Prison ordered for Otoe County marijuana

NEBRASKA CITY – A Michigan man was sentenced to two years in prison for attempting possession over a pound of marijuana in September of 2020.

Prosecutors say 31 pounds of marijuana was found after Billy Wright, 38, of Burton was pulled over on Highway 2 and a K9 unit was deployed. The county attorney’s office dropped charges of delivery and failure to affix drug stamp.

Otoe County Public Defender Michael Ziskey said Wright scored on Nebraska probation testing as a low risk to re-offend. Judge Julie Smith disagreed.

She said Wright was jailed in Texas for marijuana in 2008, was sentenced to prison in Michigan in 2013 on a possession charge and has served time for fleeing police.

Smith: “With your history, you knew the risk you were taking when you were bringing all of those drugs through Otoe County.”

A co-defendant, 68-year-old Kennedy Gadson of Flint, Mich., was sentenced to 30 months probation.

Judge Smith said Gadson's case was different because his criminal history is not as severe and he scored in the “very low” risk to re-offend.