Sherman -- On Wednesday, April 24, 2013, Jean Kenneth Toney, 50, of Pottsboro, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by District Judge Jim Fallon for Possession of a Controlled Substance - Methamphetamine in a Drug Free Zone.  Toney was convicted after a three-day trial in the 15th District Court and a jury recommended the maximum 20-year sentence.   Fallon also sentenced Toney to pay a $20,000 fine, as recommended by the jury.
 
 On January 19, 2012, Grayson County Sheriff's Office Narcotics Officers were conducting surveillance in Denison when they observed Mr. Toney's truck pull up outside the residence of a suspected drug dealer.  A woman that officers recognized as a drug user walked out of the home and got into the Toney's truck. After observing a traffic offense, deputies Adam Bradshaw and Kevin Cheairs pulled the vehicle over and found Toney driving.  Bradshaw and Cheairs observed digital scales, commonly used to weigh narcotics, sitting in the passenger floorboard between the feet of the female passenger.  Upon questioning by the deputies, the woman admitted to being in possession of methamphetamine.  Toney denied any knowledge of the narcotics.

At trial, the woman with Toney, Rosabelle Byrd, told the jury that she had purchased the narcotics on Mr. Toney's behalf and that she had been acting as his "middleman" for more than two months, helping him sell drugs more than 20 times.   Assistant District Attorney Matt Johnson introduced evidence of text messages and phone records contained on both suspects' cell phones, which corroborated Byrd’s testimony. Jurors convicted Toney after less than an hour of deliberation.

 In the punishment portion of the trial, jurors hear that Toney had previously been sentenced to 5 years in federal prison in 2004 for the offense of Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug Trafficking Crime.   That conviction enhanced the current charge against Toney and raised the maximum sentence to 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

"Clearly folks are fed up with offenders who deal methamphetamine," said prosecutor Matt Johnson.  “The jury expressed afterwards that they were appreciative of law enforcement being aggressive with these repeat offenders.”
 
“That was a message verdict from the jury,” said Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown.  “We continue to hope the message gets heard in the jail.”
      
Toney was represented by Sherman attorney Ryan Kreck.