Crack dealer goes to prison

By Linda Cicoira

     A Portsmouth man pleaded guilty Monday in Northampton Circuit Court to possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine in 2020. He will serve three years in prison.

     It was a second such drug offense for 32-year-old Jonathan Wesley Wright, who was clocked going 78 mph in a 55-mph zone on Fisherman’s Inlet Bridge of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, according to Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Thornton. A chase ensued with speeds of more than 100 mph before an officer saw something getting thrown out of the vehicle’s window. The item was recovered and found to be crack.

     Wright, the driver of the vehicle, was convicted in a similar case in 2013.  He told the court that he was not a drug user.  Since the 2020 incident, Wright said he started a trucking business. At the time of the offenses, he did not realize there was another way to make a living, Wright told the judge.

     In accordance with a plea agreement, the defendant was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but three years of mandatory time suspended and fined $410 for possession with intent to distribute a Schedule I or II drug. Wright was also given a 12-month suspended sentence for driving without a license, and a six-month suspended sentence for fleeing from police. A felony count of eluding police was not prosecuted.