Carrollton woman gets 8 years after guilty plea to meth possession

JERSEYVILLE - A 50-year-old Carrollton woman got an eight-year prison sentence for her guilty plea in Jersey County Circuit Court to a felony charge of methamphetamine possession after prosecutors dropped a meth trafficking count.

Lora M. Benson was initially charged in a Class X felony case presented by the Jersey County Sheriff's Department on May 28 alleging she brought more than 15 grams but less than 100 grams of methamphetamine into the state of Illinois on or about May 1 with the intent to deliver the drug to another person.

Benson appeared in court June 2 and pleaded guilty to the lesser Class 1 possession charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping the trafficking count. She was sentenced the next day.

Benson will serve her eight-year sentence concurrently with the sentences she received after pleading guilty April 27 in Greene County Circuit Court to a Class 2 felony count of delivery of methamphetamine less than 5 grams and a Class 3 felony count of manufacturing/delivery of a look-alike substance. She was sentenced June 3 to up to seven years in the Department of Corrections on the Class 2 charge and up to five years on the Class 3 count.

The Class X felony would have been punishable upon conviction by a sentence of eight to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, a mandatory street value fine and a mandatory $100 methamphetamine fine. Probation, periodic imprisonment or conditional discharge may not be imposed in such cases.

Pursuant to the Truth-in-Sentencing Act, a defendant convicted of methamphetamine trafficking must serve 75% of their sentence, with no more than 7.5 days of good conduct credit for each month of the sentence of imprisonment.

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