Two Kentucy Men Plead Guilty to Iowa Marijuana Grow
Contact: Peter Deegan
Two Kentucky men caught trying to grown marijuana in an Iowa corn field pled guilty on June 6, 2011, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Eugene Cecil Burnett, 59, and his son, Kelly Eugene Burnett, 28, both from Monticello, Kentucky, were convicted of conspiracy to grow or attempt to grow over 100 marijuana plants.
At the plea hearing, the Burnetts admitted they were unloading marijuana to plant in a corn field on June 23, 2008, when the field’s owner approached. Hearing the farmer’s truck approach, Eugene Burnett drove off with Kelly Burnett in the truck bed leaving behind other co-conspirators. Officers later seized 465 marijuana plants from the ditch where the truck had been parked. An Iowa County sheriff’s deputy stopped the truck, on Interstate 80. Eugene Burnett fled on foot, leaving his son, Kelly Burnett, behind in the truck bed with five trays containing 506 marijuana plants. The marijuana plants were in trays identical to the trays found in the ditch where the truck had been parked shortly before the traffic stop. In a co-conspirator’s hotel room, officers found a map to a field around the corner from where the Burnetts were caught planting. Officers later discovered an additional 965 marijuana plants there.
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade will be set after a presentence report is prepared. The Burnetts were taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. The Burnetts face a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, a $2,000,000 fine each, $100 in special assessments each, and 4 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marti S. Sleister and was investigated by the Iowa County Sheriff's Office; the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement; and the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 11-85.
