Our client and her husband were charged with trafficking over 300 pounds of marijauna from the border town of McAllen, Texas, through Nashville. They were actually running the drugs for the Mexican cartel, but they were arrested with the 300 pounds of marijauna still in their vehicle as they drove through Nashville. Due to the amount of drugs they were carrying, the bond was set outrageously high for both of them. Our client understandably was terrified. The case from her perspective was daunting, because before she called a lawyer (me) she had been found in possession of the drugs and had confessed. We definitely had our work cut out for us.

Our client had no living immediate family and was the mother of a small child. Not only was she facing a minimum of 15 years in prison, she was also facing the very real prospect of her child going into the State’s custody if both she and her husband were convicted. His prospects of staying out of prison looked even worse than hers because he had prior drug convictions.

Our client’s goal was to somehow stay out of prison and be able to keep custody of her child. The only way to accomplish that was to get the charges dropped or at least greatly reduced. It was unrealistic to think the charges would be dropped because of the evidence stacked against her, so our sights were set on negotiating a probation sentence.

To achieve this, we would need to tell her story to the DA in such a compelling way so as to engender sympathy and set her apart from all the others involved in the drug organization – even from her husband. That was our only hope in this case of avoiding a long prison sentence, but our real goal was to avoid any prison sentence.

Mother and son remain together! Four years of probation – no jail time.

THE STAKES: Our client and her husband were charged with trafficking over 300 pounds of marijuana from the border town of McAllen, Texas, through Nashville.

THE GOAL: Our client’s goal was to somehow stay out of prison and be able to keep custody of her child.

THE CHARGES: Possession with Intent to Deliver Class VI Drug (marijauna).

CHARGE CLASSIFICATIONS: Class A Felony (drug charges are graded based on the type of drug and the weight of the drug)

RELEVANT LAWS FOR CHARGE: T.C.A. 39-17-417; 40-35-111; and T.C.A. 40-35-112. The possible penalties for this offence are a range of 15 to 25 years (because she had no criminal history and was a Range 1 Offender) and up to a $500,000 fine (specially set fine for drug cases).

OUTCOME RESULT: Mother and son remain together! Four years of probation – no jail time.