NORTHAMPTON — A Vermont man on Monday admitted to a judge he was responsible for hauling the roughly 2,000 bags of heroin police say he was traveling with when he was pulled over on I-91 last summer.
Stuart J. Sweetser, 50, of Springfield, pleaded guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs, negligent operation and possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
With the change of plea, Judge John Ferrara sentenced Sweetser to 2½ years in the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction, followed by three years of probation. He has credit for 270 days served.
The deal struck by defense counsel Colleen Currie and Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Joseph Webber is one that “provided a reasonable period of probation to see to it that Mr. Sweetser remained on a particular track,” Currie said in court.
In working with her client, Currie described Sweetser as “down to Earth,” and as a defendant who is accepting responsibility for his actions.
On June 29, Massachusetts State Police pulled over Sweetser’s vehicle traveling north on Interstate 91 near Exit 17 after a witness reported a “highly erratic” driver on the road.
Sweetser did not have his identification handy, so he provided his information verbally to troopers at the scene. Authorities said his speech was “incredibly slurred” and he paused between responses. He also failed field sobriety tests.
Inside the vehicle, troopers observed four cardboard boxes — and inside the cardboard boxes, which were concealed by a sweatshirt, were roughly 2,000 baggies of heroin stamped “COBRA,” Webber said.
Sweetser originally faced a drug trafficking charge, but that charge was dropped as a term of the plea bargain.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.