Couple guilty in cocaine case

As owners of 2 migrant-labor camps, they hired addicts and sold them crack.

Ron Word | the Associated Press
Posted August 26, 2006













JACKSONVILLE -- The owners of two migrant-labor camps were found guilty Friday of hiring drug addicts and homeless people at minimum wages and then selling them crack cocaine, cigarettes and beer at inflated prices, causing them to have huge debts to their employers.

A jury of 10 men and two women deliberated 14 hours during three days before finding Ronald Evans Sr. guilty of 57 of the 58 charges against him, and his wife, Jequita, guilty of the 49 of the 51 charges against her.

Ronald Evans, 60, was found guilty of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a sentence of 20 years to life and a fine of up to $2 million. Evans and his wife were each found guilty of selling more than 50 grams of crack cocaine, a charge that carries a sentence of 10 years to life and a fine of up to $4 million.

After the verdicts were read, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan ordered Evans and his wife, who had been free on bond, taken into custody.

At first, Corrigan said he would allow them to remain free, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sciortino said the law required them to be jailed.

As they were led away in handcuffs, family members began sobbing.

Defense attorneys William Kent and Richard Kuritz said they were disappointed by the verdicts and planned to appeal.

"We had expected they would have been found not guilty," Kuritz said.

Sciortino refused to comment after the verdict, but U.S. Attorney Paul Perez in Tampa said the evidence showed that Ronald and Jequita Evans recruited men from homeless shelters, charged them $50 a week for room and board and put them to work in potato and cabbage fields for minimum wages.

At the end of the workday, workers were allowed to purchase crack cocaine, cigarettes and beer at inflated prices on credit.

When they were paid on Saturday, workers often found they owed money to Evans and his wife.

"Causing homeless people to incur large debts by selling them crack, cigarettes and beer forces these individuals into a form of servitude that is morally and legally reprehensible," Perez said in a statement.

A sentencing date has not been set.

They operated migrant farm-labor camps in East Palatka and in North Carolina.
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