ssharpKNOXVILLE, TN. (WLAF)- Billy Davis will spend the next 48 months in a federal jail.
Last week, the Campbell County man was sentenced to the four years incarceration after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine. He is also to pay a $100 special assessment fee and take part in “appropriate substance abuse treatment,” according to federal court records. The court did recommend that Davis serve his sentence in the “closest minimum security facility” to Knoxville.
Following his release, Davis will spend four years on probation.
Davis’ attorney had requested a “downward departure” for his client. The minimum mandatory sentence for the charge Davis pleaded guilty to, possessing 500 grams of cocaine, carried a minimum sentence of 60 months. His attorney, T. Scott Jones, argued that Davis was a first time offender with strong ties to the community. He further noted Davis was “very remorseful.” In addition to this, it was reported that Davis assisted authorities in the case as he tried to “make amends,” the court records said.
Davis and Johnny Tackett, trafficked narcotics with a confidential source 18 times beginning in Dec. 2018 until March 2019. Over the course of four months, the source bought cocaine and marijuana from the two with Tackett acting as the go between, court records said. Initially, the source would go to Tackett’s house and wait for him to go to Davis’ home to retrieve the drugs. Eventually, Davis began curbside service delivering the drugs to Tackett’s house in a silver Ford F150, the same truck that authorities had placed a tracking device on. The surveillance records matched with information of the tracking unit along with the information from the confidential source confirmed the drug trafficking.
This accumulation of evidence gave authorities enough cause to conduct a traffic stop on Davis in March 2019.
When police searched the truck, 25 ounces of marijuana and $10,418 was found. Among the just over $10,000 was $960 in marked money the drug task force had used the day before when the source bought cocaine from Davis and Tackett, court records said. Davis further allowed police to search his home where they discovered another 1.3 ounces of marijuana, 9.4 ounces of cocaine along with “several guns, a digital scale and ledgers.”
The original federal indictment named a total of 11 men. Davis and Tackett were the only local defendants. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 09/08/2021- 6AM)