|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
A judge said the tip was too vague, but he would be open to possibly reducing the sentence if information was provided.
By JEN McCAFFERY and MIKE ALLEN
In a rare move, Senior U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser cleared spectators from the federal courtroom before sentencing Fulcher, who pleaded guilty in October in connection with running a drug ring out of Bland Correctional Facility. Among the people who were allowed to remain in the courtroom with Fulcher, his mother, Ethel Vest Fulcher, lawyers and agents involved in the case, were Capt. Kimmy Nester and other investigators from Rockingham County, N.C. Henry County Sheriff Frank Cassell confirmed after the sentencing that Nester and the investigators were present at Fulcher's sentencing in connection with the case of Michael, Mary and Jennifer Short. The Shorts were slain in their Henry County home in August. The remains of their 9-year-old daughter, Jennifer, were found in Rockingham County in September. Cassell confirmed that Fulcher had been interviewed before in relation to the Short case. But he would not comment on what information Fulcher gave. Lawyers on the Fulcher case would not discuss what went on in the courtroom after Kiser closed it. After reopening the courtroom Monday, Kiser referred to the evidence given when he closed the courtroom, without specifying what the information was actually about. "Frankly, I think it's too vague to be taken into any consideration with regard to sentencing," Kiser said. But he added that he would be open to motions for a reduction of Fulcher's sentence if he was able to provide more information in the case. Once one of the area's most prolific informants to both state and federal authorities, Fulcher had letters submitted on his behalf by Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell for his help in several Roanoke murder cases over the years. And despite pleading guilty to drug and money laundering charges, Fulcher has never admitted to selling marijuana at Bland Correctional Facility. He has always maintained that he thought he had clearance from Donald Lincoln, then the head of the Roanoke office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, to pursue the investigation. That claim was bolstered after Lincoln wrote a letter to Kiser, which said that Fulcher might have gotten the impression he had clearance to pursue an undercover sting operation at the jail. The letter came after Michael Fulcher, Ethel Vest Fulcher and his then-wife, Rosanna Sue Nichols, were convicted in 1999 in connection with the marijuana dealing and money laundering ring being run out of Bland Correctional Facility. Kiser overturned their convictions in February 2000 after receiving Lincoln's letter. Federal prosecutors planned to try the family again, but Fulcher and his mother entered guilty pleas on the eve of their second trial. Kiser found that Fulcher was an organizer of the marijuana ring running out of Bland from 1995 to 1997. He sentenced Fulcher to seven years in prison, a compromise between the five years Fulcher's attorney, David Whaley of Richmond, sought, and the 10 years federal prosecutor Joe Mott asked for. Fulcher fared much better than in 1999, when he was convicted of running a continuous criminal enterprise, which carried with it a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years because of Fulcher's prior criminal record. Fulcher has been paroled on the 48 years he was sentenced to on state charges in 1992 for various thefts in Bedford County. He is serving a 19-month federal sentence for a firearms charge, and the seven-year sentence will be added to that. Ethel Vest Fulcher, 69, was sentenced to probation for her role in the conspiracy and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. Mott said that he would move for the dismissal of charges against Nichols.
JEN McCAFFERY can be reached at 981-3336 or jen.mccaffery@roanoke.com.
|
|
| Click here for today's headlines. Click here for the past seven day's headlines.
Let any elected or appointed official know what you think and how you feel by CLICKING HERE. |
|