Co-Owner of Newspaper Gets 2-Year Sentence

The co-owner of the Antelope Valley Press newspaper was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison for failing two drug tests shortly after his release from custody on a cocaine possession and firearm conviction in December.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Horan found William W. Odett, 46, of Palmdale had violated the terms of his probation by continuing to use drugs. The prosecutor said Odett now can expect to serve about seven months in state prison, probably at Chino, before being paroled.

The case began in May, 1991, when Odett forced a telephone book delivery woman away from his Palmdale house at shotgun point. He then refused police demands to come out for about an hour. When he finally surrendered to sheriff’s deputies, they found he had 1.67 grams of cocaine.

“Probably one thing I’ve never been able to defeat or stay even with is cocaine. It’s a hell of a drug. It’s insidious,” Odett told the judge prior to his sentencing Friday. Odett’s attorney, James Blatt of Encino, blamed his client’s problems on cocaine addiction in recent years.

Blatt, citing Odett’s prior status as “an outstanding member of his community,” asked the judge to delay or avoid a regular prison sentence. But Horan refused, noting he previously had warned Odett that any probation violation would result in a state prison commitment.

In December, Horan sentenced Odett to 90 days in County Jail, a month in a lock-down drug treatment program and fined him for his conviction on a felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor count of brandishing a firearm. Odett still has not paid the fine and owes $18,318, records show.

With credit for time he spent in jail prior to sentencing, Odett went almost immediately to the drug treatment program, where he stayed from Dec. 30 until his Jan. 28 discharge. His doctor said he completed the program and had “a good prognosis,” according to court records.

But on Feb. 18, Odett failed the first drug test required as part of his five-year term of probation. And he then failed his second test on April 21, according to court records, leading to Friday’s probation violation hearing in downtown Los Angeles.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Chesley McKay said Odett probably will serve only about seven months of his two-year prison sentence because offenders typically are eligible for parole after half of their time. Odett already has credit for about five months worth of County Jail time.

Meanwhile, Odett’s brother and co-owner of the five-day-a-week newspaper, Richard LaMont Odett, 48, already is in County Jail serving a 120-day sentence that began June 4. The elder Odett, 48, was convicted of drunk driving in April, his fourth such offense since 1983, court records show.

He initially was accepted into a work furlough program, allowing him to be released to work weekdays and return to be jailed for the night. However, the elder Odett was removed from that program for violating one of its rules Monday and will finish his sentence in the regular jail system, officials said.