Ward man, 26, pleads guilty in Cabot heroin-dealing case

A 26-year-old man on Tuesday became the sixth person charged in an eight-person indictment to plead guilty in a heroin conspiracy that prosecutors said led to nine overdoses, two of which were fatal, among young people in Cabot.

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Hunter Gladden of Ward pleaded guilty to a new charge accusing him of conspiring from May 2011 through late June 2012 to distribute 100 to 400 grams (3.5 to 14 ounces) of heroin and to possess the drug with the intent to deliver it. When sentenced at a later date, he faces 5 to 40 years in federal prison, where parole is unavailable, and a fine of up to $5 million, to be followed by at least four years' probation.

The 2004 graduate of Cabot High School, who has been jailed for nearly 2 years, told the judge he is undergoing treatment at a behavioral health center in Pine Bluff.

"Have you gotten your heroin addiction under control?" U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. asked.

"Yes sir," Gladden replied.

He admitted that in 2011 and 2012, he frequently rode to Memphis with Wallando Onezine of Cabot to get quantities of the drug to take back to Cabot, but Gladden said he didn't sell the drug. Onezine, 37, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with others to distribute the drug in the Cabot area.

A plea agreement refers to Gladden as a "minimal participant" in the conspiracy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon told the judge that in the fall of 2011, when Drug Enforcement Administration agents began investigating a flurry of heroin overdoses and heroin-related arrests centered around Cabot, about 20 people identified Onezine as their source, or at least a known source, of the drug. He said DEA agents tracked Onezine making trips between Memphis and Cabot 11 times between March 24, 2012, and June 22, 2012, and observed that Gladden was frequently with him.

In exchange for Gladden's plea to the new charge, Marshall agreed to dismiss more serious charges he faced in the indictment that was handed up by a federal grand jury in late July 2012.

At Onezine's sentencing hearing a day earlier, Marshall heard from the parents of 25-year-old Dustin Harris, who on March 24, 2012, died from an overdose of heroin sold by Onezine, and 19-year-old Jared Maxwell, who died from an overdose on Oct. 28, 2011.

Sherri Harris, Dustin's mother, described the anguish of losing her son to the drug to which he remained addicted despite vigorous efforts to fight the addiction. She said Dustin stood 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 300 pounds, but after he was cremated, his ashes fit in a shoebox. She described how his father "carried him" for the last time when burying the ashes in Coffeeville, Miss., "a place he always considered home."

Metro on 07/30/2014

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