Guilty pleas continue in Icy Roads meth case

Kimberly Ann Johnson, 32, of Willis, and Kimberly Denise Potts, 43, of Christiansburg, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Circuit Court under agreements similar to those presented in other recent Icy Roads hearings.

Both were convicted of conspiring to possess more than 10 grams of meth with the intent to distribute it, and received 10-year prison sentences and $100 fines. Johnson’s prison sentence was to be suspended after she served 12 months, Judge Robert Turk ordered; while Judge Mike Fleenor suspended Potts’ entire term. Both were to be supervised by the probation office for five years after their release, with unsupervised probation for another five years.

For Johnson, whose hearing was Monday, the plea agreement was to bring release from jail within hours because she had already served enough time since her arrest, agreed defense attorney Brandon Ratliff of Blacksburg and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Erin Little.

At Johnson’s hearing, Little described how the defendant told investigators she accompanied the central figure in the Icy Roads case, Thomas George Belcher Jr., 47, of Elliston, on one of his trips to Georgia to obtain meth that was later sold in the New River Valley. Between November 2018 and January 2020, Belcher made regular trips to Georgia for meth, as many as two or three per week, according to another defendant, Little said.

Belcher told officers that he sold meth to Johnson several times, and Johnson admitted that in 2019, there was a time when Belcher gave her a gram of meth every day, Little said.

Belcher pleaded guilty in April in a plea agreement that brought him a 20-year prison term.

Johnson, who also used the alias Kim Seagraves, also was sentenced last week for a prescription fraud conviction, with Turk adding four years of probation, but ordering that they run concurrently with the probation from the meth case.

Potts, whose hearing was Thursday, went to pick up Belcher when his car had broken down while he was carrying 28 grams of meth, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Jensen said. Belcher and Potts told investigators about the November 2019 breakdown, and another defendant described how Potts promised her meth in exchange for letting Potts use her car to go pick up Belcher, Jensen said.

As Johnson had at her hearing, Potts and her attorney, Angi Simpkins of Dublin, agreed that the prosecution could prove its case.

Four Icy Roads defendants have not resolved their charges, and another two were convicted but have not been sentenced.