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Special to the Daily News

August 20, 2024—District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on August 20, 2024, Judge Vincent Lobello sentenced 32-year-old Precious Hicks of South Hill, Virginia to thirty-five (35) years in prison after a jury found her guilty on drug trafficking charges. Because Hicks is a repeat offender with a history of firearm, assault, larceny, fraud, forgery, drug and prostitution convictions, she faced a range of twenty to forty years in prison.

Assistant District Attorneys Tiffany Dover and Amanda Gritten prosecuted the case. Detectives James Kelley and Sean Gowan of the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office Highway Enforcement Unit handled the investigation. On November 15, 2023, a St. Tammany jury took less than 7 minutes to deliberate and render a guilty verdict against Hicks on charges of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of amphetamine.

In January of 2023, Detective Kelley observed a vehicle on I-12 tailgating another vehicle, prompting the detective to conduct a traffic stop. Hicks was identified as the driver and Hick’s boyfriend was found to be a passenger. Hicks couldn’t produce a driver’s license. While interacting with Hicks, the detective noted an odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle. A search of the vehicle was conducted and marijuana was discovered. Additionally, several amphetamine pills were found in Hick’s purse. On the back seat of the vehicle detectives observed four boxes of Fruity Pebbles cereal, some loose Fruity Pebbles dumped into a grocery bag and several opened packages of super glue. These items drew the attention of the detectives and they found the boxes of cereal were heavier than normal and showed signs of tampering. When the boxes were opened, they were found to contain thousands of suspected MDMA pills in a variety of colors, shapes and imprints.

During a formal police interview, both Hicks and her boyfriend admitted they had purchased the pills while in Texas and they intended on selling them. The boxes of cereal were determined to contain 7,886 methamphetamine pills weighing approximately 4.79 pounds.

At the trial, the defendant’s boyfriend testified and claimed Hicks knew nothing about the pills in the vehicle. In closing arguments at the conclusion of the trial, Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Dover told the jury, “We know the defendant had knowledge of the pills inside of the vehicle because she told police she did. She even told police how much she paid for the pills – thousands of pills designed to look like candy.”