KINGMAN – More than a half dozen of the 24 defendants charged in the Operation King Crimson drug dealing investigation have entered plea agreements, all but one of them resulting in prison sentences of various duration. A 3.5-year prison sentence was ordered June 11 for David Dolat, 61, Golden Valley.

Dolat pleaded guilty to two charges reduced to attempted possession of a narcotic drug for sale. Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Kennerley said Dolat obtained about an ounce of heroin in March, 2020 and another ounce the next month.

Kennerley told Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle that Dolat acquired the heroin on both occasions from Austreberto Acoltzi-Bautista. The Attorney General’s Office has alleged that the 49-year-old Kingman man was the ringleader of one of two Kingman-based drug dealing organizations disrupted by the 21-month long investigation that was disclosed in Nov., 2020.

Defense attorney Kenneth Countryman said the loss of his parents and wife sank Dolat into depression that was exacerbated by health issues and medication that led to drug addiction. Countryman said Dolat inherited a lot of money and that he spent about a half-million dollars feeding his heroin habit.

Countryman said Dolat was a heavy user, and that he shared heroin with others, but that he was not a drug dealer. Kennerley countered that Dolat purchased 1,100 heroin doses in just one month.

“It’s hard to accept the explanation that this was for personal use,” Kennerley said.

Judge Carlisle agreed amounts of heroin associated with Dolat exceed personal consumption possibility and he said he had to view Dolat as a dealer given his guilty plea to attempted possession for sale.

Carlisle and Kennerly also agreed that Dolat’s prior criminal history was another factor supporting the prison term. Details were not provided, but it was noted that Dolat spent five years in federal prison for being convicted in a foiled murder for hire plot.

Dave Hawkins