Key West woman gets 36-month prison term in cocaine case

A Key West narcotics case that began with a controlled buy near North Roosevelt Boulevard ended with Judith Lucas, 45, sent to Florida State Prison for 36 months and placed on probation after a no contest plea to cocaine sale and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

Monroe County Judge Mark Wilson imposed the prison term on both counts concurrently, then ordered 48 months of probation on the cocaine charge and 24 months on the communication-device count, also concurrent. Lucas received credit for 376 days already served, her driver’s license was revoked for six months and she was ordered to pay $963 in fines and court costs.

The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office said the sentence resolved and consolidated three separate drug-related cases involving Lucas into one outcome. Prosecutors said the case grew out of a December 2024 narcotics investigation by the Key West Police Department Special Investigations Unit, when detectives used a confidential informant to buy crack cocaine from Lucas.

That transaction was documented through surveillance and recorded communications, which is why the communication-device charge became part of the prosecution. In Florida, sale of cocaine is a second-degree felony under state law, and using a two-way communications device to help carry out a felony is charged as a third-degree felony.

The location mattered, too. Investigators said the controlled purchase happened near public housing on North Roosevelt Boulevard, a detail that tied the case to one of Key West’s more visible corridors and to an area where drug enforcement often draws close attention from residents and police alike.

Assistant State Attorney Madeline Thompson prosecuted the case, and Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield said the outcome brought three drug matters together under one sentence with prison time and supervision. For Monroe County courts, that sequence is familiar: a controlled buy, recorded contacts, a charging package that spans multiple cases and, months later, a consolidated plea and sentence.

The result shows how a street-level sale can move from an undercover operation in Key West to a state-prison sentence in Monroe County court, with probation extending the punishment after release.