Misty Croslin gets deal deadline

PALATKA -- Misty Croslin, a central figure in the case of missing HaLeigh Cummings, was told Thursday in Putnam County court that she has until mid-August to make a deal with prosecutors in seven drug-trafficking cases that could send her to prison for decades.

Croslin, who called authorities the night the 5-year-old went missing, appeared before Judge Terry LaRue ahead of her brother. Hank "Tommy" Croslin Jr., 23, pleaded no contest to trafficking and possession and will be sentenced this summer.

After four months in jail, the siblings are now closer to prison terms that are governed by minimum mandatory sentences that some say give prosecutors undue control over cases because of a judge's limited discretion to waiver.

While the drug cases are not connected to HaLeigh's disappearance, investigators have said they would take advantage of the drug arrests to ask about the high-profile mystery.

One of the few ways for judges to deviate from minimum mandatory sentences is when a defendant gives substantial assistance in another case.

The seven trafficking prescription drug charges faced by Misty Croslin, 18, come with minimum sentences of as much as 25 years, depending on the amount of drugs sold, if she is found guilty.

She also faces an eighth trafficking charge in St. Johns County.

On Thursday, the judge set a trial for Aug. 23 on the Putnam cases. Croslin has a "last chance plea date" of Aug. 16 to work out an agreement with prosecutors, LaRue said.

In a dark blue jail jumpsuit and with her hair braided tightly to her head, she spoke softly to the judge and signed notices for each of the seven counts. Her parents sat in the courtroom and later said it was upsetting to see the two brought into court.

"I about went into a panic attack," their father, Hank Croslin Sr., said.

He said he doesn't think Misty deserved all that.

Her attorney, Robert Fields, said recently that a plea deal was not being considered.

"We're not in the business of giving up," he said.

Fields has said Croslin has been cooperating with detectives about HaLeigh and said it is reasonable to believe pressure to resolve that case will affect the drug outcomes. The Satsuma kindergartner disappeared while in the care of Croslin, who was dating HaLeigh's father Ronald Cummings.

Minimum mandatory sentences give prosecutors significant clout, said Deborah Fleischaker of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a national organization working to repeal the measures.

Selling pills with a total weight of half a Hershey's bar is enough to mandate a 25-year sentence, she said.

"It shifts the balance of power away from the courts to the prosecutor," she said.

Prosecutors not only have discretion in picking charges, but also are able to set the terms of the sentence, she said.

"The minimum mandatory brings an enormous amount of pressure to bear on the defendant because they have huge sentences looming," she said.

Information in one case can be used in a sentencing deal in another, she said.

Along with the Croslins, others arrested in the undercover operation include Cummings; his cousin, Hope Sykes, 19, who has already been sentenced to 15 years in prison; and Croslin's friend Donna Brock, who was involved in the search for HaLeigh after she disappeared in February 2009.

At Cummings' most recent court appearance, his attorney said they are negotiating for a 15-year sentence.

Evidence in all the cases include dashboard recordings in an undercover detective's car that provide audio and visual images of drug transactions involving hydrocodone pills.

Croslin's brother was charged with possession of hydrocodone in November when he was found passed out in a van. He was later arrested in the undercover operation with the others.

He pleaded no contest to those charges Thursday and, under sentencing guidelines, faces a minimum of three years in prison. The judge could up that to 44 months or sentence him to a maximum of 30 years.

By July 6, a date will be set for a sentencing hearing.

James Werter, the attorney for Croslin Jr., said his client has not agreed to testify for the state when Misty Croslin goes to trial.

"There's no deals on the table," he said.

Werter said prosecutors have been using the possibility of maximum sentences to shake those involved in the case.

"They just want to hang everybody and blast everybody," he said.

The State Attorney's Office would not comment directly on the cases, but prosecutors do use sentencing guidelines, State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a statement from his office.

"Minimum mandatory sentences are the law, and my office will enforce those laws as necessary to protect the citizens from dangerous, violent and career criminals," the statement said.