EXTRA CONTENT: Knoxville woman gets 25 months for selling drugs in north Corbin

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A Knoxville, Tenn. mother of two who admitted to selling Oxycodone pills for at least two years at and near a north Corbin truck stop was sentenced Monday to 25 months behind bars.

Angela Parker apologized to her family and to U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar during her formal sentencing hearing in London Monday saying she was "ashamed" of her past drug trafficking and addiction. She said she has worked hard, during her six-month incarceration at the Pulaski County Detention Center, in intensive drug abuse therapy programs and plans to stay drug free when released.

Parker was arrested June 28, 2008 after authorities Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Two Rivers Drug Task Force were given information that she and her partner, Michael Hill, also of Knoxville, were staying at the Knights Inn Motel in southern Laurel County and were trafficking in Oxycontin pills.

According to an affidavit filed in the case after Parker’s arrest, U.S. Forest Service Agent Robert S. O’Neill says he located a vehicle, matching the description of the one the two were said to be in, parked in front of room 322 at the motel. About and hour and 45 minutes later, he followed the car to a parking lot between Super 8 Motel and Burger King where it parked. Five minutes later, O’Neill says he witnessed a "hand-to-hand" exchange between the driver of a Ford pickup truck and Hill.

The driver of the truck, Kyle Barton of Woodbine, was stopped by Corbin police on Hwy. 26 near the Corbin Bypass. Under police questioning, he admitted he had purchased six Oxycontin 80 mg pills from Mike Hill. He later told authorities he had been purchasing Oxycontin pills from Hill and his girlfriend, Parker, since 2001.

Under police direction, Barton set up another pill purchase with Hill at the Pilot Truck Stop in north Corbin. Police observed the exchange and arrested Hill, seizing two pill bottles with Oxycontin pills in them and $210.

Parker was arrested a short time later at the Corbin Travel Plaza. Authorities found $4,325 in U.S. currency in her purse and 195 pills of various sorts of prescription drugs.

Parker admitted to authorities that she had been traveling to Corbin for about two years to sell pills. Hill said he had been selling for about four years in order to make money for his children. He said he was disabled and could not work.

Hill claimed he averaged between $1,500 and $2,000 a weekend selling pills, and sometimes made up to $2,800.

In the affidavit, O’Neill said Hill told him he was 99 percent responsible for the drug sales and that Parker was one percent responsible.

Thapar wrestled Monday with what he felt was an appropriate sentenced for Parker. He said he felt as if the guidelines for the crime, 25 to 30 months, did not adequately account for the seriousness of the crime, pointing out that addiction to prescription painkillers has been a particularly troublesome problem in eastern Kentucky.

"It doesn’t help when people from outside add poison to the mix," he said. "When people come to Kentucky with this stuff … I want them to know it is completely unacceptable."

He noted that Hill was obviously the ringleader of the effort, a fact that worked in Parker’s favor.

Thapar also wanted to ensure that Parker had a chance to go through a special "intense" drug rehabilitation program while incarcerated, something a sentence within the guideline range would not likely accomplish.

Parker could have received up to 20 years in prison.

Parker’s defense attorney, Brandon Storm, argued her dedication to her current drug rehab program, and good behavior during pre-trial detention warranted a light sentence. Assistant U.S. District Attorney Greg Ousley did not oppose a 25-month sentence.

Parker said in court she has a 16-year-old son and 19-year-old-daugher, who is in college, and she plans to reconnect with them when she is released from incarceration.

Information garnered from Hill and Parker was used by authorities two days later to seize 18 video poker machines from Corbin Travel Plaza. Police say the machines were set to pay out winners, a violation of Kentucky anti-gambling laws.

Hill said he’d won up to $13,000 on the machines before and would play them often in between drug deals.

Corbin Travel Plaza is now closed.

Hill is slated to be sentenced later this month by U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove.