Parents of Newborn Appear in Court for Cocaine Possession

Tonight, a mother, a father, and a thirteen-day-old are at home together after the parents were spared a prison sentence for illicit drug possession. Twenty-four-year-old Shakeem Francis Ferguson and twenty-year-old Kelly Alexander Sanchez were charged jointly with two counts of possession of a controlled drug after thirteen grams of cocaine were found in the couple’s home on Monday, an estimated value of six to eight hundred dollars. The two appeared unrepresented in court today where Ferguson entered a plea deal, taking responsibility for the drugs. Ferguson was handed a non-custodial sentence of five thousand dollars, plus one thousand dollars for each count. This offense carries a mandatory minimum fine of ten thousand dollars and or three years imprisonment; however, the judge considered the fact that this is Ferguson’s first drug offense, for which he expressed remorse. Considering Ferguson’s guilty plea, the charges were withdrawn from Sanchez.