Men caught in marijuana field work a deal with prosecutors

Caught on candid camera in the middle of a marijuana field last year, a pair of Grundy County men saw the writing on the wall and decided to cut a deal with prosecutors Friday for their part in a Rogers Hollow marijuana operation.

Danny McGee was directed to serve 150 days of a 10-year sentence while his partner in crime, Morris Richardson, was ordered to serve 185 days of a 10-year sentence for manufacture of marijuana. They must also pay $3,000 drug fines and must forfeit the handgun lawmen saw strapped to one of their hips in a picture captured by a hidden camera in the marijuana field.

The men were arrested while standing in the middle of the marijuana patch last year as sheriff?s investigators, who had staked out the field, caught them red-handed as they arrived to check on their crop. Officers had come across the field days before and set up hidden cameras which caught the men in the field. Investigators then waited for the suspects around their regular arrival time, taking them into custody when they entered the patch.

The men first claimed to be ginseng hunting. However, when confronted with the pictures of their past visits, they admitted their involvement, with McGee saying he did it because he was about to lose his longtime job at Carrier and needed the money.

The men will be on supervised probation after serving their jail time. They will also be liable for paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug taxes under a new state law which places a tax on illegal narcotics.