LITTLE ROCK — Four more defendants in the ongoing drug-trafficking and public-corruption investigation known as Operation Delta Blues were sentenced to prison Tuesday and Wednesday in connection with earlier guilty pleas.
Among them was Antonio “Sam” Rattler, 29, of Helena-West Helena, whose criminal case was one of those chronicled in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette investigation into the Phillips County justice system that was published in May.
Like dozens of others who were allowed to remain free for years despite facing outstanding charges, Rattler was a fugitive for six years until his arrest shortly before the FBI-led, multiagency investigation culminated in about 70 people being indicted on cocaine trafficking-related charges in October 2011.
The newspaper found that despite at least two traffic stops in his hometown and two court appearances where he was in contact with police, Rattler was never arrested because the Phillips County sheriff’s office didn’t enter a fugitive warrant for him into the Arkansas Crime Information Center’s database.
The database is designed to alert law-enforcement officers to outstanding warrants during traffic stops and other encounters. The newspaper found that the sheriff ’s office routinely didn’t enter warrants into the system, allowing many fugitives to remain free for years. Phillips County Sheriff Ronnie White has since said his office has started entering the warrants into the state’s database.
In addition to evading capture, Rattler also was accused of murder during the time he was free. In that slaying — the July 2011 shooting of Charles Watkins — Rattler has since pleaded guilty in Phillips County Circuit Court to an amended charge of second-degree murder. He hasn’t yet been sentenced in that case.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Moody noted the murder case in sentencing Rattler to 18 months on his federal charge of conspiring to possess cocaine with the intent to deliver. Moody ordered Rattler to serve three years of supervised release on the federal charge, and also ordered Rattler to serve the federal prison sentence concurrently with any state sentence in the murder case.
The federal sentence came nearly four months after Rattler admitted in court to buying cocaine from Leon Edwards in March 2011 and reselling it. Edwards and Sedrick Trice were considered the leaders of the drug-trafficking organization in which prosecutors have acknowledged Rattler played a much lesser role.
Also sentenced Tuesday were Laterick Ezell, 31, of Helena-West Helena, and Clifton “Cliff” Graves, 25, of Marvell, who, like Rattler, pleaded guilty earlier this year to the main conspiracy charge.
Graves was sentenced to 70 months in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release, while Ezell was sentenced to 37 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Ezell and Graves both originally faced additional charges of using a telephone in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, but those charges were dropped in exchange for their guilty pleas to the conspiracy charge.
On Wednesday, Moody sentenced Alvin Long, 49, who in August pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge in a related case, saying he acted as a middleman to help Demetrius “D-Coop” Colbert obtain more than 110 pounds of cocaine from a Mexican supplier.
Colbert, who is accused of dealing large quantities of drugs in Marianna and Helena-West Helena, faces a jury trial in March. He also has been accused of shooting and injuring an FBI agent during the October 2011 roundup.
Because Long had no criminal history and hasn’t ever been connected to any incidents involving guns or violence, he qualified for the “safety valve,” a provision in federal law that allows certain offenders to be sentenced without regard to the statutory minimum that would otherwise apply.
In Long’s case, because of the quantity of drugs involved, he faced 10 years to life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, without the safety valve factored in.
Defense attorney Jack Kearney of Little Rock asked that the sentencing be delayed to see if Long will eventually qualify for a further sentence reduction for cooperating with the government. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Benecia Moore said prosecutors can always request a sentence reduction for cooperation later, if it happens.
She asked Moody to sentence Long within the guideline range, noting, “He was not simply a drug dealer, but a supplier as well. He pled guilty to [trafficking] 100 to 150 kilos of cocaine, which is a significant amount, especially in that community,” referring to Marianna.
Long, shackled at the ankles, walked to the podium only to offer a “good afternoon” to everyone present, apologize to the court and the city, and thank the judge for allowing him the opportunity to speak. He didn’t ask for any particular sentence.
Moody sentenced Long to 108 months, or nine years exactly — just below the minimum guideline range. He said he gave Long a break because of several letters sent to the court on Long’s behalf, and the fact that he pleaded guilty rather than go to trial.
“I know he has the support of the community,” Moody said, referring to the letters and the presence of about 10 people in the courtroom in support of Long.
Information for this article was contributed by Chad Day of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 11/29/2012