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A federal judge has denied a request from a Bowling Green man to withdraw his guilty plea in a case in which he is accused of taking part in a conspiracy involving the sale of several pounds of crystal methamphetamine.

Tyrecus Crowe, 31, had pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to possess meth with the intent to distribute, the last of eight co-defendants to enter a guilty plea.

After pleading guilty, however, Crowe sought to have his defense team of attorneys Matt Baker and John Caudill removed from the case, and the pair were allowed to withdraw.

Crowe then hired attorney Johnny Bell to represent him, and Bell filed a motion in August to have Crowe’s guilty plea withdrawn, asserting that Crowe pleaded guilty without an adequate understanding of the risks of doing so.

“He proceeded to change his plea solely upon the advice of counsel and due to supposed threats, communicated to him by his counsel, about potential prosecution by the government of his mother or other family members for money laundering and other crimes associated with defendant’s alleged conduct,” Bell said in his motion.

Crowe claimed to not know the identities of the co-conspirators or the details of the conspiracy to be carried out, and no meth was found in his possession, according to court records.

Bell argued that when Crowe pleaded guilty, he failed to recognize that the government must prove at trial that he became a member of the conspiracy knowing at least one if its objectives and intending to help to accomplish it.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Yurchisin filed a response in September contending that Crowe had plenty of time to discuss a plea agreement with Baker and Caudill, had rejected prior plea offers and only sought to withdraw his plea when he realized his sentence might be longer than he desired.

“It is hard to see how someone who renegotiated his plea several times, and had counsel successfully negotiate additional concessions the morning of his plea, was ‘coerced’ into pleading guilty,” Yurchisin said in his response filed last month. “The defendant’s motion is nothing but a stall tactic in hopes of avoiding his sentencing.”

Federal prosecutors filed a sentencing memorandum asking for a 30-year sentence for Crowe, based on federal sentencing guidelines that weigh a defendant’s criminal conduct and prior criminal history as factors.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers, in a ruling issued Friday, determined that Crowe had declared in open court that he had ample time to speak with his lawyers about the case and the decision to plead guilty, and admitted in court to the conduct charged against him.

“Crowe confirmed he had sufficient time to discuss his case, specifically his decision to enter a guilty plea, with his attorneys and confirmed he was satisfied with their advice,” Stivers wrote in his ruling.

Stivers also wrote that Crowe’s assertions that family members may have faced prosecution were not sufficient to counter his statements in court that indicated he pleaded guilty voluntarily.

Crowe’s trial strategy mentioned in his motion to withdraw was available to him prior to pleading guilty, and not based on any information that emerged afterward, Stivers said in his ruling.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Crowe and seven other people were involved with the transport and sale of meth in the area during 2019 and 2020.

A co-defendant who was stopped in Texas by police there in 2020 claimed that Crowe rented the vehicle he was driving to pick up a shipment of meth from California to bring to Bowling Green, according to court records.

Police located 40 pounds of suspected meth in the vehicle and a rental agreement with Crowe’s name on it, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky.

The driver also reported making a similar trip a week earlier that resulted in the delivery of 25 pounds of meth to Crowe, prosecutors said.

Co-defendants in the case have received sentences ranging from 12 months and one day to 17 years.

No date has been set for Crowe’s sentencing hearing.

– Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.

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