Felipe Ibarra guilty on two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, Ecstasy; one count of possession of Ecstasy with intent to deliver; and one count of having drugs, Ecstasy and three guns.The jury recommended 20 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction and fines of $25,000 on each of the drug delivery charges. The possession with intent to deliver charge netted a recommendation of 15 years and a $20,000 fine. The drugs and guns brought a recommendation of 25 years.
Ibarra sold 18 Ecstasy pills to a confidential informant on two occasions. Police found three more pills when they raided his home on Arkansas 265 south of Greenland. There was a 12 gauge shotgun, a 9 mm rifle and a large-caliber revolver in Ibarra's closet.The confidential informant, who had been arrested with items used to make methamphetamine, said he'd known Ibarra since the two were in sixth or seventh grade. Ibarra had no previous criminal convictions.Police recorded both buys and actually watched one buy go down in Ibarra's driveway. Ibarra was four days past his 18th birthday when the first of the buys occurred.
Blair Brady, Ibarra's defense attorney, argued that police and prosecutors were painting an inaccurate picture of Ibarra's participation in the drug trade. Brady said Ibarra was not a major dealer and sold his own drugs to his old friend when asked."This is not 'Miami Vice,'" Brady told jurors."What kind of friend sells poison to another for money," deputy prosecuting attorney Mark Booher asked jurors.
Circuit Judge William Storey sentenced Ibarra immediately. Storey allowed the drug-only charges to run concurrently but ordered Ibarra to serve the drugs and guns charge consecutively.Storey said the verdicts should put others on notice that such behavior won't be tolerated in Washington County.Ibarra was tried Wednesday on four of almost a dozen charges he faces. Remaining are more drug charges and an allegation Ibarra and another man fired shots at a University of Arkansas fraternity house after they were thrown out of a party for trying to sell Ecstasy to guests.
Comments