A motorist on the Turner Turnpike charged with trafficking in illegal drugs has pleaded guilty and handed a state prison term with all but the first year suspended.
Gregory Johnson, 23, with no address listed, was formally charged Jan. 27 this year in Lincoln County District Court with trafficking in illegal drugs.
In April, Johnson waived his preliminary hearing. During his recent arraignment, District Judge Traci Soderstrom set Johnson’s case for the felony disposition docket at 9:30 a.m. Sep. 26, the jury trial call docket Oct. 13 and a jury trial for 9 a.m. Oct. 16.
He pleaded guilty prior to those dates as the result of a plea bargain. Johnson waived his pre-sentence investigation.
Judge Soderstrom found him guilty as charged and sentenced him to 10 years in the Department of Corrections with all but the first year suspended. She fined Johnson $25,000 with all but $1,000 suspended, assessed a $100 VCA, gave him credit for time served and ordered him to perform 100 hours of Community Service within six months of when he is released from custody.
He was also placed on supervised probation. Johnson was accused on Jan. 20 this year in Lincoln County of possessing not less than 25 pounds or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana, a Controlled Dangerous Substance.
State Trooper Ian Rozier, in a probable cause affidavit, states he was observing traffic coming off the Turner Turnpike eastbound to the toll lane in Lincoln County around 1 p.m. Jan. 20 when he noticed a vehicle driving through the safety lane that didn’t use its turn signal.
Rozier said he initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle after they paid the toll.
The trooper noted that he made contact with the driver, Gregory Johnson, and had him come back to his patrol car so he could issue him a warning. Rozier said that as he was in the course of writing the warning to Johnson he observed indicators of criminal activity that included a short turn around trip, a story of a family reunion in the middle of the week, that he didn’t know where in Oklahoma City he went for the reunion or where his grandmother lived which is where the reunion was.
As the trooper re-approached the vehicle to get the insurance and ID cards from the front seat passenger, he noticed an odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.
Rozier returned to his patrol unit where Johnson was and Johnson acknowledged they had smoked marijuana before getting into the vehicle.
The trooper, as he continued his investigation, advised Johnson he would be searching the vehicle. As he searched, Rozier reported finding a box and a purple suitcase in the back of the vehicle that contained 27 bundles of a green leafy substance that field tested positive to be marijuana.
He said the weight totaled 28 pounds. Rozier placed Johnson and two passengers under arrest, read them their miranda rights, but none wanted to talk, he stated.