Former Emporian guilty on most counts
Federal jury returns verdicts today
By Bobbi Mlynar
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
A federal jury returned verdicts of guilty on most charges against a former Emporia drug dealer, Tracy M. Smith.
Smith was found not guilty on Count 25 -- using, storing and distributing a controlled substance from her residence in Topeka. Count 25 was one of several similar charges in the case.
The jury was unable to agree on four charges against Smith, including three counts of selling crack cocaine or a controlled substance and one count of using, storing and distributing a controlled substance from her residence.
"Everything else is a guilty verdict," U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Jim Cross said Tuesday afternoon.
Smith's trial began more than two weeks ago before Federal Judge Richard D. Rogers in U.S. District Court in Topeka.
Smith had been accused of multiple drug-related counts in a grand jury indictment issued in July 2005. The charges included conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, including crack cocaine; multiple charges of using, storing and distributing controlled substances at a house she owned and a business in Topeka; using a telephone in committing the offenses; and distributing a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine.
Smith's co-defendant in the 26-count indictment, Dennis Ray Torrance, has pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and is awaiting sentencing, Cross said.
Smith was accused in 22 of the 26 counts in the indictment. Torrance was named in 13 counts.
Dates of the crimes were given as "beginning sometime before the 15th day of October, 2003, and continuing sometime later than on or about the 2nd day of June, 2005," according to the indictment.
Information was not available about Count 26, which concerns Smith's forfeiture of "any and all property" and currency involved in the drug transactions and a monetary judgment of $2,000,000, which represented the proceeds obtained as a result of Count 1, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Smith had been convicted in 1989 in Lyon County District Court of two counts of selling depressants, stimulants, hallucinogenics or steroids, class C felonies. She was sentenced to prison on Oct. 31, 1989, and began the sentence on Nov. 2, 1989, according to records from the Kansas Department of Corrections.
She was paroled to Shawnee County on Nov. 20, 2000, and was discharged from parole on Dec. 3, 2003.