Teen could face life after cops find pot brownies
Associated Press
4 hours ago

ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) — A 19-year-old Texas man accused of making and selling brownies laced with marijuana and hash oil faces a felony charge that carries a punishment of anywhere from five years to life in prison.

According to Round Rock police, officers found 1.5 pounds of brownies, along with a pound of marijuana, digital scales, $1,675 in cash and dozens of baggies with marijuana and hash oil at Jacob Lavoro's apartment last month. Police were responding to a complaint about marijuana use.

Lavoro was arrested but is out of jail on a $30,000 surety bond.

His father, Joe Lavoro, said he was shocked at how much prison time his son could face.

"It's outrageous, it's crazy! I don't understand it," the father told Austin TV station KEYE.

"Five years to life?" he continued. "I'm sorry, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I'm a conservative. I love my country. I'm a Vietnam veteran, but ... this is wrong!"

However, the prosecutor who is handling noted that sentences can vary depending on aggravating factors and other considerations, and that a plea deal is always possible.

"First-time offenders are treated differently. As far as I know, he is a first offender," Williamson County prosecutor Travis McDonald told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

McDonald noted that possessing 4 grams of hash oil is enough for a first-degree felony charge. According to an affidavit filed with the court, Jacob Lavoro had 145 grams of hash oil, in addition to the brownies.

Hash oil is a controlled substance that carries much harsher state penalties than marijuana. The oil has higher concentrations of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. It's in a penalty group with amphetamines and ecstasy.

Also, because Lavoro used hash oil, prosecutors can aggregate the weight of the brownies and charge him with manufacturing and distribution of 1.5 pounds of that category of controlled substances, McDonald said.

That means, for example, that "if you dissolve cocaine into a coke, technically you could charge him with the weight of the coke," McDonald said. However, he added, "I don't think I would."

Lavoro's lawyer, Jack Holmes, told KEYE the first-degree offense should be changed to a misdemeanor. Calls the AP made to his office Tuesday went unanswered.

inexcusable use of the law.

While the accused seems to have failed to exercise good judgement, I'm hoping that the prosecution will not fail to do so.

If God wanted to give the world an enema, he's stick in Texas.

Remember those epic floods a few years back down there? One place got Iike 18" in a day. I was thinking about biblical stories when I heard the news coverage. Seemed like maybe someone upstairs was throwing their weight around.

Norcal arguably has better fishing then WA now.

I suggest they travel to Beeville and Kingsville.

guarantee I have been in more of texas and all of the us then all of PP combined.

You're all free to pick your poison, but Texas can't be all bad.

Sure it can.

My condolences.

still the best country on earth

Amen

If you were arrested in Washington with that much Hash Oil , what we be the potential penalty? 420 months? More?

your condolences are unwanted, especially this weekend.

Cruzn

Sorry I only saw the Texas part the first time I read your post. But for that my condolances stand.

my bad then Mr. Vedder, thought you lumped in the US. You are right. Texas can be good but mostly bad. Odessa and Midland is rich with oil for years to come but is really the worst places I have seen in the entire country.

Have you been to Crains Detroit, South side Chicago-Chatham area, or Washington D.C.

I can't imagine any part of Texas that I would feel less safe in than any of the aforementioned locals.

Except, perhaps, the border areas.

There are parts of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio that are exactly like those areas you mentioned in Detroit, Chicago and DC. It used to be called the slum, and you only have to go as far as the central district in Seattle to find one, and you can find one in any large American city. Walk around there, and you might not make it out.

[CAUTION YOU ARE ENTERING THE ZONE OF SUBTERFUGE]

I would have thought that you might know better than that. Dan.

As for myself, I would give more faith to any local governance than being governed by the FED'S.