Bainbridge drug dealer sentenced to 176 months in prison on cocaine charges

BAINBRIDGE — Charlie Peeler, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced Friday that Senior U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands had sentenced Keith Gaines, 43, of Bainbridge, on Thursday to 176 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Peeler said Gaines pleaded guilty to the offense on Dec. 18. Evidence supporting the plea showed that on April 22, 2016, agents with the Bainbridge Department of Public Safety executed a search warrant in Decatur County. During the search, agents located a cookie tin containing crack cocaine and powder cocaine weighing 38.51 grams — and an arrest warrant was issued for Gaines.

On May 3, 2016, agents received a call about a man wearing a “ghillie suit” walking in the area of the city of Bainbridge purchasing department warehouse. Concerned he might be planning to burglarize the warehouse, agents attempted to make contact with him. As officers approached him, he bent down and placed something on the ground before ducking behind a nearby rail car and fleeing on foot.

Agents located the individual, identified as Gaines, lying on the ground on his stomach in a wooded area. Officers took his wallet to verify his identity and located a “small quantity” of cocaine in it.

The next day, Gaines made a phone call from Decatur County Jail to an unknown man on the jail’s recorded phone line. During the call, he informed the man he had buried something near the “big tree” where he had been taken into custody. Agents went to the area and found two buried sandwich bags containing powder and crack cocaine.

During the booking process, agents discovered Gaines had given the number to which the call had been placed as the number of a relative. They interviewed the relative, who said Gaines had called him and asked him to go retrieve the drugs but that he had not attempted to do so.

Substances seized from the residence at the time of the search warrant, and others located in the wooded area near where Gaines was arrested, were submitted for chemical analysis and determined to be 64.13 grams of cocaine.

“Mr. Gaines was designated a career offender based on at least five prior cocaine convictions,” Peeler said. “He has made a career of almost 25 years of peddling this poison on the streets of our communities. We hope that this sentence will not only end that career for Mr. Gaines but deter others who might consider following the same path.”

The case was investigated by the Bainbridge Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah McEwen prosecuted the case for the federal government.