| 113th Year, 50th Issue | Thursday, July 25, 2002 | Sparta, North Carolina |
John Paul Caudill is scheduled to stand trial in Alleghany next month on charges of cocaine trafficking in both Alleghany and Surry counties.
Judge A. Moses Massey last week granted a change of venue for the charges against Caudill in Surry County.
Caudill, 28, of Elk Knob Road in Laurel Springs was arrested March 7 in what Alleghany County Sheriff Mike Caudill described as the biggest cocaine bust ever here.
The arrest netted 426 grams of cocaine and about one pound of marijuana. John Caudill was charged in Alleghany with trafficking in cocaine, manufacturing cocaine, maintaining a vehicle to keep or sell a controlled substance, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver marijuana. At about the same time, he was charged with similar crimes in Ashe and Surry counties. The offenses all allegedly occurred in late February and early March.
On April 22 a grand jury in Surry County returned true bills of indictment against Caudill on three counts of cocaine trafficking.
The charges were for trafficking by transporting, selling and possessing cocaine, respectively.
Caudill's attorney, Regina R. Gillespie of Dobson, filed a motion dated July 15, asking for the change of venue.
The motion stated that Caudill has provided substantial assistance to the sheriff of Alleghany County, and that district attorneys — C. Ricky Bowman for Surry and Thomas E. Horner for Ashe and Alleghany — consented to the transfer of the Surry County cases to Alleghany.
Massey granted the motion July 16.
Caudill's next court date, on the charges in Alleghany and Surry, is scheduled for the next session of Alleghany Criminal Superior Court, which begins Aug. 12.
As of Tuesday, he was scheduled to appear in Ashe County Criminal Court Oct. 7 on the charges there.
However, in his order granting the change of venue, Massey wrote, "It appears that the defendant has cases in both Surry County, Ashe County and Alleghany County, and it would be in the interest of justice that said charges be heard in one county."
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