State v. Winston

ON REHEARING

HIGHTOWER, Judge.

Upon the state’s application, we granted a partial rehearing to reconsider our determination that a sentence of nine years at hard labor for distribution of cocaine constituted an abuse of the sentencing judge’s discretion under the facts of this case. After vacating that portion of our original opinion, we now reinstate and affirm the sentence imposed by the trial court.

Defendant’s conviction stems from a single drug transaction during which he sold a “rock” of cocaine to an undercover narcotics agent for $20. At the sentencing hearing, he admitted being a drug…