A Lexington man accused of moving fentanyl and cocaine around Central Kentucky has agreed to plead guilty in federal court after losing his bid to throw out evidence from a June arrest at a Hamburg-area hotel, where agents say they found a kilo of cocaine, nearly a pound of fentanyl and a loaded Glock handgun in his SUV.
Laurance D. Newby, the sole defendant in United States v. Newby, is scheduled to return to federal court in Lexington on Dec. 15 for a change-of-plea hearing before Magistrate Judge Matthew Stinnett, court records show.
Under a written plea agreement filed Dec. 5, Newby will plead guilty to two counts in a six-count superseding indictment: possessing 400 grams or more of a fentanyl mixture with intent to distribute, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In exchange, prosecutors will ask the judge to dismiss three earlier distribution counts and a cocaine trafficking count at sentencing.
The deal exposes Newby to a mandatory minimum of 15 years in federal prison — 10 years on the fentanyl charge and at least five additional years, consecutive, on the gun charge — along with a potential $5 million fine and at least five years of supervised release.
Long-running investigation, controlled buys
Court filings describe Newby as a “retail distributor” of illegal drugs in the Lexington area who had been under investigation since October 2024.
According to the plea agreement, Kentucky State Police and federal agents used a confidential informant to make three controlled fentanyl buys from Newby in late 2024 and 2025:
- Dec. 9, 2024 – Lexington: Police arranged a purchase of 53.9 grams of fentanyl through recorded calls.
- March 20, 2025 – Paris (Bourbon County): Another controlled buy for 55.98 grams of fentanyl.
- June 9, 2025 – Lexington: A third buy for 55.9 grams of fentanyl.
Prosecutors’ proposed trial exhibit list indicates they planned to show jurors videos of those controlled purchases, photos of the fentanyl that changed hands, and text messages setting up the deals.
Agents also cataloged what they say they found in a storage unit tied to Newby — digital scales, a Ninja blender, strainers, plastic wrap and sandwich bag boxes — items prosecutors characterize as drug-processing and packaging tools.
Separate proposed exhibits consisted of photos from Newby’s phone showing multiple Glock pistols and a MAC-11-style firearm, as well as drug-related text messages and a May 2025 money transfer.
June 25 arrest at Hamburg hotel
The centerpiece of the case is what happened on June 25, 2025, at the Avid Hotel off Bryant Road in Hamburg.
By that point, Newby’s Range Rover — registered in his name — was under regular physical and electronic surveillance by the DEA’s Lexington Resident Office and Lexington Police narcotics officers, according to a November memorandum opinion by U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove.
That afternoon, investigators watched Newby leave the hotel, put a duffel bag and other items into the SUV, lock the doors and double-check that the vehicle was secure before heading out for a run on the nearby Brighton Trail.
While he was gone, Kentucky State Police Trooper Kenneth Leavell walked Bella, a certified drug-detection dog, around the parked Range Rover. Bella alerted to the odor of narcotics coming from the vehicle.
As Newby returned on foot along the trail, DEA agents and state troopers moved in. Task Force Officer David Lewis and two uniformed troopers approached him as he sat on a bench. After Newby removed his hood, sunglasses and earphones, he confirmed his identity. Agents asked him to come with them to talk somewhere more private, telling him that he was not under arrest “yet.”
Lewis later testified that he saw a bulge in Newby’s left pocket. When asked if he had any weapons, Newby patted the pocket and said he did not. As Lewis moved in to conduct a pat-down, Newby said he had “nothing” on him, reached fully into the same pocket and began turning away. Officers testified that move was a “red flag,” and Newby broke into a run.
Officers chased him, deployed a Taser and handcuffed him on the trail. In his pockets, they found cash, a set of keys and a bag of cocaine.
Using the keys, agents opened the locked Range Rover back at the Avid. In the rear passenger area, they found a backpack holding a loaded Glock 26 with a round in the chamber, digital scales and about 996 grams of cocaine — roughly a kilogram — according to the complaint and plea agreement. In a hidden space in the rear cargo area, they found multiple vacuum-sealed and bagged packages totaling about 439.8 grams of a fentanyl mixture.
At an early detention hearing, DEA Special Agent Christine McHugh told the court the fentanyl was vacuum-sealed and partially divided into smaller baggies consistent with ounce-sized retail quantities. She testified that field tests first used a handheld mass-spectrometry device, then a liquid “color test,” before lab results later confirmed the substances as fentanyl and cocaine.
McHugh also said Newby later spoke with agents about where he obtained the drugs and consented to a search of his phone, which investigators said contained drug-trafficking messages about meeting times and locations.
Judge upholds warrantless stop, frisk and search
Newby’s defense hinged on trying to suppress nearly all of that evidence.
In September, his court-appointed attorney, Richard Weston, filed a motion arguing that officers lacked reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk Newby on the trail and lacked probable cause to arrest him or search his vehicle without a warrant, making the drugs and gun “fruit of the poisonous tree” that could not be used at trial.
After a full-day suppression hearing with six witnesses, Magistrate Judge Stinnett recommended denying the motion. Newby objected, but on Nov. 18, Judge Van Tatenhove adopted the recommendation in a 16-page opinion.
The judge found that:
- Probable cause to arrest already existed before the trail encounter, based on the three controlled fentanyl buys agents had conducted with Newby. One task force officer testified he had personally watched Newby sell drugs to a confidential informant.
- Officers also had reasonable suspicion to stop and question Newby on the trail because of the ongoing trafficking investigation, the dog’s positive alert on his locked vehicle, and their observations of him loading bags and securing the SUV.
- When Newby patted his pocket, grabbed for it and then fled, that behavior, combined with a visible bulge, “ripened” reasonable suspicion into probable cause to arrest him, particularly given officers’ belief that he was often armed during drug deals.
- The seizure of his keys and the later opening of the SUV were lawful as a search incident to arrest plus a vehicle search supported by the drug dog’s alert and the broader trafficking evidence.
Because the court concluded the officers had acted within the bounds of the Fourth Amendment, it rejected Newby’s bid to suppress the drugs, gun and other evidence.
Plea keeps suppression fight alive on appeal
Even as he prepares to plead guilty, Newby is preserving that Fourth Amendment fight for a higher court.
The plea agreement specifically allows him to appeal Judge Van Tatenhove’s ruling that officers had reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk him and probable cause to arrest him without a warrant. If the Sixth Circuit later overturns the suppression decision, Newby would be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.
In the meantime, he remains in U.S. Marshals Service custody. At the Dec. 15 hearing in Lexington, he is expected to formally change his plea to guilty on the fentanyl and gun counts. A sentencing date will be set later before Judge Van Tatenhove in Frankfort.