Two sentenced on Craig drug charges
CRAIG COUNTY – Two more Craig County drug defendants arrested a year ago have been sentenced and released for time served.
Both still have prison time hanging over their heads that could go into effect if they get into trouble again.
Alfred John Erber was sentenced to 10 years for two charges of selling heroin or providing it for resale. His remaining prison time was suspended in consideration for time served in jail since he was arrested in 2010. He will be on two years of supervised probation and his driver’s license was also suspended for six months on each of the two drug charges.
Gale Jones was sentenced to a total of 15 years for three methamphetamine charges, with her sentence suspended for time served. She was ordered to be on three years of supervised probation.
Jones and Erber were among the 32 Craig County people charged with a total of 56 offenses listed in sealed indictments handed down by a Craig County Grand Jury on Nov. 8 of last year.
Jones, 42, was arrested again earlier this year with Sara D. Oliver, 29, in what drug officers and Sheriff Clifford Davidson called “the largest active meth lab ever discovered in Craig County.” That arrest came when the New River Valley Drug Task Force executed a search warrant on April 26 on Craig Creek Road near New Castle.
Oliver’s case was taken under advisement because she is going through Drug Court, a more-than-a-year program of drug testing, counseling, court-ordered community service and sometimes, jail time.
Erber was sentenced in Craig County Circuit Court, the same courtroom where he pleaded guilty in June to two charges of selling or providing heroin for resale.
He was initially charged with three charges of selling heroin or providing for resale a Schedule I/II drug, and a separate charge of distribution of a controlled substance.
Two more charges of distribution a controlled substance and another of selling a Schedule I/II drug were not prosecuted.
Erber’s offense dates were listed on the Virginia Courts Case Information website as Feb. 24 and March 5, 2010. The drug bust in which Erber and Jones were arrested was the result of a several-month investigation by the Craig Count Sheriff’s Office, officers from Virginia State Police and members of the New River Valley Drug Task Force.
