A man who was nabbed in a Smithville Police Department undercover drug investigation and months later allegedly burglarized a pickup truck was in DeKalb County Criminal Court Friday.
37 year old Robert Lee Nichols, Jr. appeared before Judge Gary McKenzie and entered a plea to sale of a schedule II drug (less than 0.5 grams) and auto burglary. He received a three year sentence in the drug case suspended to 180 days to serve and he was fined $2,000. Nichols got a two year sentence for the auto burglary to serve 19 days. The two terms are to run consecutively for a total of five years but he will be on TDOC probation. He was given jail credit of 106 days. Nichols is to make $48 restitution to the Smithville Police Department and $75 to other victims in the case.
Nichols was one of eight persons indicted as a result of an undercover drug investigation by the Smithville Police Department
“On January 14, 2016 the Police Department launched an undercover drug investigation based on several complaints of illegal drugs being sold throughout the city. Using a confidential informant we were able to make several buys throughout the city. The cases were presented to the DeKalb County Grand Jury on Monday, November 28, 2016 and sealed indictments were returned against these individuals,” Chief Mark Collins told WJLE.
The indictment against Nichols and a co-defendant alleges that on February 22, 2016 they did unlawfully and knowingly sell and or deliver a controlled substance, to wit: Methamphetamine, a schedule II controlled substance, in an amount under 0.5 grams.
Meanwhile, in November, 2016 Nichols was arrested for auto burglary by the Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Patrick Ray, said that on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 Nichols and another person broke into a 1998 Nissan Frontier and stole a machete and foldup chair. Entry was made by breaking out the glass window to the truck. The next day, Thursday November 10, Nichols was arrested after being stopped near his home on Hodges Road for driving on a revoked license. The case was investigated by a detective of the sheriff’s department.
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