MURPHY
Woman is found guilty
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Started the same day, finished the same day, two juries returned within the same hour identical “guilty” verdicts – prosecutors on Jan. 16 wrapped up two major drug-trafficking convictions on either end of the 43rd Prosecutorial District.
“What does it signify? It means two high-level drug dealers are now in prison and that we – my office and the residents of far-western North Carolina – do not take drug dealing lightly,” District Attorney Ashley Welch said. One of the two convictions took place in Cherokee County, and the other in Haywood County.
A jury in Murphy found local resident Jessica Shaye Walker, 36, guilty of trafficking methamphetamine, possession with intent to sell and deliver methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
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On Sept. 28, 2023, Cherokee County sheriff’s Sgt. Hunter Wood and Deputy Dylan Valle responded to Peachtree Produce Stand and found Walker unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a vehicle. The red Ford Focus hatchback was still on and the gear was in reverse. Medics transported Walker to the hospital.
With drug paraphernalia in plain view, the deputies searched the vehicle, finding methamphetamine and fentanyl. Walker admitted to procuring methamphetamine to Agent Parker Morgan with the narcotics unit.
Superior Court Judge Nathaniel Poovey consolidated the charges for sentencing. He ordered Walker to serve a minimum of 70 months in prison up to a maximum of 93 months in prison. Assistant district attorney Kimberly Harris prosecuted the case.
In Haywood County, jury members found Brenton Daniel Plott, 39, of Clayton, Ga., guilty of four counts trafficking opium/heroin. Superior Court Judge Peter Knight, who consolidated the charges for sentencing, ordered Plott to serve a minimum active time of 450 months up to a maximum of 564 months in state prison.
HIAWASSEE, Ga.
GBI charges former deputy
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A former Towns County sheriff’s deputy faces multiple charges in an incident in which the officer claimed he had been shot during an early morning traffic stop.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Austin Bradburn, 26, of Blairsville, on Jan. 21 and charged him with false report of a crime and violation of oath of office in Towns County, according to a release from the GBI. Bradburn also faces additional charges.
Compiled by Publisher David Brown.