Drug Charge Against Allums Dropped
A Torrance Superior Court judge dismissed a cocaine possession charge against former UCLA basketball star Darrell Allums Thursday and indicated he may consider reducing the nine-year sentence Allums received last week for eight armed holdups.
Judge William Hollingsworth Jr. ordered a report from prison authorities due Oct. 23 evaluating Allums’ conduct in prison. Typically, when such a report is ordered by a judge, the result could be a reduced sentence or even release of the convict on probation.
Allums, 30, was sentenced by Hollingsworth June 16 for robbing eight Domino’s Pizza deliverymen using a screwdriver as a weapon. During that trial, the judge said he sympathized with Allums, who contended he commited the robberies to pay for his cocaine habit.
The cocaine possession charge was dismissed because it was “such a minor offense,” Allums’ lawyer Patrick Maginnis said. Allums had been caught with $25 worth of rock cocaine in the spring of 1987.
On June 22, 1987, Allums was arrested on the robbery charges and has been in Los Angeles County Jail ever since. Maginnis said Allums has been a “model prisoner.”
“The bottom line is, he wielded a screwdriver and robbed people. I don’t think nine years in prison is too harsh of a sentence,” said Dist. Atty. Julie Sulman.
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