Jury deliberations continue in federal court in the case of a former Emporian who was indicted earlier on 22 drug-related charges.
Tracy M. Smith, 45, formerly of Emporia and now of Topeka, was indicted by a grand jury on July 14, 2005, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka. Dennis Ray Torrance of Topeka was indicted by the same grand jury on 13 similar charges.
Smith was alleged to be one of the Emporia area’s major drug dealers in 1989.
The federal jury began deliberations in the case on Thursday, according to the court clerk’s office.
Smith’s charges included multiple allegations of conspiring to distribute and distributing crack cocaine and methamphetamine; using, storing and distributing a controlled substance at a Topeka residence; and using “a communication facility, to wit: The telephone, in commiting, causing and facilitating the offenses ...”
A 23rd count in the indictment deals with a financial judgment and forfeiture of property owned by Smith. The indictment identifies $2,000,000, which was said to represent “the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of Count 1, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.” It also includes a residence owned by Smith and valued at $73,800; approximately $14,000 in currency recovered from that house on Dec. 15, 2003; approximately $2,252 recovered on Dec. 15, 2003, from a business, TeRay’s Clothing, in Topeka; $1,075 recovered from TeRay’s on June 2, 2005; and approximately $20,878 recovered on June 2, 2005, from the residence owned by Smith.
Smith’s trial in Lyon County District Court in 1989 resulted in convictions on two counts of sale of cocaine, one count of possession with intent to sell; one count of possession of drug paraphernalia; and two counts of possession of cocaine without a tax stamp.
Then-Administrative Judge William J. Dick sentenced Smith to a total of 38 to 116 years in prison. Dick doubled the standard sentences because of Smith’s two prior felony convictions, and ordered the individual sentences to be served consecutively. A Kansas Appeals Court ruled that the sentence “exceeds the bounds of reasonableness.”
Lyon County District Court Judge John Sanderson did not decrease Smith’s total prison time during a re-sentencing hearing in January 1992; he shortened the time she would serve by making some of the sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively.
Smith was paroled on Nov. 20, 2000, after serving more than 10 years of the amended sentence. She was discharged from parole on Dec. 3, 2003.