Madison-Rankin District Attorney Michael Guest issued the following statement.
Man Charged with Capital Murder in Hinds County Receives Maximum Sentence for
Possessing Twenty Pounds of Marijuana
Madison and Rankin Counties’ District Attorney Michael Guest announced today that Christopher Craig Bennett received the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing twenty pounds of marijuana, found during a routine traffic stop around County Line Road in Ridgeland.
Bennett is also facing a capital murder charge in Hinds County for the death of Chivas McElveen who was shot multiple times on May 9, 2016. Bennett is set for trial on July 10, 2017, in front of Judge Tommie Green.
On February 12, 2016, the Ridgeland Police Department stopped the car driven by Christopher Craig Bennet for a routine traffic stop. When the officer approached the vehicle he could smell the strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. The officer asked for and received consent to search Bennett’s vehicle.
During the search, a pistol was found along with an assault rifle. When the officer went to search the trunk Bennet, who had provided consent for the search, became extremely nervous. The officer located a blue bean bag which was found to contain twenty, one pound Ziploc bags of marijuana. Bennet was arrested and transported to the Madison County Detention Center. Bennett was questioned by law enforcement and admitted that the car he was driving belonged to him, but stated that he was not aware of the bean bag containing marijuana and that someone else must have put it in the trunk of his car.
Guest stated, “We must continue to aggressively prosecute violent drug dealer like Bennett. Pro marijuana advocates may say that marijuana is safe and harmless, but those who deal drugs still represent an extreme danger to our community. As prosecutors, from across America, step into courtrooms tomorrow, most of the crimes they will be prosecuting will be in some fashion related to illegal drugs.”
Guest added, “Madison and Rankin counties are no exception to the dangers drugs cause. I have personally seen many lives and families torn apart by drug abuse. As we continue to fight this problem we must partner with law enforcement, schools and the community to educate and bring awareness to the harm that illegal drugs often cause.”
Guest concluded, “I am very proud of the Ridgeland Police Department for not only removing a significant amount of drugs from our streets, but also allowing us to put behind bars an individual who allegedly took the life of another. I hope that this conviction will strengthen Hinds County’s case against Bennett as they seek to bring him to justice in the death of Chivas McElveen.”
District Attorney Michael Guest was sworn into office in January 2008 and represents the Twentieth Judicial District, Madison and Rankin Counties. For more information regarding the District Attorney’s office, follow us on Facebook, download our app or please visit www.daguest.com.
Defendants:
Name: Christopher Craig Bennett
Address: 3761 Terrell Avenue, Jackson
Date of Birth: October 22, 1984
Marijuana Fast Facts:
• Teens who use marijuana are nine times more likely to use other drugs, five times more likely to steal, and four times more likely to become violent.
• Marijuana is the most-used drug, after alcohol, and is frequently found present in the blood of people injured and fatally injured in DUI related car crashes.
• Smoking marijuana leads to changes in the brain similar to the effects caused by cocaine, heroin, and alcohol.
31 comments:
Marijuana fast facts: marijuana should be legal
I'd love to see some cites for those marijuana "facts."
Thank God these violent drug dealers give consent to search their vehicles so frequently. And thank God that marijuana is so pungent it can penetrate individual wrappings concealed in a bean bag hidden in a trunk all the way to the passenger compartment sufficient for a diligent police officer to smell it.
If alcohol had this kind of scent Prohibition would have been as successful as the War on Drugs!
Just a poor simple marijuana user. Not hurting anyone. Why oh why do we persecute these insignificant marijuana users who also happen to have a pistol and assault rifle. Oh why oh why are we stil waging war on weed?
10:08, 20 pounds is not personal use unless you're Dennis Rodman, Willie Nelson or Snoop Dogg. Marijuana fuels a black market economy which empowers the criminal element and begets additional criminal activity. If you are so interested in legal marijuana, either move to a state where its already legal, or get your legislator to introduce a bill and hire a lobbyist.
So tired of hearing about this....
Just a poor simple marijuana user, with 20lbs. and an assault rifle.
Lol.
Naming your child Chivas is like putting an expiration date on his forehead. He won't live to see 40.
