Tyler Man Gets 35 Years For Drug Possession

By DAYNA WORCHEL Staff Writer
Tyler Paper
Mar. 16, 2010

To quote from strike-the-root.com:

"More drug war insanity. The taxpayers lose, too, as it will cost upwards of $1.5 million to keep this 'menace to society' behind bars."A Smith County jury found a Tyler man guilty on Thursday of possession of less than five pounds but more than four ounces of marijuana in a drug-free zone.

The jury in the 7th District Court with Judge Kerry Russell presiding then sentenced Henry Walter Wooten, 54, to 35 years confinement in prison. He was not assessed a fine.

Wooten, who had pleaded not guilty to the current charge, had been found guilty of two felonies in Smith County, one in 1987 and one in 1989. He pleaded true to both of those on Thursday before he was sentenced. His 35-year sentence will run consecutively to any other sentences that may be unexpired from his prior felonies, Judge Russell said in court.

The defendant had been accused of possessing marijuana within 1,000 feet of the Ebenezer Day Care Center in Tyler in October 2008.

Tyler police officers were alerted to Wooten's location because of the smell of the marijuana. Tapes played in court showed Wooten removing a number of individual plastic bags loaded with the drug from his pockets. Officers also found a larger bag of marijuana in Wooten's car the same day.

Wooten, who had remained incarcerated since he was arrested for the offense in 2008, had decided he wanted a private laboratory in Tyler to test the marijuana he was accused of possessing when he was arrested. Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance said Wooten did have a right to ask for such testing.

Both the results from the tests conducted by T.H.E. Lab in Tyler in January, and the tests conducted by the Department of Public Safety Laboratory soon after Wooten's arrest were very similar in results.

Trey Cloud, DPS forensic chemist, testified that the weight of the marijuana seized from Wooten when he was arrested was 4.6 ounces, and the packaging alone weighed 1.06 ounces. He also testified that the drug seized from Wooten was indeed marijuana.

Tom Thompson, from the private laboratory, who testified on Wednesday, said his analysis showed the packaging alone weighed 1.059 ounces.

Cloud testified that the weight of the marijuana, which was analyzed closer to the time of the offense, in this case, in December 2008, was more accurate. The testing done by the private lab was performed on Jan. 29, 2010.

In his closing arguments to the jury, Vance told them they set the standard for the community.

"Every decision made by a jury sets a precedent," he said.

He appealed to the jury to use their common sense and to look at the evidence.

"Wooten pulled bag after bag from his pockets like one of those clowns you see -- and in the driver's seat of his car was a big bag and digital scales," Vance said.

Defense attorney O.W. Lloyd told the jury in his closing arguments he was not there to yell at them and put the pressure on them about precedents. "You don't have to be a chemist -- you believe what you believe."

Vance had asked for the jury to give Wooten a sentence of 99 years. Leslie McLean served as co-counsel with Vance.












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