FARMINGTON – A Phillips man was sentenced to 90 days in jail today, after pleading guilty to possessing more than three pounds of marijuana.
Shawn Coolong, 45, was arrested in October 2007, after the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department’s Detective Thomas White executed a search warrant on Coolong’s property, as part of a larger investigation into illegal drug trafficking in the county. Coolong was originally charged with aggravated trafficking, a Class B felony, but he pleaded guilty today to unlawful trafficking of a scheduled drug, a Class C felony, as part of a plea deal worked out between the District Attorney’s Office and his attorney, Linda Sparks.
The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and a dog trained to find drugs assisted in the search of Coolong’s home, in which 3.5 pounds of processed marijuana was discovered, rolling papers, and at least a couple rooms outfitted with growing bulbs. The most significant amount was located in a closet, according to Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson. Coolong, Robinson noted, assisted with the search and was cooperative.
“At one point Mr. Coolong said that he would be going to jail,” Robinson said, reading from a police report. “When the officers asked him why, he said ‘because of what you’re going to find in there.'”
Coolong was sentenced to serve 90 days of a three-year, partially suspended sentence. He will face two years of probation upon release, as well as a $1,000 fine. He will also be held responsible for $200 of restitution to the Sheriff’s Department, to pay for tests used to ensure that the plants found in his house were marijuana.
Coolong will begin serving the sentence immediately.
