43
Two found guilty of host of charges
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A jury found Brandi Watson, a 27-year-old mother, guilty of a host of drug and weapons charges in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court — enough to probably send her to prison for 25 years.
Her partner in the enterprise, Fred Johnson, 40, was found guilty late Friday afternoon on all counts as well and could spend even more time locked up.
Detective Rick Tackett of the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force, which headed the drug investigation that produced the charges, said Watson and Johnson were “large suppliers of heroin and cocaine coming into Trumbull County from Detroit, maybe one of the largest we’ve had.”
Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, said the drugs Watson and Johnson had with them Jan. 15, 2010, had a street value of $120,000.
After Judge Peter Kontos read the guilty verdicts, Watson told Judge Kontos she was hoping he would grant her the weekend to make living arrangements for the child who lives with her.
Judge Kontos refused, and Watson was handcuffed and taken with Johnson to the county jail, where they will await their April 25 sentencing.
Watson was found guilty of cocaine-possession and heroin-possession charges, tampering with evidence and specifications that she possessed a quantity of heroin sufficient to label her a “major drug offender.” She was also convicted of committing the crimes while possessing a gun.
Johnson was convicted of all of those charges, too, plus being a felon in illegal possession of a firearm and failure to comply with the order of a police officer. He could get more than 30 years in prison.
Investigators said Watson told them she and Johnson, who is originally from Detroit, had purchased heroin and cocaine from someone in Detroit on Jan. 15, 2010. Later that day, drug investigators followed their car from Watson’s and Johnson’s home on Wallace Street Southeast at high speeds through Warren. Watson threw cocaine out of the car window. Eventually, they crashed the car on Belevedere Avenue and fled on foot.
Watson was arrested about three hours later. Johnson surrendered to authorities a couple of days later.
At trial, Watson admitted she was in the car but identified someone other than Johnson as the driver.