Lawyers on both sides of the case against Justin Hopkins argued their sentences before a judge Thursday, acknowledging they were in somewhat uncharted territory.
It's believed Hopkins' case marks the first time in the country a person charged with possessing fentanyl inside a prison has reached the sentencing stage. As such, there are no prior sentencing decisions on which to turn for a guideline.
Prosecutor Elaine Reid was the first to stress this to Judge James Walsh, telling him that he had a big job in front of him that would be precedent-setting.
Hopkins, 35, was found in his cell at Her Majesty's Penitentiary June 20 of last year with a mix of heroin and fentanyl inside the finger of a latex glove. He had been in custody just over a month at that time, arrested for breaching the conditions of a court order after police saw him in a vehicle with three people with whom he was banned from having contact. Officers had arrested him and brought him to the lockup, where it was discovered he might be carrying something inside a body cavity. He was transferred to hospital and put in a dry cell — a cell with no plumbing or running water — and produced a package the next day containing heroin inside the finger of a glove. A day later, he gave police four more packages, this time containing pills and cocaine.
The five packages contained 6.8 grams of cocaine, 37.2 grams of heroin mixed with fentanyl, and 126 assorted sedative pills. Hopkins was convicted of three counts of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of drug possession, with Judge David Orr staying the charge relating to the fentanyl. Orr later sentenced Hopkins to 6 1/2 years in jail for the crimes.
Hopkins wasn't charged with having fentanyl in prison until this past spring — two days after his conviction on the other drug charges and almost a year after he was caught with the drug in his cell. Reid told the court the delay was due to forensic testing.
Reid suggested a jail sentence of between 12 and 18 months for Hopkins.
"Looking at the personal circumstances of Mr. Hopkins, the nature of the drug that he had and the aggravating fact that this was inside the prison, the sentence should be an increased sentence, that is, one higher than what it otherwise might be if it was simple possession of fentanyl," she told the judge.
Defence lawyer Erin Breen suggested a sentence that was much lower: she asked Walsh to consider something between a discharge and six months in jail, given fentanyl is classed in the same category of illegal drugs as cocaine and heroin, even though it's more deadly.
"I don't even see that's remotely close," Walsh interjected. "A discharge, I don't see anywhere (in the case law for that category of drug)."
"It's in the same class of drugs as cocaine and heroin, so how can you escalate that sentence because there's fentanyl in the mix?" Breen replied.
Breen acknowledged her client is a longtime offender who has spent a significant amount of his adult life behind bars, but asked Walsh to consider what she said were unusual circumstances of the case. The fact that he wasn't charged until a year after the crime was "fundamentally unfair," she said, adding if Hopkins had been charged earlier, the matter could have been included in his case before Judge Orr.
Breen said Hopkins suffered trauma as a child and began drinking and smoking marijuana before turning to cocaine and opiates.
"We cannot lose sight that we are sentencing an addict for the act of possession," she told the judge.
Walsh is scheduled to render his sentencing decision Dec. 6.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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