TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that a husband and wife from Deptford were
sentenced to state prison today for growing
marijuana plants indoors using hydroponic
equipment and grow lights.
According
to Director Taylor, Paul J. “Chip”
Trace, 45, of Deptford, was sentenced to
five years in state prison, including two
years of parole ineligibility, by Superior
Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. in Gloucester
County. His wife, Charlotte P. Trace, 48,
was sentenced to five years in prison, including
21 months of parole ineligibility. The Traces
pleaded guilty on March 4 to maintaining
or operating a marijuana production facility.
In
pleading guilty, the couple admitted that
they grew marijuana in their home. The couple
formerly owned and operated Tasty Harvest
Hydroponics in Deptford. Hydroponics is
the cultivation of plants in water that
contains dissolved nutrients, instead of
in soil.
Also
today, Judge Marshall sentenced Charlotte
Trace’s mother, Miriam Andrew, 76,
of Woodbury to three years of probation.
Andrew pleaded guilty on March 4 to a second-degree
charge of manufacturing marijuana. In pleading
guilty, she admitted that she permitted
her daughter to grow marijuana in her home.
Deputy
Attorney General Daniel Bornstein prosecuted
the case for the Division of Criminal Justice
Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau and represented
the state at the sentencing hearing.
The
charges resulted from an investigation by
the New Jersey State Police Marijuana Eradication
Squad. The State Police uncovered sophisticated
indoor marijuana growing operations, which
used equipment from the couple’s hydroponics
store, in three separate homes: the Traces’
home, Andrew’s home, and the home
of a Glassboro man. That man, Frank J. Harder
III, 33, of Glassboro, a former employee
in the hydroponics store, also pleaded guilty
on March 4 to maintaining or operating a
marijuana production facility. The state
will recommend that he be sentenced to five
years in prison, with 18 months of parole
ineligibility.
When
the State Police executed a search warrant
at the Traces’ home on First Avenue
on Nov. 20, 2008, they discovered two indoor
growing areas containing high-tech marijuana
cultivation equipment and 33 marijuana plants,
along with a bag containing nearly a pound
of marijuana.
The
State Police also executed search warrants
on Nov. 20, 2008 at the homes of Andrew
and Harder. They found 16 marijuana plants
growing in a hydroponic system in a second-floor
bedroom of Andrew’s home on Edith
Avenue in Woodbury, as well as a bag containing
approximately one-quarter pound of marijuana.
At
Harder’s home on North Main Street
in Glassboro, they found an elaborate hydroponic
cultivation system with 43 marijuana plants,
20 marijuana “clones” or cuttings,
and bags containing a total of approximately
2 pounds of marijuana.
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