Pubdate: Fri, 16 Oct 1998
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Copyright: 1998, World Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.tulsaworld.com 
Author: David Harper

TWO TAHLEQUAH RESIDENTS SENTENCED IN DRUG CASE 

Two Tahlequah residents were sent to prison Thursday in a
methamphetamine case that has featured colorful nicknames and
allegations that the drug was brought into Oklahoma from the West Coast.

Cindy "Mom" Ericksten will spend 13 1/2 years in prison, pay $2,000 in
fines and serve five years' supervised release for her role in the
three-year conspiracy, U.S. District Judge Sven Erik Holmes ruled.

Jon "John Boy" Alauria will go to prison for 22 months, pay a $1,000
fine and serve one year of supervised release for misprision, or
knowing of the crime but not reporting it, Holmes decided.

Ericksten and Alauria had surrendered to authorities Dec. 18 after
being named in a Dec. 4 indictment, but their names were absent from a
superseding indictment that was unsealed Feb. 26.

There was nothing secretive about Alauria's May 14 guilty plea, but
Ericksten's case has proceeded under seal ever since her name
disappeared from the superseding indictment. The Tulsa World even
received electronic mail messages asking why Erick sten -- originally
charged with being at the top of the conspiracy -- apparently was not
being prosecuted while others in the case were being convicted and
sentenced to prison stretches that ranged up to 18 years.

Specifically, Holmes has sentenced conspirators Kenneth "X-Man"
Herndon to prison for 216 months, Brian Schmidt to prison for 172
months, Remegeo "Weedo" Carrillo to 156 months in custody and Robert
Lee Roy Seever to a federal facility for 150 months. Derrick Patrick
Pickard was sentenced to 27 months in prison for misprision, and
Robert "Country Bob" James was sentenced to 48 months in prison for
using a telephone to set up a drug transaction.

The documents in Ericksten's case remain sealed, but she reportedly
pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

The indictment alleged that the conspiracy brought methamphetamine
into Oklahoma from states such as California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Nevada and Texas.

David Harper can be reached at 581-8359.
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Checked-by: Patrick Henry