MARION COUNTY — A 38-year-old Centralia woman was sentenced Wednesday in Marion County Court to 3-years in prison after she had earlier pleaded guilty to drug-related charges in a 2017 case.

Sunny Powe had pleaded guilty in November 2019 to Class 2 felony charges of delivery of meth and a narcotic substance. Powe’s charges came from an operation in 2017 that resulted in the arrests of nearly a dozen area residents on drug-related charges.

Powe was charged with five Class 2 felony counts of delivery of less than 5-grams of methamphetamine and one Class 2 felony count of delivery of narcotics.

While out on bail in the 2017 case, Powe was arrested in a second warrant sweep that was part of a larger operation led by the South Eastern Illinois Drug Task Force. She was charged in that case with Class 1 felony delivery of between 5 and 15 grams of meth.

In November, Powe pleaded guilty to one of the meth delivery charges and the narcotics charge in the 2017 case in exchange for the other charges in both cases being dismissed.

On Wednesday Powe was sentenced to three years on each of the two charges she pleaded guilty to last year and they will be served concurrently. She was given credit for three days already served in county jail and ordered to serve two-years parole when her prison sentence is complete.

The court denied Powe’s request for furlough and ordered her immediately taken into custody. She will, however, be allowed to stay in the Marion County Jail until January 13 so she has time to visit with her minor children before she’s transported to the Illinois Department of Corrections.