Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COURTS : Ex-Big League Pitcher John Odom to Face Sentencing for Selling Cocaine
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John (Blue Moon) Odom, the former major league baseball pitcher, was convicted by a Superior Court jury of two counts of selling small amounts of cocaine at an Irvine computer plant where he worked.
Odom, who pitched in World Series in 1972-74 with the Oakland A’s, will be sentenced by Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner on Aug. 29 and could receive up to six years in prison. However, defense attorney Stephan A. DeSales filed a motion for probation moments after the four-man, eight-woman jury returned with the guilty verdict.
Odom denied selling cocaine, saying that he had bought some from Willie Earl Harris, the prosecution’s key witness. Harris testified that, in fact, Odom was the one who sold the drug on May 17 and again on May 24, 1985, in the parking lot of the new-defunct Xerox computer plant.
Odom’s defense centered on arguments by DeSales that Harris, who also was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, testified against Odom in order to get leniency from the district attorney’s office on his own case. The district attorney’s office denied the defense’s claims, although Harris’ case is still pending.
Odom maintains his innocence.
“I can’t believe a jury was picked that convicted me when there was no real evidence against me,” he said.
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