Hung jury defendant in meth case pleads

May 23—A Cumberland County woman whose April trial for possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver trial ended in a hung jury pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense and received a three-year sentence.

Tammy Bernice Davenport, 48, pleaded guilty May 10 to facilitation of possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver.

The sentence is to run concurrently with a probation violation sentence in General Sessions Court.

As a result of her plea, pending charges in unrelated cases were dismissed.

After the jury found Davenport not guilty of the indicted charge of possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver, that charge could not be tried again.

Lesser included offenses for the jury to consider included facilitation of possession of more than .5 grams of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver; possession of less than .5 grams of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver; facilitation of less than .5 grams of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver; and simple possession of meth, were still in effect.

This means Davenport could have been retried on the lesser charges.

Facilitation is charged when evidence shows a person allowed another or assisted another person in the selling and/or delivery of meth without personal gain.

A simple example of facilitation is allowing someone to use a car, house or motel room for the purposes of selling or delivering illegal drugs without gaining anything of value or benefit for the transaction.

The charges stemmed from a police response to activity in and outside a room at the Hampton Inn at 4:30 a.m. March 25, 2021.

The resulting search of a room rented in Davenport's name was the discovery of 5.51 grams of meth in the bathroom trash can.

As a result of her plea as a Range I offender, the three years will be served at 30%, and Davenport will be given credit for any time served on the charge.

In other cases on the docket, the following pleas were entered:

—Joy Marie Bartley, 45, charged with multiple counts of drug possession, theft and vandalisms, pled guilty to an information charging possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver and received a three-year suspended sentence to be served on supervised probation. Bartley pled guilty to a second information charging possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver and vandalism of more than $1,000, and received a three-year suspended sentence to be served on supervised probation. The meth charges stem from traffic stops by Cumberland County Sheriff's Office deputies on Feb. 4, 2020, and Feb, 26, 2021, and the vandalism charge occurred on May 4, 2020.

—Garardy Perez Garcia, 23, pleaded guilty to an information charging reckless endangerment and received a two-year sentence to serve at 30% as a Range I offender. He is being given credit for 75 days already served. The charge stems from a March 5, 2020, incident during which shots were fired on Village Lane. Crossville Police Department officers responded and recovered a weapon, which was forfeited as part of the plea.

—John Glenn McDonald, 34, possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver, was granted judicial diversion on plea to attempt to sell more than .5 grams of meth, and received a six-year suspended sentence to be served on supervised probation. The plea is put in abeyance and if McDonald is successful in completing all terms and conditions of diversion and probation, he will be eligible to petition the court to have the charge removed from his record. The charge stems from a Nov. 3, 2020, undercover drug buy by CPD detectives.

—Sabrina Ann Stevens, 59, charged with possession of meth with intent to sell and/or deliver, simple possession, resisting a stop, arrest or search, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of driver's license violations, pled guilty to resisting arrest and possession of drug paraphernalia, was fined $150, is to pay court costs and was placed on probation for 11 months 29 days. The charges stem from incidents in January and August 2020, investigated by the CCSO. All remaining charges were dropped.

—Olivia Marie Dowdy, 21, pled guilty to charges of possession of a Schedule VI drug with intent to sell and/or deliver and evading arrest qualified for judicial diversion. She was placed on supervised probation for two years. The evading charge is a Putnam County case. All remaining charges were dismissed. If Dowdy completes terms and conditions of diversion and probation, she can later have the charges removed from her record. The possession charge stems from an arrest by the CCSO.

—Daniel Dewayne Farley, 32, pled guilty to an information charging attempted burglary and attempted possession of a firearm by a felon and received a six-year sentence to be served at 35% as a Range II offender, All remaining charges were dropped. A firearm seized is forfeited and Farley is banned from contact with the victims. The charges stem from a July 27, 2021, burglary at Chan's Body Shop and recovery of a shotgun by Crossville Police.

—Matthew Scott Shipe, 32, pled guilty to an information charging attempt to sell and deliver a Schedule I drug and received an eight-year sentence, suspended for continued longterm in-house recovery treatment. He was fined $2,000 and remaining charges were dropped. Shipe is being given credit for 73 days already served. The charge stems from a Dec. 2, 2020, search of a vehicle on Fox Creek Rd. by deputies during which heroin was seized.

—Danny Clifton Thomas, 62, pled guilty to a charge of possession of a handgun by a felon and received a two-year suspended sentence to be served on supervised probation. The charge stems from a July 12, 2021, traffic stop during which a derringer handgun was seized.

Michael Moser may be reached at mmoser@crossville-chronicle.com