71-Year-Old Woman Faces Drug Charges Great-Grandmother Accused Of Selling Crack Cocaine

Spokane prosecutors have charged a 71-year-old great-grandmother with selling crack cocaine, making her the oldest person in the county currently facing felony drug charges.

Authorities accuse Arctura Warfield of selling $50 worth of crack cocaine to a police informant on April 17, 1996.

Though she has no criminal record in Spokane County, police say Warfield is an active member of a drug-dealing family that operated out of her East Central home.

Warfield’s son, 47-year-old Earnest Finnie, was sentenced in March to a 42-month prison term for selling crack to the same informant at about the same time.

His son, Earnest Finnie Jr., 20, awaited a verdict Thursday in Superior Court after standing trial on a crack-dealing charge.

Prosecutors offered Warfield a two-year prison term in exchange for pleading guilty.

If she goes to trial instead, they’re threatening to charge Warfield as an accessory in the two other sales her son and grandson were charged with. They say on those occasions she took money, then got her son or grandson to hand over the drugs.

Warfield denies taking part in any crack sales. Her trial is set for Oct. 6.

Her attorney, Lorraine Parlange, has refused the plea bargain, saying, “We are contesting all the facts in this case.”

Parlange said she’s amazed that prosecutors and police claim Warfield and her relatives were running a major drug house.

“If this was such a big family of drug dealers, how could they search the house the day of the ‘sale’ and find nothing there?” Parlange asked.

Deputy Prosecutor Sharon Aizer declined to comment on the case, saying she wants to avoid prejudicing potential jurors.

Warfield, her son and grandson were all arrested last year after police said they arranged several “controlled buys” at Warfield’s home last April.

In all three cases, prosecutors are relying on the testimony of informant J.D. Bailey, a former cocaine addict who has been paid $50 per drug buy he arranges. Bailey acknowledged his past drug use and informant work during Earnest Finnie Jr.’s trial this week.

Deputy Prosecutor Claude Montecucco, the acting drug team leader in the prosecutor’s office, said he has never seen someone as old as Warfield charged with drug trafficking.

“This is out of the usual in that way,” Montecucco said. If Warfield goes to trial, prosecutors will also use a videotape taken on April 17, 1996, allegedly showing the sale of drugs by Warfield to Bailey.

Said Spokane police detective Brad Thoma: “She did deliver crack that one time, and she was an accomplice on two other buys.”

Asked why a trained police dog found no illegal drugs at Warfield’s home the evening of the alleged sale, Thoma said: “That’s not at all unusual. It happens frequently. They hide it somewhere or they’ve run out. There are many reasons that happens.”

Dick Sanger, a county public defender who represented Earnest Finnie Jr. during this week’s trial, expressed concern over the deal being offered Warfield in exchange for a guilty plea.

“Putting her into prison for two years could be a life sentence for someone like that,” he said.

Parlange said Warfield has lived in Spokane since 1952 and is now the primary caregiver to her 11-year-old great-granddaughter.

, DataTimes