Georgia man sentenced in gun, drug cases
After being held in Butler County Prison for more than 300 days awaiting trial, a Georgia man pleaded guilty earlier this month in two cases and was sentenced Thursday to jail.
County Judge William Shaffer sentenced Leighton U. Ellis-Kerr, 32, of Decatur, Ga., to a total of 15 months to 3 years in jail.
In one of the cases, Ellis-Kerr pleaded guilty to a felony for carrying a firearm without a license. The charge was the result of a multi-hour stakeout by city police on May 8, 2018, according to police testimony in earlier court appearances.
Ellis-Kerr's lawyer at the time, public defender Joseph Smith, argued that police obtained the gun through an illegal search and asked Shaffer to throw the charge out. Shaffer ultimately rejected that argument.
He is now being represented by court-appointed attorney Joel Lansing Hills.
In the second case, Ellis-Kerr pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. City police arrested Ellis-Kerr on Aug. 9, 2018, while he was in a car on Whitmire Avenue with a woman.
While in the car, police said, an officer saw what appeared to be three plastic bags containing crack on the passenger floor where Ellis-Kerr was seated.
A search at the scene also turned up a coffee filter with suspected crack in it, and a small bag of suspected marijuana that police allege belonged to the defendant.
The woman who was in the car, documents said, subsequently admitted that she was there “to buy drugs off of (Ellis-Kerr).”
Police took the defendant to the station, where they searched him and found $1,488 inside his shorts.
In all, documents said, the suspected crack that was seized weighed 7.3 grams.
Ellis-Kerr has been in Butler County Prison since Aug. 10, 2018, after he was unable to post a $75,000 bond over the drug-related case. Shaffer imposed identical sentences of 15 months to 3 years in jail for both cases to be served simultaneously.
Ellis-Kerr received credit for 323 days in jail already served.
