MAN RECEIVES HARSHEST PENALTY IN 6 YEARS FOR DRUG-RELATED CRIME

He Was Found Possessing 22 Grams of Methamphetamine

Roger Dean Poindexter asked for leniency, blaming his drug problems in part
on pain medication.

FINCASTLE - A Botetourt County judge followed a jury's recommendation
Tuesday and sent Roger Dean Poindexter to prison for 10 years for
possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

Judge G.E. Honts III deviated from the state sentencing guidelines because
of the jury's recommendation and Poindexter's "long history of disobeying
the law." He also imposed a jury-suggested $100,000 fine.

That sentence and fine was one of the harshest penalties for a drug-related
crime in the county in the last six years. Poindexter's drug case also was
unusual because he was the first defendant to plead not guilty and try his
luck with a jury since Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom instituted the
policy of setting all drug cases for jury trials. In all other cases, the
defendants either pleaded guilty to the original charge or accepted a plea
agreement and were sentenced by the judge, Branscom said.

Poindexter was charged with driving under the influence of drugs when he
was arrested Sept. 10, 2000, after another driver reported seeing him
driving erratically along U.S. 460. Blood tests found no nonprescribed
medication or alcohol in his system. He later acknowledged having 22 grams
of methamphetamine in a small box stuffed into a glove in the vehicle's
passenger seat. He told officers he was delivering the drugs, with a street
value of roughly $2,000, to someone in Botetourt County.

Poindexter, 44, asked for leniency, blaming his drug problems on pain
medication and surgeries he's had since falling from a third-floor balcony
in 1979. Confined to a wheelchair, he blamed the Veterans Administration
hospital system for putting him on narcotic painkillers and said he had
tried to kill himself.

The VA is paying for his medical bills and he doesn't think he'll get the
level of medical treatment he needs in prison, Poindexter told the judge.

Poindexter is being held in the Roanoke City Jail, awaiting a revocation
hearing on charges there, Branscom said.

Poindexter's attorney, Chris Kowalczuk, admitted his client had a "long and
less than stellar record." But he said Poindexter couldn't pay the fine and
would be appealing the sentence.