YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A man sentenced to 10 years in prison last month after pleading guilty in federal court to drug and weapons charges has appealed the denial of a suppression motion he had filed.
Attorneys for Dewon Dawson, 38, filed the appeal Wednesday in the U.S. Sixth Circuit of Appeals.
Dawson was sentenced Nov. 18 in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio by U.S. Judge Dan Aaron Polster on charges of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime. He pleaded guilty to the charges in July in the midst of a trial.
Dawson was one of eight people charged with selling cocaine and crack cocaine in the Youngstown area between August 2017 and July 2018.
In August of 2020, Dawson’s motion to suppress an affidavit of a search warrant in the case was denied. It is not clear what the basis for the suppression motion was because the motion to suppress as well as the government’s response were both filed under seal and are still under seal.
When a search warrant was served in March of 2018 at an Idlewood Avenue home as part of the investigation, one of the defendants had over $153,000 cash and four guns, a trial brief said.
The brief said Dawson had a .40-caliber handgun, a .38-caliber revolver, a .32-caliber revolver and an AK-47 pistol; over 54 grams of cocaine; and $6,800 cash. As part of his plea agreement, Dawson agreed to forfeit the cash. The agreement says nothing of the weapons.
Dawson, the father of 14 children, was also one of three men charged in 2008 with murder for a shooting death on West Myrtle Avenue, but the charges against all three defendants were later dropped by prosecutors after the only eyewitness recanted their testimony.