Dealer's accomplice avoids jail sentence
Toolbox
By Gordon Dritschilo STAFF WRITER - Published: March 6, 2009
A Salisbury woman who helped her boyfriend sell drugs from a fortified safe house escaped jail time.
Codi Gilfeather was sentenced Monday in Middlebury District Court to one to three years on pre-approved furlough. Gilfeather pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking heroin and one count of possession of marijuana, all felonies, according to Assistant Attorney General Cathy Norman.
Gilfeather said the plea deal included a contested sentencing.
"The state was seeking two to six years to serve with a recommendation to the Tapestry Program," Norman said.
Tapestry, Norman said, is an in-prison substance abuse program with educational, work skills, family relations and parenting components. Instead, Norman said Gilfeather's furlough requires her participation in the state's Intensive Substance Abuse Program.
Gilfeather's codefendant, Kareem S. Robinson, was sentenced in December to seven to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven felonies.
Police said they made controlled buys of heroin from Robinson before raiding the couple's home on Route 7 in September. They found surveillance equipment, a system to warn of cars coming up the driveway and a reinforced door bolted to the floor.
Police also seized 396 bags of heroin, 12 ounces of marijuana, almost $4,000 in cash and two guns. Robinson said he regularly traveled to Pennsylvania to bring drugs back to Vermont.
At the time of the raid, Gilfeather told police she handled drug-related phone calls for Robinson and retrieved drugs for him when they were out of his reach. Pregnant at the time, she said she used one to two bags of heroin a day and regularly smoked marijuana.
The charges against Gilfeather carried a potential maximum of 63 years.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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