Tony Ealy - Michigan
State: Michigan
Sentence: 33 to 110 years
Offense: 3 counts of manufacturing, dealing and possession of less than 50 grams cocaine; 1 count of mfg. del. pos. 50-224 grams; 1 count of mfg. del. pos. 225-649 grams
Priors: None
Year sentenced: 1995
Age at sentencing: 34
Earliest release date: Nov. 29, 2027
Tony was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Tony had a happy childhood and a close relationship with his family. He was one of seven children and his father worked long hours as a truck driver to support them. After graduating from high school in 1978, Tony entered the workforce. He worked fulltime for S & D Warehouse for the next 12 years. When they went out of business, Tony found employment at a general hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital shut down two years later. Tony was then hired by Met-L-Aid Company and worked there for the several years until that company also went under.
Tony began using cocaine in 1994 after he lost his Met-L-Aid job. He was frustrated and scared about his economic future--it was his third stint of unemployment due to company failure in six years. A former coworker introduced Tony to cocaine and Tony quickly became dependant. He began to buy small amounts of the drug and would sell part of his purchase to interested friends as a way to subsidize his addiction. Tony would purchase very small amounts of cocaine (fractions of a gram) that was worth between 25 and 50 dollars.
After police found drugs on a young woman who was an acquaintance of Tony’s, she agreed to cooperate in exchange for leniency. The woman set-up controlled buys with Tony, each time demanding a larger amount of cocaine. On October 13, 1994, she bought 1/8 of a gram from Tony for her “boyfriend,” an undercover police officer. Over the next six weeks, the woman arranged to buy cocaine from Tony four more times. The first three sales amounted to ½ gram, 1 gram, and 3 ½ grams. The fourth was just over 50 grams and the fifth was for 250 grams. Tony was arrested after the fifth sale.
Tony pled guilty and the judge sentenced him to the mandatory minimum on all five counts. Though Tony had never seen as much as three grams of cocaine at one time before his involvement with the undercover officer, he was sentenced to 1-20 years on each of the 3 counts of manufacturing, dealing and possession of less than 50 grams of cocaine, 10-20 years for manufacturing, dealing, and possession of 50-224 grams, and 20-30 years for manufacturing, dealing, and possession of 225-649 grams.
In 2000, the Michigan legislature repealed its mandatory minimum laws for drug offenses, resulting in parole eligibility for prisoners who had served half of the minimum sentence. Tony, a first-time nonviolent offender, must still serve 16 ½ years in prison before he is eligible for parole. The young woman who cooperated with police after drugs were found in her possession faced no charges.
At the time of his arrest Tony was 34 years old and engaged to be married. While incarcerated, Tony has participated in every program available to beat his drug addiction including Narcotics Anonymous, substance abuse classes, and relapse prevention courses. He has also completed numerous vocational classes. Tony has now been in prison for almost a decade and a half. Unfortunately, if the law or his sentence is not reformed, Tony has many years left to serve behind bars.