Judge denies motion to suppress

By Jane Beathard

The trial of a Mt. Sterling resident accused of being the “middle man” in a marijuana smuggling operation was scheduled for Feb. 5, after Madison County Common Pleas Judge Robert D. Nichols denied a motion on Monday to suppress evidence in the case.

Naresh LeFranc Anderson, 24, a native of Jamaica, was arrested on April 19 after Madison County Sheriff’s deputies and agents for the U.S. Postal Service confiscated a 15-pound bundle of marijuana from a Schadel Lane apartment where he was living.

Postal agents using drug-sniffing dogs detected the package as it passed through a Columbus post office on its way from Arizona to Mt. Sterling. Those agents contacted local authorities, who obtained a search warrant for 10900 Schadel Lane, Apt. 23, in the village.

Once the package was delivered by an undercover postal agent, deputies entered the apartment. They found Anderson at home and the bundle of narcotics hidden in a bedroom. Anderson said he did not know the package contained marijuana and that he simply accepted it on behalf of a cousin. Lt. Eric Semler of the sheriff’s investigative unit disputes Anderson’s account, saying the package was likely earmarked for delivery to a Columbus drug dealer.

Defense attorney Brian Muenchenbach argued the search that turned up the marijuana was illegal. Deputies entered the unit, using a key obtained by complex manager Terry Yalawty. Yalawty, in turn, obtained that key and information that Anderson was inside, from the renter, Ashley Toops.

Muenchenbach said Yalawty deceived Toops and improperly worked as an arm of law enforcement when she passed on both the key and Anderson’s information to deputies.

Meunchenbach also argued Anderson, who speaks both Creole and English, did not understand the consequences of his actions when he signed a waiver of his Miranda rights.

But Nichols found nothing in the warrant nor the apartment search open to suppression. He also said Anderson’s understanding of the Miranda waiver was irrelevant since the man said nothing incriminating to authorities.

Also on Monday, Columbus resident Donald L. Drummond, 38, was sentenced to a year in prison for slugging his former wife in her West Jefferson home on May 5 and breaking the woman’s jaw.

Drummond pleaded guilty on Sept. 26 to a count of felony domestic violence. It was his fourth domestic violence charge involving the same victim since 2003.