Covington Couple Sentenced for Heroin Conspiracy

COVINGTON — A Covington, Ky., couple has been sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to distribute heroin in northern Kentucky.

U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning sentenced William Lovelace, 25, to 90 months for conspiracy and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.  Tonia Cross received a 24 month sentence for conspiracy.  Under federal law, both defendants must serve at least 85 percent of their prison sentence, and upon release, Lovelace and Cross will serve terms of supervised release of 10 and 3 years, respectively.

Lovelace and Cross pleaded guilty in January of this year and admitted they conspired to distribute heroin in Campbell and Kenton Counties on multiple occasions, between May 1, 2014 and August 16, 2014.

Authorities arrested Cross and Lovelace on August 16, 2014, after observing Lovelace, armed with a handgun, sell heroin in Bellevue.    

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Howard S. Marshall, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Colonel Wayne Turner, Chief of Police, Bellevue Police Department, jointly made the announcement today.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force and the Bellevue Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Bracke prosecuted this case on behalf of the federal government.