Leroy Loftis, 50, also were convicted of first-degree robbery and
second-degree kidnapping in the October incident. They received
respective sentences of 15 and 17 years.

David New told Bearden he used only a "toy gun" to intimidate three
occupants of the home, who were tied up with their heads covered as
the robbers stole medical marijuana, guns, a safe and luggage. His
attorney alleged that the victims had been growing more pot than state
law allows, and that the incident was a dispute among illicit drug
dealers.

Bearden rejected that line of defense as irrelevant and "blaming the
victims," however. She said the News and Loftis had no right to be in
the home, and that they "terrorized" the people inside it.

"You knew it was a phony gun, but they didn't," the judge told David
New, before apologizing to his victims. "I can only imagine in my
worst nightmares being tied up in my own home and having my face
obscured by people with weapons. I would be terrified that the next
thing that would happen is I would be executed."

One of the victims, a woman, told Bearden she has had trouble sleeping
ever since the robbery.

In the other incident, a Springfield medical marijuana grower told
Circuit Judge Charles Zennache that his children continue to struggle
with the memory of masked men entering their home with a rifle and a
knife in a November robbery attempt.

In that case, Conner Scott Olmstead-Black, 16; Wilbert Billy Butler,
20; and Jarell Dehoe Manlove, 20, initially faced attempted murder
charges. The reduced charges included armed robbery, and each
ultimately was sentenced to between five and six years in prison.

One of the men reportedly tried to fire the rifle at the marijuana
grower, but the weapon malfunctioned. Police said the size of the
victim's marijuana crop was within the state's legal limits.

"I have a good family and a simple home -- we're law-abiding
citizens," the grower told the judge. "Somebody came in and disrupted
it in a violent way for nothing. There was nothing to steal! I only
grow for two patients, and they tried to kill me over that."

The family's dogs scared off the intruders before they could steal any
pot.

Lane County Sheriff Russ Burger called the targeting of medical
marijuana growers an "unintended consequence" of the state's medical
marijuana law.

Lane County District Attorney Alex Gardner said his office doesn't
track such cases separately, but that medical marijuana growers may
appear to be juicy targets because "drug dealer rip-offs" of illicit
growers often go unreported "for obvious reasons."

"People who transact in recreational drugs present an attractive
target for criminals, because the criminals expect to find cash or
dope they can easily convert to cash, and they assume there won't be
any police involvement," he said.