By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 32-year-old Alabaster man will spend more than 10 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty recently to distributing cocaine in Alabaster on multiple occasions.

Alfred O’Neal Sampson, who lists an address at Seventh Avenue Southeast in Alabaster, pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing cocaine during a late October hearing in front of Shelby County Circuit Court Judge William Bostick.

As a result of Sampson’s guilty plea, Bostick sentenced him to 130 months in the Alabama Penitentiary. While incarcerated, Sampson must complete a substance abuse education program, must pay a $1,000 fee and pay a $100 fee to the state Forensic Science Trust Fund.

Because Sampson had two prior felonies on his record, his sentence was the maximum outlined in the state’s presumptive sentencing standards.

Through a plea agreement with prosecutors, four other unlawful distribution of a controlled substance charges were dropped against Sampson.

In 2015, the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested Sampson and charged him with distributing cocaine from his residence on Nov. 19, 2014, Dec. 4, 2014, and Dec. 11, 2014. He also distributed cocaine on First Street South in Alabaster on Dec. 11, 2014.

While he was out on bond for the 2015 charges, Sampson was rearrested by the Task Force on Aug. 1, 2016, and charged with distributing crack cocaine from his house on Feb. 2, 2016, Feb. 13, 2016, and again on May 9, 2016.