Aprei Gordon -- #12673-018

20 Years -- Crack Cocaine Conspiracy

I received a 19 1/2 year sentence for conspiracy with the intent to distribute and possession of crack cocaine

I was 23 years old when I was indicted along with a majority of my family members in a crack cocaine conspiracy. The government contention was for me to plead guilty and testify against my family I would receive only 30 years. Being innocent of these charges I went to trial. My jury found me guilty of only two counts of the indictment and I received the lowest sentence dealt out in this case, 19 1/2 years.

What was not taken into account, is I was a single parent. My son's father was killed in a motorcycle accident when I was four months pregnant.

I was attending junior college studying to become a medical assistant while working full time as a receptionist at a hair studio. Due to financial reasons, I had just moved into my parents' home six months before my indictment. I had no drug use history, in fact the government's key witness testified that I had no knowledge of any aspect of this case. No drugs were ever found in my possession or my living area of the residence. The only drugs ever found were buried in the back yard, and I did not know.

Above all this has stripped my son of the only parent he ever knew. According to his teachers is experiencing behavioral and social problems and is now being treated with Ritalin.