Jackson Jambalaya

That's very extreme. The punishment does not fit the crime.

"If the words 'Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to command your own brain chemistry, the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it's written on."

Someone wiser than the idiots who captain the war on individual liberty.

That is just WRONG. Michael Guest let someone who robbed me, my neighbors and an entire different neighborhood (many, many houses and cars) off with just 5 years probation. I respect Mr. Guest, but not on this prosecution. Not at all.

Wonder whose kid he sold drugs to. That's about the only logical explanation for the sentence.

that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard of in years. 44 years of which the law says he must serve 85%, so 38 years or so until he can be considered for release. the fact that Guest needs to boast of this "accomplishment" is sickening.

DA Guest had the opportunity to change the landscape of the public schools in Rankin County if he had prosecuted Lynn Weathersby for the attempted extortion, he took a pass.
This truly is some shameful shit.

Sentence is nonsense.

Actually, this is very typical for drug sentences in Rankin County. If you need money, get a gun and rob a store. Whatever you do, don't sell drugs. Guest posted something a while back showing sentence after sentence of 60 years for selling cocaine. Like I said, shoot someone, rob someone, kidnap someone -- but just don't sell drugs.

I actually see no problem with it. It sends a message that drug dealing will not be tolerated. The only problem I see is that the law does not send similar messages to other types of crime. If murderers, rapists, and thieves had more severe punishment it would either make them think twice before committing the crime. At the very least, we would eliminate repeat offenders. I have no problem with an eye for an eye system.

Thanks to the DA the taxpayers will be supporting this loser for 38 years, maybe 44.

Thanks, pal! I sure can't think of anything more important for my taxes

After reading the comments, one wonders what the posters would have sentenced this punk? If you can't do the time, don't do the crime!

And if we remember, wasn't Mr. guest booted out of office last election cycle? The guy that replaced him was arrested for DUI and it was thrown out on a technicality?

Seems the voters in Mad/Ran county have made their choices. Let the punk rot in jail.

10:48, you are one confused redneck. You are talking about David....never mind.

10:48, I think the comments reflect that people are tired of spending money housing and feeding people who are making individual choices.

A brain is private property - if you choose to alter it, you alone should reap the benefits/or suffer the consequences.

Drug laws are Conservative America's ultimate "blame someone/something" else scam.

btw, you don't have your facts in order - MG was fired by Clark and then beat him in the election.

yep, those 52 year and 60 year sentences are really doing the job making Rankin County virtually drug free! The 60 year sentences are sale cases of prior drug offenders who are also habitual offenders, those sentences are set by statute. Coates deserves pen time, maybe 12 - 15 years, but not virtually a life sentence.

I like Madison's million-dollar bonds. Now THAT sends a friggin' message to either stay in Cantonia or Jacktown.

Just like Guest, child molesters, rapist and the like get less time.

Wood Brown wanted Mr. Guest to presecute Mr Weathersby, he would not and Brown tokk it to the Media.

Ratcheting up sentences gives the Legislature the illusion of accomplishing something, seemingly "for free." Spending more $$ on law enforcement, addiction programs, etc. is "spending money," which is bad, because TAXES! But high sentences do have to be paid for, as the commenters here understand.

To the person who asked whose kid did he sell drugs to:

Andy Taggart was quoted several times in the CL's article on this talking about his son's struggle with drugs (which ended in suicide). Think he had any influence?

If more drug dealers would get sentences like this, the war on drugs might actually work. The DA should get the entire client list and go after them as well.

3:40, that's right - "go after the entire client list".

Anyone who has the audacity to dictate what happens inside their own brain should be jailed.

If you want to control the brain chemistry of the populace, do you want to control their access to weapons?

Is this Guest the same guy of Mississippi Court Collections ?

I caught a guy breaking into my Dad's truck. Chased him, got his tag number, Rankin S.O. picked him up, he confessed -- and I hear today the investigator cut him loose! And it wasn't his first rodeo, he'd been busted for it at Mississippi State. So now there's no paper on him from his second bust (if it was his second). All because his Daddy lives in a big house in a gated community at the Rez.

Obviously I'm a little bit miffed about it.

Reading the print version of the C-L today, and using his own reported definition, Andy Taggart's family is one of abject failure.

There is simply no explanation how such activities flew under Andy's and dead father Coates' radars that can be justified with all the ills and derelictions heaped upon the black community and families who have unfortunately experienced the same loss of life and woes.

406- the right to bear arms is in the bill of rights. Taking illegal drugs is a crime. To think that taking illegal drugs is ok- you must be one of those radical liberal California types who just want to turn America into some sort of Amsterdam-like free for all.

Yes, 8:03, I am insane enough to believe that people should be free to live with the consequences of their choices. I don't need your nanny state dictating my health on issue upon which I can read scientific literature and make my own mind up.

But I bet you're against a nanny state, right?

11:59 if one wants to live free of all government restraint, you can move to wide open spaces and for the most part escape. That's all fine. However if you choose to sell illegal drugs in a populated area, like this Rankin county thug did, be prepared to go to jail. He's going to live with the consequences of his actions. How is being tough on crime nanny state? Leniency in the courts and untrustworthy jurors is part of the reason crime is so rampant in JXN. Commit a crime in Madison/Rankin and you will be caught for the most part and then get a jury that will convict.

Perhaps some of these drugs were used in rapes, or the money to purchase was the result of a robbery. We don't know, but I'm with the one of, if not the greatest, President Reagan in the belief that "Drugs are menacing our society. They're threatening our values and undercutting out institutions. They're killing our children."

According to the C-L story, "Mary Alice Coates was 21 when she was sentenced in 2012 in Lafayette County Circuit Court to eight years in prison for conspiring to sell MDMA. She is an inmate at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility."

The MDOC website inmate search indicates she is on Central Mississippi House Arrest: http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/InmateDetails.asp?PassedId=174940

3:51, Your right, it's drugs - not shoddy parenting, not lack of personal responsibility of parents AND kids, nor is it wholesale scientific stupidity that's wrong with our society...Always looking for someone or something else to blame, it's the FDA approved, American way. Just don't blame the legal drugs-they're just fine.

Um...being scared to manage your own brain chemistry and depending on the government to tell you what you can do with your own property (your brain) - IS relying on the nanny state. And, referencing your quote above, America wouldn't have it any other way.

4:33 you sound like you are out one drug dealer and looking for a new one.

Um, no.

Just keep thinking for yourself, er, I mean keep passing off responsibility - it's working well for America.

I ddn't see this posted but he got ten years from the Feds so will serve that concurrently with the state time, but it is thought by several close to the case that he probably serve about 25% of the 48 years (52 minus the eight). Interested to see why the DA would say.

Dumb A$$ Guest should come on KF and give his side of the story