Detroit Heroin Dealer Sentenced to Seventeen Years in Prison

Prosecutors in DA Charme Allen’s Felony Drug Unit obtained a seventeen-year-sentence against a Detroit heroin dealer who sold drugs near Inskip Elementary. Sparkle Trenetta Jones, 36, was convicted of Sale and Delivery of Schedule I Heroin in a Drug Free School Zone. Judge Scott Green handed down the sentence today with the first fifteen years to be served without the possibility of parole.

In a two-day trial in September, Assistant District Attorneys Hector Sanchez and Ashley McDermott explained to the jury that on June 28, 2017, Knoxville Police Department Investigator Phil Jinks used a confidential informant to arrange a purchase of heroin from Jones. Jones had called the informant earlier in the day to tell the informant that she had heroin for sale. Inv. Jinks had the informant place a recorded phone call to Jones ordering half a gram of heroin for $80. Jones directed the informant to meet at the Inskip Market, which is next to Inskip Elementary School. While at the market, a co-defendant arrived and sold the heroin to the informant. Inv. Jinks was able to identify Jones’ voice by reviewing jail calls between Jones and her husband, Marquail Patterson, who is another Detroit drug dealer and is currently serving thirty years in prison for a murder that occurred in 2014 at a nightclub on Cumberland Avenue.

“We will continue to aggressively prosecute the out-of-state dealers who bring poison into our community in order to profit from addiction,” said DA Charme Allen.

If you have any questions, please contact Sean McDermott at 865-215-2515 or Sean.McDermott@knoxcounty.org. For more information about the District Attorney’s Office, visit our website at dag.knoxcountytn.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.