This guy is scum and should go to prison. That having been said, I'm having a change of heart on marijuana legalization. I've never used it and stayed away from it all through my youth, so I'm not one of these stoner types who argues that hemp is the crop to save our nation when all he want is to disguise his dope plot.
I think the national mood is changing and people are less apprehensive about MJ as a gateway drug. Mississippi already decriminalized it some years ago. Maybe we should look to legalize it and tax it.
We'd certainly be the first state in the southeast to do it.
Well, Tommie Green's liable to give him a blessing on the murder charge, so at least he'll be off the street.
Why is it so difficult for people to understand that the violence associated with drugs is almost completely due to the fact that drugs are illegal? If you have an alcohol vendor that defaults on a contract, you can sue them in a court of law. No such recourse exists for a drug deal gone bad. We still haven't learned the lessons from alcohol prohibition. If this stuff were legal, much of the violence associated it would end.
My sister died, a couple of years back. I hadn't seen her for the last thirty years of her worthless life. She started as a pothead (along with her stepbrother, who, at 62, lives, on welfare - still living with his mother, having never had a job or gone to college, and having RUINED HER LIFE and bankrupted her. His Mom's been on welfare for 20 years, too), and graduated to the usual array of other substances.
We're an Upper-Middle Class family, arguably 'Lower-Upper-Class', with abilities and advantages well beyond those of other people. My stepbrother's family are similar, having quickly rebounded from escaping Cuba, with nothing, in '59. Today, they once-again are in positions of eminence, except for our pothead stepbrother, and his mother, whose life he's repeatedly ruined, in one way or another.
That's what happens, if you don't cut druggies (including potheads) out of your life. They will RUIN your life. When my sister died, I did go to the graveside service, but skipped the 'visitation'. NONE of her former husbands, NONE of her former lovers, and NONE of her former friends, were there - just family, and people there out of respect for our family. I did not offer to pay for any of this, nor did anyone ask, or even obliquely allude to the costs. That bitch had cost me plenty, when she was alive. I'd hoped to never see her again, and got my wish.
I'd started hoping she'd die, when she was still in her teens, a year or two after she'd started making so much trouble (and trying to drag me down into the gutter with her and her skuzzy friends). Relatives chastised me for SAYING it. But they were all telling me to stay away from her. So, I assume they agreed with me - secretly.
And if you're a pothead, you can be SURE that this is how your family feels about YOU. Even your parents (secretly) wish you were dead.
Marijuana aside, I'm surprised that a press release from the District Attorney's handlers refers to 'an assault rifle'. You'd think his press writers would know there's no such thing as 'an assault rifle'.
But, maybe not since this is the same D.A. who said he could not pursue Rudy Warnock's murder for hire claim because 'no crime has been committed'.
If your argument against legalized marijuana is that it fuels a black market economy, then you should reverse your stance. Legalizing marijuana would clearly take dollars away from the black market. And yes, this guy should have been arrested if he possessed illegal guns (don't remember if the release actually stated that he did not have a legal right to those guns). That has nothing to do with whether possessing marijuana, by itself, should be illegal. Also, people who drink alcohol are more likely to use hard drugs than people who do not drink alcohol, and adult consumption of alcohol shouldn't be illegal. What's your point with that "statistic," Kingfish?
Who's going to be the lucky commenter to post at 4:20?
12:31, you said "people who drink alcohol are more likely to use hard drugs than people who do not drink alcohol"
Please provide a scholarly source for this statement (and not just a poll of your friends)
I think Michael Guest does a great job.....but 30 years!?! Wow. We have to house and feed this dude for 30 years? I have a real problem with that. We have bigger issues than weed.
Remeber what finally got Capone was tax evasion. Kingfish any info on what kind of criminal history/previous convictions this "non-violent" gun possessing drug possessor had? I would guess quite lengthy. It amazes me that when justice is given to a Hinds County problem through another jurisdiction people are concerned with "oh my but it was only marijuana and a gun." It was obviously more than that and I'm sure he was sentenced based off of several different circumstances not just possessing weed. Take advantage and enjoy the fact that a violent individual is going to prison and that not all criminal justice systems are broken.
So when Hinds County drops the ball or gives him a suspended sentence once he completes the RID program for misdemeanor murder be glad that Guest's office did their jobs because he will still have 30 years on the weed.
