COURT HOUSE — A convicted Wildwood drug dealer lost a recent appeal and remains incarcerated in a halfway house program.
Jimmy White (also known as Jimmy Lee White and Mark White) was charged with distribution of crack cocaine; conspiracy to distribute; distribution within 1,000 feet of school property; conspiracy to distribute within 1,000 feet; possession; and possession of a police scanner while in the course of committing a crime. These charges were related to an incident that occurred on Jan. 24, 1998.
Working with a confidential informant, Wildwood police detectives conducted a sting operation buying a half-ounce of crack for $650 from an associate of White’s in Wildwood’s Garden Park. The associate implicated White, who was later arrested and charged following a search of his apartment on the 400 block of Magnolia Avenue.
The trial court imposed an aggregate term of ten years in prison, with five years of parole ineligibility to be served concurrently with a sentence he was then serving in Pennsylvania. He was sentenced on March 12, 2004.
White was also charged with jumping bail for not appearing at sentencing. He pled guilty to that charge and received a five-year sentence.
He was denied post-conviction relief on the drug charges by the trial court.
On Nov. 12, 2008, White submitted an appeal to the Superior Court’s Appellate Division claiming his defense lawyer was ineffective for allowing hearsay evidence, failing to investigate alibi witnesses and not discussing White’s right to testify on his own defense.
On Feb. 17 this year, Appellate Court Judges Dorothea Wefing, Lorraine Parker and Laura LeWinn affirmed the trial court’s decision. They said claims of ineffective counsel must pass a two-prong test showing that the attorney did not provide “reasonable professional assistance” and that the attorney’s “deficient performance prejudiced the defense.”
White’s claims did not pass the test.
In the end, the judges rejected his arguments noting that “there is no merit to defendant’s claim that he had presented a prima facie case of ineffective assistance of counsel, thus warranting a plenary hearing.”
According to a state Department of Corrections offender search, White is in a halfway house Residential Community Release Program, which provides emphasis on employment, educational activities and treatment, under the state’s jurisdiction.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
