Judge OKs woman finding guardian for kids before prison
When judges sentence defendants, they often are also sentencing their families to a level of hardship. When both parents are locked up for years, the burden is multiplied for children.
That’s why U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson went as far as lining up a foster couple for Hopie Dawn Edwards’ four children before Edwards, who was sentenced on Tuesday, begins a 35-month prison sentence for laundering drug money.
Defense attorney Martin S. Pinales said Franklin County Children Services told Edwards that her children might be placed with separate foster families and, after two years, could be adopted to different families.
Watson continued the sentencing hearing several times so Edwards could decide who would take care of her and her husband, Damian’s, four children.
“I know I’m sentencing the whole family,” Watson told Edwards. “That’s why I’ve taken extraordinary steps in this case.”
Edwards, 36, of the West Side, ended up arranging a guardian who will watch over her three teenage children and a toddler.
“The kids are doing well,” Watson said. He said he wanted to make sure the older ones stayed in their current schools.
Damian Edwards, 40, was sentenced earlier this year to 7 years in prison for operating a drug ring that transported $11.7 million worth of marijuana from Tucson, Arizona, to Columbus between 2014 and 2016. Some loads were 2,000 to 3,000 pounds.
Pinales said his client had a “horrible” childhood, facing discrimination even within her own family, and then “she fell in love with a drug dealer.”
Hopie Edwards said it was that love and devotion to her husband — and to their children — that prompted her to help in the drug-trafficking organization by laundering the ill-gotten cash.
After her husband’s arrest, she was stopped at Miami International Airport carrying $102,000. Authorities later found $1.3 million in cash, a weapon and a drug ledger at their West Side home.
The drug proceeds allowed the couple to buy property in Jamaica worth “many millions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hunter said.
That property has been seized by the U.S. Marshals Service. Because of that, Watson told her, the government decided not to also seize a carwash that the family operates. And it didn’t take their West Side home.
Damian Edwards is a Jamaican citizen and will be deported after prison, leaving Hopie Edwards, a U.S. citizen, to care for the children left at home.
Hunter had recommended 36 months in prison for Hopie Edwards. Watson went just a month less than that.
“You’re a minor participant, not knowing the full scope of the drug-trafficking operation,” Watson said. “But it’s a serious crime. Ultimately, the money is returned to the (drug) cartels.”
Watson allowed Hopie Edwards to report to prison after the winter holidays. He urged her to tell Pinales whether the arrangement with the guardian falls through.
Hopie Edwards was the final defendant to be sentenced from the drug operation.
Damian Edwards’ brother, Tazio Edwards, 39, of Columbus, is serving four years in prison and German Alfredo White, 55, of Florida, who drove a tractortrailer to deliver some of the drugs, was sentenced to almost four years.