Cape Girardeau man sentenced to five years for drug conviction

A second man arrested in a Cape Girardeau drug bust received a five year prison sentence Tuesday.

Mississippi County Circuit Judge David A. Dolan handed down the sentence to Anthony R. Bell, 22, of 337 N. Ellis St., after the defendant entered a guilty plea to felony drug trafficking before, said Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle. The case was being held in Mississippi County following a change of venue motion.

Bell was arrested Sept. 30 at 927 Jefferson Ave. when police issued a search warrant for the home.

Another man arrested, Darrell Wiseman, 24, of the Jefferson Avenue home, was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for the same charge.

During the search of the home, police found 17 grams of cocaine on a nearby street, five grams in the living room, three grams on basement steps, 3.4 grams on a landing to the basement, and 5.9 grams near a leaving room couch that Bell had been sitting on, Swingle said.

Bell's arrest and subsequent conviction was in violation of probation he had received for a June 17, 2005 arrest for selling $20 in crack to an undercover officer. He received five years probation on Sept. 19, just 11 days before his next drug-related arrest, Swingle said.

If convicted of the probation violation, Swingle said prosecutors would ask the sentence run concurrent with his sentencing for the drug trafficking.