Justices with Texas highest court on criminal matters upheld the 90-year prison sentence of a Lubbock businessman convicted more than three years ago of selling so-called synthetic marijuana out of his smoke shops.
In a 12-page opinion issued last week, justices found that testimony from an expert witness was sufficient to help jurors determine that a chemical structure found in synthetic marijuana seized from 54-year-old Anthony Carter s home and businesses were illegal under a 2015 revision of the state s drug statute prohibiting penalty group 2A, which used chemicals to mimic the effects of marijuana.
The opinion affirms Carter s Nov. 17, 2017, verdict and punishment, which included a $100,000 fine, from a jury trial in the 137th District Court.