Onancock woman pleads guilty to drug offenses

By Linda Cicoira

An Onancock woman pleaded guilty Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court to drug offenses and entered an agreement with the prosecutor that set her prison term at six years.

Forty-seven-year-old Latoya Tanisha Drummond pleaded guilty to two 2023 counts of distributing cocaine. A third charge wasn’t prosecuted. The other two indictments were reduced to a second offense rather than a third offense.

The initial charges called for a maximum of 80 years in prison. Each offense consisted of less than a gram of the drug.

In the plea agreement, she will be sentenced to 20 years with all but six years suspended. The case was continued until a presentence report is completed.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 14.

Twenty-four-year-old Jacob Lee Leary, of Main Street on Chincoteague, pleaded guilty to July 2024 charges of abuse and neglect of a child and DUI with a child in the car. In a plea bargain, another count of abuse and neglect was not prosecuted.

According to court records, Leary crashed the car he was driving just after passing a security gate at Trails End. One child was in his lap, and the other was in his fiancée’s lap. All four of them were in the front seat. The three passengers were taken to the hospital. The child in Leary’s lap hit the windshield.

Leary registered .14 grams per 210 liters of breath on a breathalyzer test. The legal limit is .08. There was no agreement regarding sentencing. A presentence report was ordered. Leary was allowed to remain free on bond until sentencing on July 24.