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Just more than two hours after deliberations started, the jury in the trial of a Warsaw man decided he was guilty of dealing cocaine.
Michael Otto Hale, 31, learned his fate around 4:05 p.m Wednesday afternoon when Judge Rex Reed read the verdict in open court.
"We, the jury, find the defendant, Michael Otto Hale, guilty of dealing more than three grams of cocaine, a Class A felony," Judge Reed read from the verdict form.
Hale will be sentenced in Kosciusko Circuit Court Aug. 17 at 9:30 a.m. He faces between 20 and 50 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Before heading to the jury room to deliberate Wednesday, the jury heard testimony from four witnesses lasting approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes.
Hale, who was the last witness to take the stand, told the jury that one of the informants who testified Tuesday visited Hale's house March 19 and left a bag of drugs at the residence overnight. Hale also said the informant picked up the bag March 20 during the time the drug transaction took place.
When asked if the informant gave him money for drugs March 20, Hale answered, "No, sir, he did not."
Then Hale was asked if he gave the informant cocaine that day. Hale replied "No, the only drugs I've seen were from (the informants)."
Hale then teared up and added, "I wish I'd never gotten involved with these people. ... I didn't have no drugs at all."
Later in his testimony, Hale told the jury he knew what cocaine was because, "I've seen cocaine. ... I've tried it before."
Hale previously served jail time for another charge of dealing cocaine and was released approximately three months before being arrested for this charge in March. In January 2002, Hale was found guilty of resisting law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor, after injuring an officer while trying to avoid a move from a cell block to a holding cell in the Kosciusko County Jail.
