Charles City man sentenced for crack sale in New Kent

A Charles City County man will serve two years in prison for his part in selling crack cocaine to a pair of undercover informants.

Harold Leon Brown Jr., 31, of 13011 Willcox Neck Road, pleaded guilty in August in New Kent Circuit Court to one count of crack cocaine distribution. As part of a plea deal, a second count was dropped.

Sentencing for Brown was held on Nov. 5, and Judge Thomas B. Hoover was not impressed with Brown’s previous record that includes three convictions in Charles City in 2003. Brown received substantial suspended time in the Charles City matter.

“Why are you selling drugs in New Kent?” Hoover asked the defendant. “You have 60 years hanging over your head in Charles City. Why do something that stupid?”

“I don’t know,” Brown replied. “I guess I was doing something stupid that day.”

Brown, who has been jailed since his New Kent conviction, pleaded with the judge for leniency, saying he has five children, two by his current girlfriend, he has to support.

“I want to get out and take care of my kids,” he told Hoover. “I don’t want to sell drugs no more.”

Hoover, however, wasn’t swayed. He sentenced Brown to 25 years in prison with all but two suspended for the next 25 years. Brown could also face more time if he is brought back to Charles City court on a probation violation.

In another, unrelated case on Nov. 5, Hoover discounted testimony by a Quinton man who claimed the pants in which police found cocaine weren’t his.

Terry Baker, 43, of 6241 Lakeside Drive, was arrested last Feb. 2 after sheriff’s deputies answered a trespassing complaint from a woman at a Providence Forge address. Deputy Brandon Jenkins patted down the defendant outside the residence and discovered a small rock of cocaine inside a package in his pants pocket. Baker told the deputy the pants he had on were not his, prosecutor Linwood Gregory told the court.

Baker was charged with felony cocaine possession, but as part of as plea deal, the charge was amended to misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Baker entered an Alford plea of guilty to the lesser charge.

“Tell me how you came to be in someone else’s pants,” Hoover told the defendant.

Baker said he was having an affair with the woman resident whose husband was in jail. He said the woman was washing his clothes and when police arrived he took the pants from a pile of laundry.

“I grabbed the first thing I could and put it on,” he said, adding he also reached for his wallet and lighter and put both in his pockets when officers told him to go outside.

“I do accept the plea agreement, but I don’t accept your statement of the facts,” the judge told the defendant.

As part of the plea deal, Baker was sentenced to six months in jail, all suspended for the next five years.

Also on Nov. 5, a Highland Springs man pleaded guilty to two counts of felony forgery of a public document.

William Donald Poulson Jr., 29, of 320 Bernie Court, signed the name Troy Hockleman on two traffic summonses after being stopped by county deputies for a gasoline drive-off on March 19, 2003. New Kent authorities were unable to track down Poulson until this past June when fingerprints taken by Henrico County police matched the suspect wanted in New Kent. Sentencing for Poulson, who faces up to 10 years in prison on each charge, is scheduled in January.