Woman gets jail for witness intimidation

A Virginia woman who made a slashing motion to her throat as a witness in a drug case testified was sentenced to a year and a day for witness intimidation, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.

Joanne Elliott, 49, was seen making a slashing motion and using her finger to make circles beside her head while a witness testified in the federal trial of her cousin Eddie Lee "Mo" Walker in March 2011.

Walker, of Chester, was the lead defendant in a drug-trafficking case involving 21 defendants who frequented an area in Chester known as "the cut-off." Elliott, originally from Chester, traveled from Suffolk, Va., to attend the trial.

She was arrested by U.S. marshals who witnessed the incidents. She pleaded guilty in September.

In June, Walker was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In 2009, Walker and other gang members were arrested in an early-morning raid. The gang operated in the Highland Gardens section of Chester along circuitous streets referred to as "the Circle of Death."

Walker would obtain cocaine from suppliers and sometimes convert it into crack cocaine for gang members to sell.