By NAN Contributor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Oct. 17, 2018:A Caribbean-born musician from Jamaica will spend the next 8 years in a US jail after being convicted of drug trafficking in Madison County.
Patrick Beadle, also known as BlackFire, 46, was sentenced by Madison County Circuit Judge William in Mississippi, for marijuana he said he obtained legally in Oregon for his personal use.
Beadle had faced a maximum 40 years in prison after a jury convicted him in July under the state’s drug trafficking law. Prosecutors said Patrick Beadle had 2.8 pounds of marijuana when he was stopped by a Madison County deputy in March 2017 on Interstate 55 near Canton.
He has claimed the marijuana he had with him was for his personal use and was obtained legally in Oregon where medical marijuana was legalized in 1998. Beadle said it was being used to treat chronic pain in both knees where cartilage has worn down from his years of playing college basketball.
Oregon voters approved recreational use of marijuana in 2014.
Beadle will have to serve the entire 8 years without parole and then faces deportation back to Jamaica. He has said he decided to travel through Mississippi after having visited his 8-year-old son in Ohio because of this state’s rich music heritage. He said his dreadlocks and out-of-state auto tag made him a target for racial profiling.
Beadle’s attorney, Cynthia Stewart, said the sentence will be appealed.
