Area briefs 1/31/06

Local woman sentenced to prison for overmedicating her child

A woman who pleaded guilty to first-degree felony child endangerment for overmedicating her child was sentenced to prison Monday. Holly K. Hency, 26, of 1918 Sherwood Drive, received five years imprisonment, with 120 days of shock incarceration with the possibility of probation following that four-month period. She was accused in October of giving her 3-year-old son dangerous amounts of an anti-seizure medication. "I realize now it would have caused a lot of harm to my son," she said in court prior to Circuit Judge William Syler handing down the sentence. The child is now under the care of a relative.

Tate gets eight years for selling crack cocaine

A 18-year-old man accused of selling crack cocaine to an undercover police officer pleaded guilty in court Monday and was sentenced. Circuit Judge William Syler sentenced Lorenzo Tate, of 220 S. Lorimier St., to eight years in prison for selling crack cocaine and, in a related case, four years for resisting arrest and eight years for possession of cocaine. He will receive 120 days of shock incarceration, afterwhich he could be eligible for probation. Tate admitted in court to selling crack cocaine to the undercover officer June 17. On June 21, Tate fled from officers in his vehicle when he was spotted making a drug sale. The vehicle eventually crashed, and he was hospitalized. Tate's arrest was one of several made as the result of a two-month operation on South Hanover Street last summer where undercover officers made drug purchases, and then arrested the sellers.

-- From staff reports