Vermilion Parish Jury convicts Crowley man for possession of drugs

    On Wednesday in Abbeville, the Honorable Durwood Conque found Anthony James Moore, 37, of Crowley guilty of possession of cocaine, hydrocodone, alprazolam, carisoprodol, and marijuana after a trial.  Prosecutor Stanton Hardee, III Assistant District Attorney for District Attorney Mike Harson prosecuted the case.  

Jermaine Williams represented the defendant Anthony Moore.  Hardee presented evidence through Kaplan police officers Seth Comeaux, Irvin Cates, and JoshJoshua Hardy and Amanda Hebert, a forensic chemist from Acadiana Crime Lab.  

  Comeaux testified that on New Years Eve, December 31, 2011, he and Kaplan Police Chief Boyd Adams were on patrol when Chief Adams received an anonymous tip that Anthony Moore was selling narcotics in Kaplan. 

 After receiving the tip, Comeaux testified he saw Moore illegally parked in a handicap zone at Econo Mart on La. 14 in Kaplan.  

Comeaux noticed Moore stuffing something into his pants as he approached the vehicle.  Moore denied having anything illegal in his vehicle.  Officer Rocky Trahan deployed his K-9 and the K-9 positively alerted on the vehicle.  

Officer Cates testified that he searched the vehicle and found a bag of marijuana between the seats.  Moore and his passenger April Suire were placed under arrest.  At the police station, Officer Comeaux testified that Moore was strip searched because they believed he was concealing narcotics.  Comeaux testified that Moore was concealing a pill bottle between his scrotum and leg.  Comeaux took custody of the pill bottle and found 15 rocks of crack cocaine, hydrocodone, carisoprodol (Soma), alprazolam, and marijuana all inside the bottle.

      Detective Hardy testified he took the drugs to the crime lab where they were tested.  Amanda Hebert of the Acadiana Crime testified that upon her examination of the drugs, she determined them to be cocaine, hydrocodone, carisoprodal, alprazolam, and marijuana. 

 This is Moore’s fourth felon conviction.  Moore pled guilty in Lafayette in 1999 to possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana 2nd offense in September, 2006.  He was also convicted in Houston, Texas, in 2004 of felony possession of a controlled substance between 4 and 400 grams.

 Hardee intends to charge Moore as a fourth felony habitual offender.

  “Career criminals like Moore have a price to pay for committing crime in Vermilion Parish and that price is prison.”  If Hardee proves Moore was the same person convicted of those four felonies and properly read his constitutional rights before pleading guilty, Moore faces a mandatory sentence range of 20 YEARS at Hard Labor to LIFE without probation  or suspension of sentence on the cocaine, alprazolam, hydrocodone, and carisoprodal charges.  Hardee would like to commend the Kaplan Police Department for a super job in this case taking a career criminal off the streets. 

 “This case is an example to the public of how police are out there fighting crime no matter when, even on New Year’s Eve when most of the public are out having a good time, Kaplan Police Chief Boyd Adams and his police officers are on duty taking care of business.”