Month: November 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Natchez, Miss. – A Victorville, California man and his wife were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette, III, for their participation in an interstate drug trafficking operation distributing kilogram quantities of illegal drugs in the Natchez, MS area from 2016 through 2018, announced U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Thomas Jerome Mitchell, 37, and Justine Chambers, 32, were indicted by a federal grand jury and subsequently pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Mitchell was sentenced today to 66 months in federal prison and Chambers was sentenced to 38 months.

According to court documents, Mitchell and Chambers conspired with Wesley Bell, of Natchez,   Jimmie Lee Swearengen, Jr., of  Mesquite, TX,  and Arthur Wilson, of Moreno Valley, CA, to distribute kilogram quantities of methamphetamine in the Natchez area.  Swearengen was separately sentenced today to 90 months in prison for his participation in drug trafficking operations in the Natchez area. Arthur Wilson was convicted by a federal trial jury in August 2022 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering, for his operation of a separate drug trafficking organization in the Natchez area.  Wilson is scheduled for sentencing on January 11, 2023. Bell is currently awaiting sentencing.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

This OCDETF case is the result of an extensive investigation targeting illegal narcotics distribution by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force in Atlanta, GA, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and the Pearl Police Department. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla J. Clark prosecuted these cases.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A 27-year-old man residing in Mission has been ordered to federal prison following his conviction of possession with the intent to distribute nine kilograms of heroin, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.

Gerardo Torres pleaded guilty April 5.

Today, U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton ordered Torres to serve 48 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by four years of supervised release. At the hearing, the court heard additional evidence detailing how Torres was arrested in May 2021 for smuggling four undocumented individuals unlawfully present in the United States. During that crime, Torres fled from the police in a Ford Mustang reaching speeds of 105 mph.

On Sept.10, 2021, Torres arrived at the Javier Vega Jr. Border Patrol (BP) checkpoint while driving a white Nissan Sentra. At that time, authorities believed he was carrying illegal narcotics and referred him to secondary inspection.

They noticed tool marks on his passenger seat rails. Law enforcement moved the front passenger seat further back and found white overspray on the wires beneath the seat. They lifted the carpet off the floorboard, found a trap door with four vacuum-sealed bundles wrapped in clear cellophane within the compartment.

Authorities continued to search the driver’s side floorboard which revealed another trap door. Five bundles were beneath the second door with four wrapped in black electrical tape and one vacuum-sealed in clear cellophane. Both rear floorboards also had trap doors but were empty.

The nine bundles were later determined to be 9.086 kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of $545,160.

Torres will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Parker Gochenour and Liesel Roscher prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal jury convicted a Bristow man Wednesday for murdering a former girlfriend’s new dating partner in 2018, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

Justin Dale Little, 29, was found guilty of first degree murder in Indian Country.  

On April 22, 2018, at noon, victim Jonathon Weatherford was found deceased on the train tracks in Jenks, Oklahoma, with a single gunshot wound to his back. A passerby called 911, and the Jenks Police Department responded to the scene.

During the investigation, officers interviewed Weatherford’s girlfriend and asked if she knew of anyone who would want to harm the victim. She responded that Little was only individual she believed was “crazy enough” and had “enough motive” to commit the murder. The woman reported that she and Little dated in high school and had a child together, and after the relationship ended, Little would often harass the woman and her dating partners. She recalled that Little had appeared at a boyfriend’s house at 4 am after tracking her phone, cut break lines, distributed suggestive photographs of the woman, poured water into her vehicle’s gas tank, and admitted at one point that he had contemplated shooting the woman and a boyfriend.

In the weeks prior to the crime, the woman said she had agreed to marry Little, only so their child could receive National Guard benefits. Little was the service member. The woman told Little that she planned to continue dating Weatherford  and that he would be in her life for a long time. She then told Little that if anything ever happened to Weatherford, she would suspect Little.

Officers also located surveillance video that placed the defendant at the crime scene in Jenks. The video revealed that Little watched the victim leave the girlfriend’s apartment around 11:40 am the day of the crime and walk toward his family’s home. Little’s pickup truck could be seen driving around the train tracks, following the victim for several minutes, then parking nearby. Footage further showed a man, identified as Weatherford, walking along the train tracks followed by a figure dressed in dark clothes. The victim and the figure eventually walked out of the view of the cameras. Shortly after, the figure ran back into the camera’s view and away from the scene of the crime. Footage then showed Little’s truck pull away from its parking spot near the crime scene and drive off.

Investigators pulled cell phone data, call logs, and PikePass records that helped confirm that it was Little seen in the surveillance video.

