Local News in Brief : Alien Guilty in Drug Case
An illegal alien from Jamaica was convicted Wednesday of using a 14-year-old to sell rock cocaine near an elementary school in the Crenshaw area. Vernon Theodore Williamson, 31, faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years in prison for possessing rock cocaine with the intent to distribute on two occasions and using a juvenile to sell it within 1,000 feet of a schoolyard, prosecutor Susan Bryant-Deason said.
Williamson faces sentencing Sept. 22 in Los Angeles federal court. He was arrested March 4 and charged with possession of rock cocaine worth about $250. He was arrested again April 21 across the street from Hillcrest Drive elementary school.
An undercover officer had paid a teen-ager $25 in marked bills for one rock of cocaine and the bills were in Williamson’s possession when he was arrested, Bryant-Deason said. The 14-year-old faces charges in juvenile court.
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