Pleas entered in CF drug probe
SANDPOINT — Two people snared in an expansive marijuana-distribution investigation in Clark Fork entered guilty pleas on Wednesday.
Walter Kenneth Hayes IV pleaded guilty to one county of delivery of a controlled substance and one count of possessing the powerful painkiller Oxycodone. In exchanged for the pleas, three additional felony drug delivery counts against the 21-year-old were dismissed, court records indicate.
Hayes’ sentencing hearing is pending.
Valerie Sue Marshall, who was charged with aiding and abetting the delivery of a controlled substance, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of misdemeanor pot possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. Judge Justin Julian imposed concurrent year-long sentences, but suspended the bulk of them and gave Marshall, 49, credit for the 13 days she’s already spent in jail.
Meanwhile, a third suspect, Danny Charles Allen Marshall, waived his right to preliminary hearing on Wednesday and tried unsuccessfully to have his bail reduced from $50,000, court records show.
Danny Marshall, 37, is charged with four counts of delivery of a controlled substance and is scheduled to be arraigned in 1st District Court later this month. He allegedly sold pot to an undercover sheriff’s narcotics detective on various occasions between December 2008 and January.
In other developments, two more people have been arrested in connection with the case.
Kalani Robert Cody Boward, 18, was apprehended on a felony warrant last week and is charged with one count of delivery of a controlled substance. Robert Joseph Newer, 63, was arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Newer, court documents indicate, was also wanted in Nevada involving a charge of lewd conduct with a minor.
Both Boward and Newer are being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and public defenders have been appointed to represent them.
Boward sold pot to a Bonner County Sheriff’s drug agent on Nov. 20, 2008, according to a criminal complaint. Newer was charged after deputies searched his home in the 600 block of Pine Street in Clark Fork last month and discovered bags of pot split into quarter-ounce portions. More than $1,500 in cash was found in a safe in Newer’s residence, court documents indicate.
All the arrests followed the searches of three locations in the Clark Fork area last month.
Two other subjects have been arrested on misdemeanor drug-possession charges in connection with the case, bringing the total number of arrests to seven. Court records suggest an eighth suspect is being sought for arrest.