They further recovered a .300 Winchester Magnum Caliber Remington rifle with a scope and bipod from Little’s residence. Little purchased the rifle approximately a month before the murder. The medical examiner’s report revealed that Weatherford died from a gunshot wound to the back. The bullet had traveled through Weatherford’s backpack, a leather card holder full of several pages of playing cards and into the victim. The bullet broke multiple ribs before coming to rest just below his front chest. The rifle and bullet were sent to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Virginia, for ballistics comparison. A firearms expert determined the bullet was a .30 caliber round fired from a barrel rifled with six grooves with a right twist, which was consistent with the high powered rifle recovered from Little’s residence. Due to the damage to the bullet, the firearms expert was unable to determine if the bullet definitively came from Little’s rifle.

Previously, a Tulsa County jury also found Little guilty of the first degree murder of the victim, but his conviction was vacated following the Supreme Court’s ruling in McGirt v Oklahoma. The case was then prosecuted in federal court.

The FBI, Jenks Police Department, and Bristow Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas E. Buscemi and Victor A.S. Regal are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Natchez, Miss. – A Wilkinson County man was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette, III, to 168 months in federal prison for participation in an interstate drug trafficking operation distributing kilogram quantities of illegal drugs in the Natchez area from 2016 through 2018, announced U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Sammy Davis Wright, 51, of Woodville, MS, was indicted by a federal grand jury and subsequently pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine hydrochloride; conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine; and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Wright’s federal prison sentence includes 108 months in prison for his drug crimes, to be followed by a separate 5-year sentence for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Wright’s sentence includes a penalty for being an organizer or leader of criminal activity, and a penalty for maintaining premises for the purpose of drug distribution.  Court records reflect that Wright has prior convictions in Wilkinson County Circuit Court in 2001 and 2002 for sale of controlled substances.

According to court documents, Wright conspired with Kevin Singleton, of Natchez, Wesley Bell, of Natchez, Jimmie Lee Swearengen, Jr., of Mesquite, TX, Gregory Woodard, of Crosby, Roy Goodrich, of Baton Rouge, LA, Jerry Lee White, Jr., of Gloster, and Denonta Thadison, of  McComb.   Singleton, Woodard, Goodrich, White, and Thadison have already been sentenced for their crimes.   

Kevin Singleton, as head of the interstate drug trafficking organization, received a 35-year prison sentence from U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette, III, in September 2021. Woodard, Goodrich, and White received smaller prison sentences in 2020 ranging between 2½ and 3 years for their minimal involvement in the drug trafficking operation.  Thadison was sentenced on November 15, 2022, to 87 months in prison for cocaine distribution in the Natchez area. Swearengen was separately sentenced today for his participation in drug trafficking operations in the Natchez area. Bell is currently awaiting sentencing.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

This OCDETF case is the result of an extensive investigation targeting illegal narcotics distribution by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force in Atlanta, GA, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and the Pearl Police Department. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla J. Clark prosecuted these cases.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

            WASHINGTON – A jury in the District of Columbia found former D.C. Metro Transit Police Officer Andra Vance, 48, guilty today of a civil rights violation for his unlawful beating of an unarmed transit rider with a metal baton without legal justification on Feb. 16, 2018.

            In 2019, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a two-count indictment alleging that Vance violated the civil rights of a victim identified in court documents as “D.C.” by striking and then choking D.C. with a metal baton. Vance was found guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of one count of deprivation of rights involving the beating and acquitted of the second charge alleging the choking.  

            During the week-long trial, the government introduced evidence that the victim, D.C., attempted to use an invalid Metro card to board a train at the Anacostia Metro station. When the card was confiscated by Metro Transit personnel, D.C. became angry. As D.C. complained to Vance, Vance used his metal baton to hit D.C. in the head. As D.C. fled, Vance chased D.C. from the Metro station and continued striking D.C. in the head and neck area. D.C. fell to the ground and Vance climbed on top of D.C., put the metal baton to his neck, and pressed down as D.C. bled onto the sidewalk below. A fellow officer helped to handcuff D.C. and was present when medical personnel responded to treat D.C. for his injuries. At least one fellow officer who witnessed the assault testified that D.C. was not a threat to Vance or anyone else at the Anacostia Metro station.

            “People in the District of Columbia have the right to be free from excessive force at the hands of law enforcement, and that includes transit officers working for the D.C. Metro,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department will continue to aggressively prosecute any law enforcement officer who willfully violates the civil rights of our community members.”

            “As members of law enforcement, it is our sworn duty to uphold the law,” said Matthew M. Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “A crime like this betrays that duty and the badge with which the defendant was entrusted. When officers violate the civil rights of District citizens through unreasonable and unjustified violence, we will hold them accountable.”

            “Our commitment to transparency is key in our efforts to support and build trust with the communities we serve,” said Chief Michael Anzallo of the Metro Transit Police Department.  “We value our partner agencies and appreciate the opportunity to hold this former officer accountable for his actions.”

            Sentencing has been set for March 10, 2023. Vance faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.

            Assistant Attorney General Clarke, U.S. Attorney Graves, and Chief Anzallo made the announcement.

            Trial Attorney Maura White of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gauri Gopal for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia prosecuted the case.