by TOM DOTY
Staff Writer

PRESTONSBURG — Drug trafficker Jesse Compton, 25, arrested in an April 2003 drug roundup was formally sentenced Friday to the full eight years that was recommended by a Floyd County jury.
Compton’s formal sentencing comes at the end of the same week that a jury trial resulted in a 10-year recommendation for Liz Goble, who was arrested in the same roundup.
Most significant about these cases is that each has had a resounding impact and resulted in scores of alleged traffickers abandoning the option to take their cases to a jury trial and opting instead for making blind guilty pleas without the benefit of a plea deal.
Compton’s lawyer, Lowell Spencer, did ask for mercy and stated that prison had helped Compton beat his own addiction. He also said that prison would only harden Compton and likened it to “a college of hard knocks.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Wayne Taylor countered by pointing out that Compton’s sentence had been recommended by a jury which had heard all of the evidence in the case and carefully deliberated over its recommendation.
Judge Danny Caudill was impressed by the defense’s first claim that prison had helped Compton lick his drug problem, but pointed out the inherent illogic in also saying that it was a bad place for Compton, as it had already done him the service of providing an environment that helped him kick his addiction to drugs
Caudill went on to sentence Compton to the full eight years and admitted it was a hard thing to do when he announced his decision.
“This is not an easy decision for me, but we do have a drug problem here,” Caudill said. “I have a duty to fulfill. This case was fairly tried. It doesn’t make me happy to send a young person to jail.”
The sentencing was followed by another one from the same roundup. In that case, the defendant was Kim Mynhier, who bowed out of her trial after the Compton verdict and entered a blind plea.
Mynhier’s attorney, public advocate Michael Studebaker, asked for leniency in her sentencing.
“She did save the commonwealth the cost of a trial,” Studebaker pointed out.
Studebaker, who represented Liz Goble and saw her jury recommend the 10-year maximum sentence, also reminded the court that his client “took responsibility for her actions.”
Wayne Taylor countered by reiterating that Mynhier had waited until her trial date was imminent and that the commonwealth had prepared its case and was ready to seek the maximum sentence when the “blind plea” was entered.
Caudill opted to give Mynhier three years, with half of that time probated.