Candace Kelly

Depending on who you believe, Candace Kelly is either an arrogant, calculating drug dealer or a dedicated grandmother who believes there are positive benefits to marijuana use.

Either way, Kelly’s choice to buy and resell the drug in bulk since 2009 netted the 65-year-old Buffalo Township woman a stay in state prison.

Kelly, who sold about 100 pounds of marijuana a year from her mobile home, pleaded guilty to a half-dozen charges, including felonies.

Butler County Judge William Shaffer on Thursday ignored a last minute, impassioned plea by Kelly to sentence her to a lifetime of probation.

“Please don’t take me away from my babies,” Kelly begged the judge, twice repeating, “I’m sorry.”

But the judge, who took note of Kelly’s previous felony conviction for drug sales, instead crafted a sentence of 15 to 30 months in prison.

Deputy Attorney General Tomm Anthony Mutschler, who prosecuted the case, argued in court that because of her previous conviction, Kelly knew the potential consequences of her actions.

Mutschler claimed Kelly ran an “enterprise” importing hundreds of pounds of what investigators deemed “high quality” marijuana from California and Oregon and selling it for $3,300 a pound.

Investigators confiscated 54 pounds of marijuana, with a street value of $178,000, along with nearly $400,000 in drug money from Kelly’s Kepple Road home.

Additionally, police seized from Kelly’s home nearly two pounds of psychedelic mushrooms and hashish and paraphernalia and records tracking her drug purchases and sales.

Mutschler further argued Kelly showed an “arrogance” after her arrest, telling media: “Legalize (marijuana), man. If I can make that kind of money, why can’t the rest of Pennsylvania wise up?”

But Kelly’s defense attorney Jeffrey Wasak of Pittsburgh countered that Kelly “didn’t do this for money.” Wasak claims Kelly lived a modest lifestyle because she sold the drug at cost under her belief that marijuana use has positive attributes.

“It was the worst business model imaginable. Her profits were negligible,” Wasak said. “She told me that she was worried because she didn’t even have the money to buy a new dress for court.”

Kelly has been raising two of her grandchildren since 2008, when her 37-year-old daughter, Rhonda, died of a heart attack. She was accompanied in court by a half-dozen family members and others who wrote the judge letters supporting her.

Wasak argued that Kelly was not a threat to the community, and he noted that many states are contemplating the legalization of marijuana.

After court Wasak acknowledged that his client’s previous arrest in Allegheny County in the 1990s hurt her hopes for a probation-only sentence.

Kelly was ordered to report to prison Dec. 1.