ARIZONA METH PROJECT LAUNCHES NEW PREVENTION CAMPAIGN

WAILUKU - A Makawao woman who told police she had been selling
methamphetamine was sentenced Tuesday to a 20-year prison term.
Delilah Yap, 49, was ordered to serve at least five years of the term
before being eligible for parole.

The mandatory minimum term applied because she was convicted of
methamphetamine trafficking.

She had pleaded no contest to the charge as well as second-degree
promotion of a dangerous drug and possessing drug paraphernalia in
connection with a Dec. 14, 2005, raid of a home on Ulana Street in Makawao.

Police obtained a search warrant for the residence after a lengthy
investigation, said Deputy Prosecutor Mark Simonds.

He said Yap admitted that 28 grams of crystal methamphetamine and
drug paraphernalia found in a bedroom were hers.

"She admitted she was selling the drug," Simonds said.

He said Yap told police she planned to repackage the methamphetamine
into smaller quantities to sell for $50 and $100. She told police she
had been selling methamphetamine for about a year.

While a report prepared for her sentencing was "pretty bleak," it
didn't take into account what friends and family members said about
Yap in letters to the court, said Deputy Public Defender Greg Ball.

"She has been generous and kindhearted to homeless people, all kinds
of people, taking them into her home for weeks at a time," Ball said.
"That's part of her inner character."

He said he recently learned about Yap's talent for writing when he
read her poetry displayed on a wall at the Maui Community
Correctional Center, where she has been incarcerated. Yap wants drug
treatment, Ball said.

But Simonds said it was more than Yap's addiction to drugs that got
her into trouble.

"What the state cannot sympathize with is her decision to engage in
the business of selling drugs," he said.

He said Yap's adult son was in the house and was found with drugs and
paraphernalia when police conducted the search.

Along with the methamphetamine, police recovered $60,000 cash, for
which Yap's co-defendant took responsibility, Simonds said.

"Sixty thousand dollars cash is a lot more money than most families
make on Maui in a year," Simonds said. "This was a fairly significant
operation that was going on out of this house."

He said Yap should have learned after being placed on probation for
drug offenses in 1991.

"Not only is she harming herself when she's involving herself in a
life of drugs, but she's engaging in the business decision to sell
drugs in the community," Simonds said. "She's inflicting that pain on
a whole lot of other people."

Second Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza imposed the sentence based on a
plea agreement between the prosecution and defense.

"You've indicated you want to change your life, and ultimately you're
the person in control of that," Cardoza told Yap. "Drug treatment
alone without dealing with other issues is not going to ultimately
get you to where you want to be."

Joseph Fuller Jr., 73, who was also arrested in the police raid, is
awaiting sentencing after pleading no contest to a reduced charge of
second-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, possessing drug
paraphernalia and second-degree promotion of a detrimental drug. The
charges were for cocaine, marijuana, plastic packets and digital
scales found at the home.