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Woman won’t talk,
sentenced to 15 years
Was found guilty of trafficking drugs
April 26, 2011
By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY - reporter
(cbobby@tribtoday.com) ,
Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com
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WARREN - A 27-year-old Warren woman convicted of importing
cocaine and heroin from Detroit was sentenced to 15 years behind bars
Monday.
Brandi Lynn Watson of Wallace Street S.E. said little to Judge Peter Kontos
but let her attorney Jeff Limbian point out that she had a clean criminal
record except for a minor conviction for passing bad checks.
''She had a choice of doing four years and testifying against (a
co-defendant), but she was convinced she could have been killed if she did
that,'' Limbian said.
Assistant county prosecutor Chris Becker said Watson also will forfeit
$1,250 found inside her home and another $8,000 being held in an escrow
account by her bail bondsman.
Watson and the co-defendant and one-time boyfriend Frederick Johnson, 40,
were both convicted earlier this month after a jury heard the trial over a
two-week period.
''These weren't street-corner dealers,'' Becker said. ''They had $120,000
worth of heroin and $4,500 worth of cocaine. This should send a message to
drug dealers.''
Johnson's sentencing was delayed until June 1.
Becker said Johnson, who previously served prison time for drugs, faces more
than a 30-year maximum sentence.
Becker told jurors during the case how although agents with Trumbull
Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force were already investigating
Johnson and Watson, it was a high-speed chase through Warren on Jan. 15,
2010, that broke the case open.
Becker said TAG agents had two locations under surveillance and were
following a car carrying both defendants, a .40 caliber Glock pistol, nearly
400 grams of heroin and 4.5 ounces of cocaine when the chase started on the
east side, sometimes reaching speeds of 70 mph.
At one point on Porter Street N.E., the car driven by Johnson rammed an
undercover car driven by a TAG agent.
The drugs and the gun were thrown out of the car and later recovered by
police, and both suspects escaped from the vehicle on Belvedere Avenue,
running in different directions. Watson was arrested later that night in a
garage on Atlantic Street, and Johnson turned himself in to his parole
officer in Liberty within a couple days.
Although Johnson did not testify, Watson took the witness stand, attempting
to convince jurors that Kenneth Cook, an informant in the case, was the one
driving the car. Her statements contradicted an unrecorded statement she
made to TAG Detective Fred Raines and a federal agent several hours after
the chase.
Cook is a mechanic who had borrowed money from Johnson to start a business
and who has pleaded guilty to a drug charge and agreed to cooperate with
prosecutors.
Becker praised all the TAG agents, including Raines and lead investigator
Rick Tackett.
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