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Sebastian Circuit Court convictions Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed separate Sebastian County Circuit Court decisions revoking suspended sentences in drug cases. The appeals court decisions mean Earl Ray Maxwell and Barbara Gowers will serve additional jail time after committing other crimes in violation of the terms of their suspended sentences. Maxwell was given a seven-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver. Prosecutors filed a petition alleging he had committed additional drug offenses. During an April 2007 revocation hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that on at least two occasions from February to April, Maxwell sold methamphetamine to a confidential informant and was arrested for possession of the illegal drug and possessing drug paraphernalia. Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh ordered his seven-year suspended sentence revoked. In a unanimous decision Wednesday, the Court of Appeals upheld Fitzhugh's decision, saying there was sufficient evidence that Maxwell violated the terms of his suspended sentence. In October, Maxwell received sentences totaling 40 years after pleading guilty to delivering methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school. In an unrelated case, the appeals court upheld the lower court's decision to revoke the three-year suspended sentence Barbara Gowers received in 2004 after pleading guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine. In 2006, prosecutors filed a petition to set aside the suspended sentence because Gowers had been arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. During a revocation hearing, a Fort Smith detective testified that he received information from an informant that Gowers and another person were selling Lorcet tablets, which contain highly addictive hydrocodone, a controlled substance. Gowers and the other person were later arrested and found in possession of the pills. Fitzhugh, the judge who presided over the revocation hearing, later ruled that Gowers had violated the conditions of her parole. Gowers appealed, arguing that there wasn't enough evidence to uphold the judge's ruling. The Court of Appeals, however, disagreed, saying prosecutors established that Gowers possessed hydrocodone and intended to sell it. Gowers was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on the drug offenses related to the selling and delivery of the Lorcet. |
