COLUMBUS - A 47-year-old Columbus man convicted of selling cocaine to an undercover informant in April 2006 will be sentenced as a habitual criminal when he appears in Platte County District Court this week.
Judge Robert Steinke has ruled that drug dealer Steve Davis will face longer minimum and maximum prison terms for his June conviction during a sentencing hearing slated for 9 a.m. Wednesday in district court.
An eight-man, four-woman jury found Davis guilty last month of delivery of a controlled substance after deliberating for just under an hour following a two-day trial.
Delivery of a controlled substance is a Class II felony, punishable by a maximum of 50 years imprisonment and a minimum of one year imprisonment. As a habitual criminal, Davis could be sentenced Wednesday to a minimum of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum 60 years imprisonment.
Nebraska's habitual criminal statutes provide for enhanced mandatory minimum and maximum sentences for a convicted defendant who “has been twice convicted of a crime, sentenced and committed to prison, in this or any other state ... for terms of not less than one year.”
That's exactly what Steinke found after taking Davis' habitual criminal status under advisement following a hearing earlier this month.
Evidence presented by Platte County Attorney Andrea Belgau during that hearing did establish that Davis had two or more prior felony convictions in which he was sentenced to prison terms of one year or more, Steinke ruled in a written opinion issued in the case.
“Davis shall be subject to enhanced penalties in this case of a mandatory minimum term of 10 years and a maximum term of not more than 60 years,'' the judge wrote in his decision.
During the habitual criminal enhancement hearing, the prosecution presented testimony from Columbus Police officers and a Nebraska State Patrol fingerprint expert identifying Davis as the man convicted of several felonies during the last 25 years.
Since 1982, Davis has been sentenced to prison for district court convictions in Colfax and Platte counties, according to a felony information document filed in the case by Belgau.
Davis was convicted of a probation violation in Colfax County in 1982 and resentenced to a two-year prison term. He was sentenced to 42 months to seven years in prison for criminal attempted delivery of a controlled substance in 1991 in Platte County.
In 1994, Davis was sentenced in Platte County for burglary, third-degree assault of an officer and tampering with physical evidence. He received a sentence of 11-16 years for the convictions.
During Davis' late-June trial, prosecution testimony de-scribed a drug deal in which Davis met with a confidential informant in a 23rd Street mobile home with the informant wired to record the transaction.
Davis and the informant were observed entering Davis' mobile home together and, after exchanging $400 for the purchase of cocaine, the informant left the home alone, according to the arrest affidavit filed in the case by Columbus Police Investigator Doug Molczyk.
Molczyk stated he then met with the informant away from the area of the mobile home and took possession of the suspected cocaine. The State Patrol Crime Lab later determined the substance was cocaine.
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