Marijuana Policy Project

BENTONVILLE—Angie Blevins and her husband used to smoke pot together.

After 16 years of marriage they had four children, a good church and a Bella Vista home—what she thought was the "perfect life." Then her husband started acting funny. He started keeping secrets, lost his job and didn't always come home. The fights got physical.

Angie Blevins realized her husband had moved beyond pot to methamphetamine. The family fell apart.

"I was penniless," Blevins told a jury Wednesday. "I wanted to save our home. My kids had always been in private school. I wanted our lifestyle to continue."

As a licensed massage therapist, Blevins kept working part time from her house but added a new profession—drug dealer.

She'd take shipments of marijuana from Mexico, split the bricks up and sell the stuff for $800 per pound.

"The temptation presented itself and I wanted to save our home," she told the seven-woman, five-man jury.

That jury took 15 minutes to find Blevins guilty of possessing 86 pounds of marijuana with intent to deliver, but wrestled almost six hours with the final sentence—17 years in prison and a $32,500 fine.

"In almost 20 years as a prosecutor and 11 as a judge, this is probably the most significant amount of marijuana I've seen in a Benton County court," Benton County Circuit Judge David Clinger told Blevins after accepting the jury's recommendation. "It was a significant criminal enterprise, and it was international."

Blevins' attorney, Bill Crowe of Springfield, said his client was devastated by the decision.

"Benton County is probably the worst place in Arkansas to commit a crime," he said.

Blevins' ordeal began on Christmas Eve 2003 after police received an anonymous tip.

Cops showed up at her front door. They found pot on top of the refrigerator, under her daughter's dresser, in a storage shed—86 pounds of it.

She lost her kids. The youngest was just 4.

In trial, Blevins denied nothing. Wearing a dark suit and pearls, she looked jurors in the eye to tell of her own life "as a child of a single mother. Mom worked constantly and I spent most of my time alone. I didn't want my children alone constantly while I worked two or three jobs."

Crowe portrayed his client as a "scared, broke, desperate single mom. Please, please don't victimize these children anymore," he told the jury. "Don't take mom away."

Friends of Blevins testified that she shouldn't go to prison.

"To be abandoned in the shape she was in, most of us would react to protect our children," testified Freddie Jones, principal of the Rogers High School alternative school and Blevins' friend. He suggested probation and community service, and said Blevins had a good message for school kids: Don't mess with drugs, they spoil lives. "If you give Angie a chance, I don't think you'll see her again."

Blevins could be eligible for parole after serving about three years. She must begin paying her fine 120 days after her release from prison, and Clinger indicated he might consider reducing the amount if she complies with her sentence.

The 86 pounds of marijuana had an approximate street value of $78,000, officers had testified.

""This wasn't a one-man operation, and it wasn't a one-time sale," Clinger told Blevins. "Every day this courtroom is packed with individuals hooked on drugs who are committing crimes to feed their habit. This crime was committed to feed your lust for money."