Man Sentenced To Six Life Terms, Plus.......

NORFOLK --Santiago Powell greeted two young female sailors at gunpoint in December 2009.

To prove he was the "baddest" gangster in the city, a prosecutor said, Powell held the women for hours while he robbed and raped them.

A jury on Monday convicted Powell of 28 felonies, including four counts of rape, abduction, robbery and weapons violations. Circuit Judge Mary Jane Hall followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Powell to six life terms, plus 253 years.

The five-day trial brought testimony about Powell's role in a local affiliate of the Bloods gang.

"He thrives on power and he thrives on violence, and that's why he committed these crimes," prosecutor Charlotte Purkey said.

The first victim testified that Powell, 24, broke into her apartment on Dec. 9, 2009, and pointed a gun at her face. The woman, an active-duty Navy sailor, said that Powell robbed her, raped her and threatened to have her killed.

The woman said she thought her life was over. "This is it," she said she told herself. "It's not fair."

Purkey said the attack lasted three to five hours.

Powell stole the first victim's cell phone and, days later, used it to lure the second victim, according to testimony.

Powell and an accomplice traded texts to the second victim, also an active-duty sailor, and met her in a quiet neighborhood.

The two men pointed guns at the woman, blindfolded her, took her car and drove her around for several hours.

During the abduction, the accomplice, William Barco, used a phone that had been given to him by a Norfolk city employee and paid for with city funds, according to officials and court documents. Barco goes to trial this month.

After Powell dropped off Barco, he took the woman to a hotel and raped her three times, she testified.

"He took my life in his hands and played with it like a toy," she said.

The ordeal lasted for 13 hours, she said.

Powell was captured days later near Oceanair Elementary School. He was lured to the school by police and the first victim, who contacted Powell on her stolen cell phone. She pretended to be another woman wanting to meet him, according to testimony.

Instead, he was met by police.

The minimum punishment for the convictions was more than 100 years in prison. Defense attorney Daymen Robinson asked the jury for leniency, saying Powell had a difficult life and grew up in foster homes. Robinson said he plans to appeal.

The women said their lives had been permanently changed but vowed it would not hinder them. The second victim said she now looks forward to deployments.

"That was one place he couldn't get to me," she said, "out in the ocean."

www.hamptonroads.com

Food Stamps For Felons??

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― California is now one step closer to providing food stamps for convicted felons who sold drugs. The measure has strong support – and also plenty of criticism at the Capitol – where some say it's a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.

Vinita Crenshaw is a convicted drug dealer – and just days away from delivering a baby. She supports a bill that would allow some 900 convicted drug dealers in California to receive food stamps. Crenshaw says food stamps might have stopped her from selling drugs years ago.

"I don't think that I would have ended up resorting back to the behavior that If did," she told CBS 13, then added, " if I had just a little bit more help."

Just last month, the State Assembly passed a bill exempting California from a federal ban on food stamps for convicted drug dealers.

AB1756 Fact Sheet (.pdf)

"Right now under current law, if you commit murder you get food stamps," said Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, the author of a bill that would alter the rules of eligibility.

Swanson is correct – the federal food stamp program has no restrictions preventing convicted murderers form getting food stamps upon their release.

But for drug dealers it's a different story – with more than a dozen states banning the practice of providing food stamps for drug dealers – and California is one of them.

(See page 22 in link below)
State Options Report (.pdf)

But that may soon change.

"Why are we trying to do that?" Swanson asked out loud. The Democrat from Oakland then answered his own question. "We're trying to make sure that there's a rehabilitation package available that will prevent them from re-offending and coming back into prison at a cost of $50,000 a year."

Supplying convicted drug dealers with food stamps would cost federal tax players an estimated one million dollars a year. Critics say the bill would reward criminals for bad behavior.

Lew Uhler, president of the Roseville based National Tax Limitation Committee told CBS 13: "Giving them the currency to remain in the drug world, which is food stamps getting traded off for drugs, is a silly and stupid approach."

The controversial bill does not require drug dealers to go through any counseling to get the food stamps – and Capitol critics believe it's a step in the wrong direction for California.

"Every dollar that you put towards someone who manufactured and distributed drugs is another dollar less that you have for a poor family - a law abiding poor family," said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a Republican from Irvine.

The food stamp bill now goes to the State Senate for a possible vote later this month.

The California legislature, which is dominated by Democrats, previously approved two similar bills – both were vetoed in the past by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

www.cbs.com