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Nathaniel Cullars Jr. convicted; sentencing date is yet to be set Nathaniel Cullars Jr., 32, was convicted last week in U.S. District Court in Augusta of one count of possessing with the intent to distribute over 5 grams of crack cocaine. A sentencing date has not yet been set, but Cullars faces a sentence of between five and 40 years in Federal prison on the conviction. Cullars, a resident of Wilkes County, was stopped in his vehicle by Washington police officers on June 6, 2006, for loud music. During the traffic stop, officers testified that they retrieved crack cocaine both from his hand and his car's glove compartment. Between the arrest last year and the two-day trial last week, Cullars' attorney, M.V. Booker, had filed pretrial motions in court to prohibit the government's use of evidence - including a large amount of crack cocaine - obtained in the search of Cullars' car because, she charged, the vehicle was stopped and searched without probable cause. The police stop, the motion claimed, was not based on any reasonable suspicion that Cullars was engaged in criminal activity, but was "a continuation of a pattern of harassment" by Officer Jamie Bridges of the defendant. The motion to suppress also claimed that the police did not have a good reason to search Cullars or his vehicle, so the evidence that police found crack cocaine in his hand should not be allowed in court. A magistrate judge, W. Leon Barfield, held an evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress in October to hear testimony from all parties involved. In November, Barfield ruled the defense motion, and recommended that the evidence be allowed in court. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. concurred with the Magistrate Judge's recommendation, and denied the motion to suppress in January. The trial date, March 20, was set during the first week in March, and defense attorney Booker moved to delay the trial, saying that she did not have enough time to prepare. The motion was denied, as was her motion to be removed as Cullars' counsel and a new attorney appointed, by Chief Judge William T. Moore Jr. on March 14. Cullars went to trial last Tuesday in Augusta, and by Wednesday afternoon the jury had found him guilty. Edmund A. Booth Jr., acting U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said that a sentencing date will be scheduled following completion of a pre-sentence investigation and report. Booth said that because the jury found him guilty of possession of more than 5 grams of crack cocaine, Cullars faces a mandatory term of imprisonment of between five and forty years. He may also face a fine of up to $2 million and a term of supervised release of at least four years.
The Court allowed Cullars to remain on a bond of $100,000.
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