Johnsonville woman, daughter among those sentenced on drug charges

By From local reports
Published: February 01, 2010

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FLORENCE -- A Johnsonville woman and her daughter are among five people sentenced for conspiring to distribute controlled substances, acting U.S. Attorney Kevin F. McDonald said in a press release.

U.S. District Judge Terry L. Wooten sentenced 38-year-old Melanie D. Poston to 125 months — more than 10 years — in prison and her daughter, 20-year-old Jaime Brooke Poston, to five months in prison.

Wooten also sentenced Johnsonville residents 19-year-old Heather Nicole Owens and 37-year-old Lisa Marie Marlow each to 51 months in prison, while he sentenced 48-year-old John Henry Jackson, also of Johnsonville, to three years probation.

The maximum penalty they could have received is a $1 million fine and/or 20 years in prison, depending upon the count of conviction.

Melanie Poston worked as a medical assistant at a physician’s office in Hemingway, and in 2007 began writing and forging fraudulent prescriptions for powerful pain killers and other narcotics. She recruited others to have the prescriptions filled, including her daughter, Marlow, Owens and Jackson.

Members of the group used some of the drugs, which included Endocet, Percocet, Lorcet, Lortab, Vicodin, Xanax, and Valium, and sold the rest to users on the street. About 80,000 doses were attributed to the group over the two-year conspiracy.

Another defendant, Rebecca Denise Lynch, 28, worked at Fred’s Pharmacy in Johnsonville, and admitted her role in having the illegal prescriptions filled. She is scheduled to be sentenced later this week. The pharmacy has since closed and the investigation of others involved is ongoing.

All six defendants were charged in May in a nine-count indictment with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of controlled substances (Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Phendimetrazine, Alprazolam, Diazepam, and Phentermine); possession with intent to distribute controlled substances (prescription drugs); and persuading and inducing a person under the age of 18 to unlawfully possess a controlled substance (prescription drugs) with intent to distribute.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Hemingway and Johnsonville police departments and the Florence County Sheriff’s Office. It is assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney William E. Day II of the Florence office for prosecution.