MARIJUANA THIEF GETS 5 YEARS IN PRISON

GREENSBORO -- One of four men charged with stealing marijuana buried
by sheriff's deputies in the Chatham County landfill was sentenced
Friday in U.S. Middle District Court to five years and one month in
prison.

David Wayne Stout of Kernersville, who was convicted in August of
conspiracy to possess more than 110 pounds of marijuana with intent to
distribute it, apologized to the court, the FBI, his family and
community before he was sentenced.

Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. said he had received letters from Stout's
friends and family asking for probation, but he explained to them he
that probation was not an option.

"People think a judge can just give probation and community service,
but we can't," he said. "We have guidelines to follow."

The minimum sentence Stout could have received was 57 months in
prison, based on the federal sentencing guidelines, Tilley said.

Stout's attorney, Amos Tyndell, asked the judge to give Stout the
minimum sentence, saying that Stout, 38, had in his youth spent time
in prison but that he had made a remarkable recovery.

He built a successful business pressure washing large commercial
buildings and industrial sites, and he has supported his girlfriend
and her children, Tyndell said.

Stout thanked the judge for letting him attend his father's funeral
while he was being held awaiting his sentencing hearing and apologized
again. "I lost my business, and I set a bad example for my children,"
Stout told the judge. "I wish there was some way I could repay them,
but I can't."

The judge said he couldn't understand why Stout, after building a
successful life, business and family, would risk it all for a chance
to make money selling marijuana.

"On the plus side, you do have people who care a great deal about
you," Tilley told Stout as he pointed to the friends and family who
attended the sentencing hearing.

Once Stout serves his sentence, he will be on supervised probation for
five years and must perform 300 hours of community service. Tilley
also told Stout to obtain drug and alcohol testing and treatment if it
is recommended.

Stout received the longest sentence of any of the four men who were
charged in a scheme to dig up marijuana that had been buried in the
landfill by the Chatham County Sheriff's Office. Jodie Brafford, the
backhoe operator who helped bury the marijuana for the Sheriff's
Office and then gave Stout a map of where it was buried, had his
sentence reduced to weekends in jail because he cooperated with
investigators and testified against Stout.

Investigators still have not charged or indicted anyone for stealing
most of about 5,000 pounds of marijuana from an Army truck parked
behind the Chatham County Sheriff's Office, where it was being stored
after it was seized in a drug raid in Siler City.

When Randy Keck of the Chatham County Sheriff's Office discovered that
about 4,000 pounds of marijuana was missing from the truck, he buried
the rest of it in the landfill with the help of Brafford, who later
testified he dug up a bale of the marijuana within minutes after Keck
left the landfill.

Brafford then told Stout about the marijuana, and Stout brought in
four friends: Gary Leslie Causey; Causey's father, who has since died;
James Benjamin Harris; and a fourth man, who has not been charged.

Together, they went to the landfill in the middle of the night in
October 2000 and dug up about 200 pounds. Their marijuana enterprise
fell apart when Harris was arrested in an undercover sting operation.
Causey and Harris also testified against Stout in Stout's trial. They
pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in
excess of 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of marijuana and received reduced
sentences in exchange for their cooperation.

Harris was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by three years
of supervised release. Causey was sentenced to 17 months in prison,
followed by supervised release of three years.

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