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Man Sentenced To 10 Years For Ninth Drug Conviction
By: WOUB Contributing Writer
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A man will spend a decade in prison after being convicted on drug charges for a 9th time.
According to the Scioto County Prosecutor's Office, it took a Scioto County Common Pleas jury less than 90 minutes to find Barry Cave, 58, of Portsmouth, guilty of one count of trafficking in cocaine/major offender, four counts of cocaine trafficking and one count of possession of criminal tools.
Prosecutor Mark Kuhn says the charges go back to February when the Southern Ohio Drug Task Force and FBI started investigating complaints of cocaine sales at Cave’s house on Brown Street in Portsmouth.
Kuhn says undercover officers made four separate controlled buys of crack cocaine during the investigation.
After the last purchase on February 20, Task Force officers searched his home and found 105 grams of crack cocaine, sandwich baggies used to distribute the drug, baking soda used to cut cocaine, a television monitor watching the front door and $3330 in cash. Included in the cash was a $50 bill that had been used to buy the drugs earlier in the day.
Because Cave has eight prior drug convictions, he is classified as a major drug offender.
The convictions on the sale counts and criminal tool count are to run concurrently for a total of 11 years.