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Court metes out 5-year sentence in drug case
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Posted on Aug 23 2005
The Superior Court sentenced yesterday to five years imprisonment a person charged with illegal possession of a controlled substance.
Associate Judge David Wiseman convicted Zhou Xu, who pleaded guilty to three illegal possession charges four days before the scheduled jury trial that was originally set to begin last Monday.
The judge imposed a five-year sentence on Zhou for the three charges, but ruled that the prison terms would be served concurrently. He suspended the prison terms, except for five years. The judge gave credit for the time Zhou had already spent in jail since Feb. 17, 2005, and placed the defendant under supervised probation for 10 years.
Wiseman remanded Zhou to the custody of the Department of Corrections. He imposed a $2,000 fine on the defendant and $1,000 as probation fee. The judge directed Zhou to perform 600 hours of community work service at a minimum rate of five hours per month until completed.
“The defendant shall be deported upon serving the five-year unsuspended portion of the 15-year sentence,” Wiseman stated in a judgment and commitment order yesterday.
In the order, the judge also noted that the court has a general policy not to accept a negotiated plea so close to trial. But he said the case became an exception because the defendant’s counsel came late into handling the case. It used to be handled by a different attorney. The judge cancelled the jury trial.
