Hawkins County crystal-meth dealer Cody Alan Bridgewater, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison, 57 months fewer than the 10-year presumptive mandatory minimum, according to court documents.
Bridgewater’s sentence will run consecutively to whatever he gets for unspecified charges pending in Peoria, Illinois. The sentence will also run consecutively to charges, including violation of probation, pending in Hawkins County General Sessions Court.
Both the prosecution and defense sentencing memorandums were filed under seal so it’s not clear why Bridgewater received such a large sentencing break. What is certain is that Bridgewater and a codefendant, William Steven Moore, were the first to file plea agreements in a 15-defendant conspiracy allegedly headed by Charles Franklin “Tank” Wallace, who lives in Ohio.
Bridgewater’s plea agreement implicates Wallace and four others, and references a large, related meth-distribution conspiracy headed by Greene County resident Jeremy Wayne Mowell, who has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
The agencies that participated in the investigation include the FBI, the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Department, the Third Judicial District Drug Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The enterprise consisted of fluid and overlapping cells that obtained kilogram quantities of methamphetamine from out-of-state supply chains, one of which was connected to codefendant Charles Wallace in Ohio,” the plea agreement states.
The 15 were indicted in September 2019. The case was unsealed on Jan. 17, 2020. Bridgewater and Moore, who was sentenced to 70 months, filed their plea agreements four days later.
Bridgewater flipped in January 2019 after he was found hiding in a bathroom closet at a Rogersville apartment. He was holding 7 grams of crystal meth at the time. Bridgewater reported that “he used a lot of methamphetamine and would sell small quantities of the drug in order to facilitate his use,” the plea agreement states.
Bridgewater’s involvement in the drug-distribution conspiracy began around October 2018. In late September 2018, Bridgewater was shot in the parking lot of a Rogersville motel by a man named Justin Feagins. Feagins pleaded guilty in federal court to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and is awaiting sentencing.
