Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, a moonshine distiller and author, was sentenced to 18 months in the pen yesterday by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer.
The sentencing was due to Sutton’s guilty plea last April to two counts of illegally producing distilled spirits and being a felon in possession of a .38-caliber handgun.
This wasn’t our bushy mountain man’s first scrape with the law. He was convicted in Haywood County, N.C. on charges of possessing controlled substances and assault with a deadly weapon in 1981 and 1985.
This latest arrest and conviction were the result of Popcorn’s admission to an undercover Johnny Law that he had “500 gallons of moonshine in Tennessee and 400 gallons in Maggie Valley, N.C., ready for sale.”
Hundreds of Tennessee and North Carolina residents signed a petition requesting leniency, which the judge ignored, citing Mr. Sutton’s five previous convictions while on parole.
In 1999, Mr. Sutton’s book “Me and My Likker: The True Story of a Mountain Moonshiner” was published.
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I have to say that this is the best title to any blog post that I have ever seen. Genius!