After a more than two-hour sentencing hearing Monday, whether the co-defendant of a Tallulah physician accused of prescription forgery will go to prison is undecided.
Pattie Carr, 42, 100 Colonial Drive will be sentenced at a later date, Circuit Judge M. James Chaney announced at about 4 p.m. Monday.
The date of the sentencing had not been announced this morning.
Carr pleaded guilty July 24 to five of the 74 counts of prescription forgery against her.
She faces up to 25 years in prison, though defense attorney John Bullard spent the hearing laying out a case for Chaney to send Carr to Ninth Circuit Drug Court, presenting testimony from her doctor saying she had kicked her drug habit and relatives who said they had offered to let Carr live with them.
“I don’t think sending Pattie to prison is the answer, and I don’t think it’s going to help,” her aunt Vada Forrester said during the hearing.
Carr during her testimony Monday admitted she is still living with her co-defendant Dr. Lawrence Chenier III.
Narcotics agents raided their home at 100 Colonial Drive in September 2011. More than 300 empty pill bottles were found inside the home, yet Carr insists that Chenier had no idea she was addicted to prescription painkillers.
“I’ve lied and manipulated people to get what I need,” Carr said, later adding, “When I tell you he was clueless, I couldn’t tell you any clearer.”
Between October 210 and September 2011 using 22 different names, Carr picked up nearly 7,500 tablets of hydrocodone and 10,000 tablets of Lyrica at a price tag of about $30,000, District Attorney Ricky Smith said.
Many of the fake names were fictitious people, while others were for Carr’s relatives, she said. None of the names used were people who had sought a legitimate prescription from Chenier, Carr said on the stand.
Chenier, who is repressed by Lisa Ross of Jackson and Marshal Sanders of Vicksburg, will stand trial Sept. 15 for 74 counts of prescription forgery and a single count of conspiracy. Ross has said she estimated the trial could take up to a month.