Woman gets 15 years in drug case
Brandi Watson
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Brandi Watson, 27, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday for her role in a drug-dealing enterprise that led police to find $120,000 worth of discarded heroin after a high-speed chase.
Watson made no statement before Judge Peter Kontos sentenced her in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on cocaine-possession, heroin-possession, tampering with evidence and a specification that she possessed a quantity of heroin sufficient to label her a “major drug offender.” She also was convicted of committing the crimes while possessing a gun.
Her accomplice in the enterprise, Fred D. Johnson, 40, will be sentenced June 1.
He and Watson, who lived together on Wallace Street Southeast at the time of their arrest, was convicted of similar charges during a jury trial early this month.
Watson’s attorney, Jeff Limbian, asked for the minimum sentence for his client on the basis that she had a minimal criminal record that included a misdemeanor offense for passing bad checks.
But Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, asked that Watson receive a 25-year prison sentence.
“By all accounts, [Watson] relished her role in dealing drugs,” Becker said. Prosecutors said Watson and Johnson purchased the heroin earlier that day in Detroit.
Agents from the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force conducted an investigation into Watson and Johnson that caused them to follow a car from the Wallace Street home Jan. 15, 2010.
Police believe Johnson was driving the car, which fled from police at high speeds through parts of Warren, eventually crashing the car on Belvedere Avenue. Watson, who admitted she was in the car, fled on foot and was arrested a few hours later.
The heroin and Watson’s gun were found near the site of the crash.
Watson admitted throwing cocaine out the window of the car but said Johnson was not the driver, naming another man. Johnson, originally from Detroit, surrendered to authorities a couple of days later.
Students from Liberty High School were in the courtroom observing the sentencing.
“It’s kind of sad to see people in our country getting treated like that, but it’s their fault,” senior Brian Venable said after watching the sentencing.