14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, an elderly woman admitted to having sold considerable amounts of marijuana, magic mushrooms, and hashish over the course of several years.
Nonetheless, the woman, identified as 65-year-old Candace Kelly, maintains that she did it not because she is some sort of a drug lord, but because she needed money to look after her grandchildren, who lost their mother quite a while ago.
Just how much marijuana did she sell?
Information shared with the public by the police officers who handled this case says that, since 2009 until this January 2014, when she was finally taken into custody, the woman sold some 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of marijuana per year.
It is understood that the woman kept the weed in her home in Pennsylvania's Buffalo Township and sold it for about $3,400 (roughly €2,680) per pound (0.45 kilograms).
Add to this the fact that she also dealt psychedelic mushrooms and hashish, and it should not come as a surprise that, when officers first raided Candace Kelly's house back in the autumn of 2013, they found drug money amounting to $400,000 (about €315,000).
A fairly complicated case
It is understood that, at the time officers found this drug money, together with 54 pounds (24.4 kilograms) of marijuana and 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) of psychedelic mushrooms and hashish, a faulty search warrant made it impossible for them to file a case against her.
Thus, as mentioned, it was only earlier this year, in January, that the 65-year-old was finally taken into custody and charged with possession with intent to sell and even criminal conspiracy. Faced with the evidence against her, the woman pleaded guilty to these charges.
According to The Butler Eagle, it was this past October 21 that the woman admitted in front of a court of law to having sold marijuana, magic mushrooms, and hashish to willing customers. By the looks of it, 65-year-old Candace Kelly will be handed her sentence in just a few weeks.
What's going to happen to her?
Word has it that, given the charges filed against her, this woman could end up spending about 10 years behind bars. Still, it appears that Candace Kelly's defense attorney, identified as Jeffrey Wasak of Pittsburgh, is confident that the judge will take pity on her.
“A woman of her age is no threat to the community. Any extended period of incarceration would be unwarranted and unproductive,” Jeffrey Wasak told the press in an interview. The sentence is to be delivered by Butler County Judge William Shaffer this coming November 20.