Reefer Madness Alert! What the hell is DA Guest thinking here... I appreciate him prosecuting the hell out of violent criminals (and technically this guy probably is violent), but holy shite let's not go all 80's War on Drugs again. What a disaster. Congratulations to the taxpayers on getting stuck with the bill on this one.
This state is so behind the curve with respect to modern times. Word to the wise: do not be black and drive around with 20 pounds of salad.
@11:46
I imagine many reading your post will shake their heads and think you are making up much of what you said. That may well be, but I believe you. I have two family members (different generations from different sides of the family) in similar situations. The root of the problem for both of them is marijuana. Both were smart, hard working and dependable. Then a "little" marijuana entered their lives. One thing lead to another and now they are both a drag not only on family but also on social welfare programs. After years of trying to help "one more time" family has now reached the end of their rope. I can say that I don't wish death on either of them, but I do know that I've reached a point in my life where nothing I do or don't do is going to help or hurt them. It is up to the individual to get on the right path or continue to swim in the gutter.
As to whether or not marijuana should be legalized I don't know the answer. Just as many people use but don't abuse alcohol I'm sure the same goes for marijuana users. Chemical dependency, no matter the user's choice, is a horrible thing for not only the user but the family as well, perhaps even worse on the family.
The violence and crime surrounding illicit drugs lie completely in the prohibition.
Alcohol kills more people, destroys more lives, etc, etc. Your local liquor store owners and beer distributors don't have running gun battles in the street over territory.
Democrats bleat about 'my body, my choice,' but let's be honest, there's only one choice about our bodies you give the first flying rat's derriere about. Republicans bleat about smaller government and personal responsibility but want to kick in doors and flash bang kids in their cribs because someone inside might be getting high. Both groups probably do or did illicit drugs at some point in their lives and it didn't completely wreck them.
You wanna tut, tut everyone and tell them how to live their lives according to how you want them to, then just sack up and do so. They'll try not to laugh at you being overweight, or smoking cigarettes, or using booze, or prescription drugs, or eating trans fats.
Given the state of pretty much everything in Mississippi, maybe our rulers could find a better use of their time.
Nah, that doesn't get votes.
11:46, your sister sounds like a piece of shit, based on your description. She ruined herself and others with her terrible choices. So, what's your excuse for the poison emanating from your fingertips onto the pages of this blog? Her problem was outside in. Yours manifests from the inside out. Bitterness rots and eventually kills from the inside out.
I'd rather just move out of this god-forsaken state that will never get things right. Colorado is lovely, not nearly as many drunks and meth-heads and fatass hypocrites.
4:50...Do yourself a favor and spend a little time with your search-engine on traffic accidents and related crimes since Colorado's move to the other side.
But, back to Michael Guest.....he obviously knew the Jacktown Jurdge is going to forgive this guy's since so he went for the jugular. More to our benefit. Screw the cost of feeding him for thirty years. He won't be back in the news.
Colorado also has had a population boom. I'm sure you have a point but maybe read up on correlation vs causation first.
While you're at it, check out how Jackson's murder total is significantly higher than Denver's yet they have a metro population of 3 million.
I've spent plenty of time in CO since legalization and that place is awesome. Blows this place out of the water.
@10:03
Don't let the screen door hit you in the a@@. Bye Bye!
Don't you worry your sweet little heart about that. Enjoy your stay!
8:32, but your mind is still stuck on Sweet Home Mississippi. Why else would you be canvassing this site?
Tying up loose ends. Any more questions?
I'm amazed at these comments. This guy was facing capital murder charges and running around with 20 pounds of reefer and an assault rifle. Whether you favor decriminalized marijuana or not this guy was a criminal. I don't care if he got put away for jaywalking. Madison is safer without this criminal.
The guy probably is a violent criminal. Probably. But he hasn't even gone to trial yet for it. So we've already decided his guilt and the DA has thrown the entire library at him to preemptively take him down for murder.
No one at all has a problem using the scales of justice this way? Sure hope you never find yourself in a legal pickle then... At least in Madison/Rankin....
2:19 - Relax. "Preemptive" action has won wars before they got started good, saved communities and put bad people away for awhile. Nobody supports your version of 'wait and see justice'.
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