The District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday that Oddesius lacharles Bryant, 33 of Andalusia admitted guilt to numerous charges.
Bryant was charged with illegal possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute, illegal possessing a controlled substance marijuana possession in the first degree, illegal use of drugs resisting the arrest, and felon possession of firearm.
Circuit Judge Lex Short presided over the case and listened to Bryant’s pleas after a jury was picked just after noon on Monday. After the jury had returned from lunch they were disbanded for a break to allow to hear Bryant’s pleas considered.
Bryant was represented by Gulf Shores attorney Riley Powell. Powell represented the State is represented by Assistant District Attorney Nikki Stephens. A plea deal was not reached regarding the sentence to be imposed, and Bryant admitted to pleading “blind” and the sentencing hearing was scheduled for December. 19th of 2023 beginning at 9:00 a.m. prior to Short.
The trial’s settings and pleas came about as a result of a police stop made in the hands of Drug Task Force agents wherein Bryant was not using traffic signals. When they stopped him, they discovered an .223 assault-style gun in the vehicle alongside Bryant and guessed that he could be a felon who was convicted and banned from carrying firearms. As agents tried to remove Bryant from his vehicle, the man refused to cooperate with officers and bit one them before being cuffed. Agents found powder cocaine as well as alprazolam (Xanax) pills from his pockets. In inside the car, they found more powder cocaine, crack cocaine, alprazolam, hydrocodone and morphine, as well as the oxycodone drug, and marijuana.
Due to the fact that Bryant has at least three previous convictions for felony and since he was on bail for trafficking in drugs during the time of the offenses, he’s scheduled to be sentenced under the Habitual Felony Offender Act. Bryant will be sentenced to twenty years or more for cocaine possession with the intent to distribute fifteen years to life for possession in the first degree of marijuana and for the firearms charge 1 year and one day, up to 10 years in prison for possession of hydrocodone, alprazolam, morphine or oxycodone. one year for possession of drug paraphernalia or up to six month of imprisonment for refusing to be arrested.
Stephens expressed gratitude to Covington County Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents Cody Holmes and Mark Odom, Andalusia narcotics agent Tyler Patterson along with Gantt Police Chief Ken Harris for their assistance with the investigation.
“The case was sound and we’d tried at times to reach an agreement to plead guilty in conjunction with the defendant Mr. Bryant. We eventually decided we had concluded negotiations and were willing to take the case to court. I’m sure that Mr. Bryant and his attorney could read the lines on the wall. And they pleaded guilty.” Stephens said.
District Attorney Walt Merrell commended Stephens and the other officers in the.
“Too often we hear drug-related crimes are not a crime and that drug users don’t harm anyone, but this could not be further than the reality. The confiscation of these illicit drugs slowed their fall to the hands and fingers of addicted people as well as people whose lives are in danger of falling into the brink of catastrophe. It is unclear the number of people these drugs could have impacted had been seized by Mr. Bryant had the chance to distribute them the way his plan, and I’m grateful that it didn’t happen,” Merrell said.
The article Andalusia man admits guilt to a variety of drug-related charges was first reported at The Andalusia Star-News.
