Elkton man gets eight years of incarceration in drug-gun cases

Cecil County Circuit Court Judge Brenda A. Sexton imposed a 10-year sentence on the defendant, Kason Lee, 32, of Elkton, on Feb. 13 for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and then suspended five years of the penalty — leaving him with a mandatory five-year prison term, court records show. The judge gave Lee credit for approximately 21 months that he had served as a pre-trial inmate, according to the sentencing sheet.

Sexton also imposed a concurrent one-year sentence on Lee for illegal possession of ammunition, court records show. Another conviction in that criminal case — illegal possession of a firearm — merged with the others.

In the second criminal case, Sexton imposed a consecutive 10-year sentence on Lee for possession of an illegal drug with intent to distribute and then suspended all but one year and a day — increasing Lee’s prison term at that point to six years, including the mandatory five years, according to court records.

Sexton also imposed a consecutive five-year sentence on Lee for possession of an illegal drug with intent to distribute within a school zone and then suspended three years of the penalty — translating to the judge tacking on two more years to Lee’s six-year prison term, leaving him with a total of eight years of incarceration, court records show.

Another conviction in that criminal case merged at sentencing.

In the remaining criminal case, Sexton imposed a six-month sentence on Lee for making a false statement to a police officer and then suspended all but the time that he already had served as a pre-trial inmate, court records show.

As part of the overall sentence, Sexton ordered Lee to serve five years of supervised probation after completing his eight-year term — minus the roughly 21 months he already had served — in a Maryland Department of Corrections prison, according to court records.

In December, at the conclusion of a three-day-long trial, a Cecil County Circuit Court jury deliberated for 47 minutes before finding Lee guilty of those seven criminal offenses, three of which are felonies. Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Lewis prosecuted Lee, who was represented by Baltimore-based defense lawyer David Shapiro.

The jury convicted Lee of possession of a controlled and dangerous substance with intent to distribute, possession of a controlled and dangerous substance with intent to distribute within a school zone and drug possession.

Those convictions relate to Elkton Police Department investigators simultaneously raiding two Hollingsworth Manor residences that are two blocks away from each other at approximately 10:20 a.m. on April 21, 2020, when they seized more than two ounces of marijuana, more than $1,000 in cash and four digital scales, in addition to the 91 baggies of heroin/fentanyl, court records show. Investigators also confiscated five MDMA pills, which, commonly called “ecstasy” or “molly,” is a psychedelic drug, police reported.

The jury also convicted Lee of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, illegal possession of a regulated firearm and illegal possession of ammunition, court records show.

Those convictions are connected to an incident on March 30, 2020, when Lee purportedly waved a handgun on the street of Huntsman Drive near the Hollingsworth Manor neighborhood, causing at least one eyewitness to complain to police, and then ran into a residence on that block when he noticed arriving officers, according to court records.

While searching 122 Huntsman Dr. — the residence that Lee had entered — investigators confiscated a 9mm handgun, a .22 caliber rifle and two .22 caliber revolvers, as well as a pink fanny pack “filled with ammo,” a magazine loaded with .22 caliber bullets and four loose .22 caliber rounds, court records show.

EPD Det. Shannon Comley processed the confiscated firearms for DNA and obtained a warrant that allowed detectives to take DNA samples from Lee and three other adults investigators had linked to that Huntsman Drive residence, police reported.

Maryland State Police lab technicians found DNA on the handle of a HiPoint 9mm Luger pistol that had been confiscated from the Huntsman Drive residence and determined that Lee was a “major male contributor,” court records show. Moreover, lab technicians concluded that there is a 1 and 333 billion chance that the DNA found on that gun handles belongs to someone other than Lee, according to court records.

A criminal background check revealed that Lee is banned from possessing firearms because he is a convicted felon relating, in part, to an armed robbery, police reported.

Approximately three weeks after confiscating that 9mm handgun, as well as other firearms, EPD detectives conducted the simultaneous houses raids in Hollingsworth Manor that led to Lee’s arrest, drug charges and his three related convictions in the wake of last week’s jury trial. Information gathered during that Huntsman Drive gun investigation was part of the reason detectives conducted those simultaneous house raids, one in the unit block of Hollingsworth Manor, the other in the 200 block of that neighborhood.

(The two Hollingsworth Manor residences that police raided in April 2020 are within 1,000 feet of the Family Education Center, which relates to Lee’s conviction for possession of a controlled and dangerous substance with intent to distribute within a school zone.)

“122 Huntsman has been reported to be a drug house by numerous complainants through the months. I have had CIs in the past advise that Kason Lee distributes (drugs) and has a couple of stash houses in the Hollingsworth Manor area. It is common for drug distributors to protect their stash house from the police and competing drug distributors,” the lead investigator explained in court records after Lee’s arrest in 2020.

Jurors also convicted Lee of making a false statement to a law enforcement officer, which he committed on Dec. 16, 2019, court records show.