A Bay County jury took about 14 minutes Thursday to find a Panama City man guilty as charged of Trafficking Methamphetamine.
Circuit Court Judge Brantley Clark sentenced to Eldon E. Nix Jr., 59, to 12 years in prison. Since the defendant was found guilty of having more than 28 grams of the drug, Judge Clark also fined the defendant $100,000 under Florida’s enhanced drug trafficking laws, which also require the defendant to spend a minimum/mandatory 7 years in prison.
Prosecutor Frank Sullivan told jurors in the half-day trial that it was not a complicated case: Panama City police conducting a lawful search of the defendant and a black bag found him in possession of about 38 grams of methamphetamine on July 26, 2022.
“That is all this case is about,” Sullivan told jurors. “You only need to focus on the evidence that was presented regarding the methamphetamine he possessed.”
Sullivan and co-Prosecutor JP Ferreira called two witnesses: Panama City Police Capt. Kris Shaw and Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst Sam Catalani.
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Shaw testified police had developed information that the defendant was in possession of a large amount of methamphetamine. They spotted him on a bicycle in the 3700 block of West 22nd Street and detected the odor of marijuana from the defendant. A search of a black bag on the front of the bike turned up multiple baggies of methamphetamine. Catalani testified the substance was methamphetamine.
Basford thanked Panama City police for their proactive investigation that led to the seizure before the drugs could be sold at the street level.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.