Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 30, 1990                   TAG: 9004300283
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TWO PLEAD GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGES

Ricky Crouch, a 26-year-old Vinton resident, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Roanoke to one count of possessing and intending to distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine.

Jeffrey Carner, 27, of Southeast Roanoke, pleaded guilty to one count of the same offense and one count of knowingly distributing less than 500 grams of cocaine with his brother, Mike Carner, and Robert L. Payne, both of Southeast Roanoke.

The men originally were charged in February by a federal grand jury in a four-count indictment charging that the four of them conspired to distribute cocaine between March 1988 and February of this year.

A superseding indictment earlier this month dated the conspiracy back to 1985, based on information provided by an informant, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said in U.S. District Court on Friday.

Dave L. High, an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent, testified that he and an undercover informant on several occasions purchased cocaine in one-eighth ounce and one-quarter ounce quantities from Crouch and Jeffrey Carner.

Crouch faces a maximum 20-year prison term and $1 million fine. Carner faces a maximum 20-year term and $1 million fine for each of the counts to which he pleaded guilty.

Payne and Mike Carner were scheduled to be tried today, but Judge James Turk on Friday continued the case after lawyers objected to the superseding indictment.