A man accused of leading a heroin distribution ring that caused nine overdoses, including two deaths, in and near Cabot pleaded guilty Thursday to a distribution charge in exchange for avoiding a jury trial and potential life sentence.
Wallando Onezine, 37, hesitated repeatedly over two hours about whether to go through with a plea agreement, which his attorney negotiated with federal prosecutors, that was set to expire at day's end. Meanwhile, parents of the two young men who died from heroin overdoses in 2011 and 2012 watched anxiously from the courtroom gallery.
The agreement calls for the Cabot man who grew up in New Orleans and California to spend 10 years in federal prison in lieu of facing a possible conviction on five charges by a federal jury this fall. The trial, scheduled to last six weeks in September and October, would include allegations that Onezine's actions brought about the two men's deaths. Because of a previous drug conviction, Onezine would face an automatic life sentence if the jury found that his actions contributed to the men's deaths.
The agreement that Onezine signed shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, after several consultations with defense attorney Molly Sullivan, allows him to plead guilty to a charge that doesn't mention the deaths. The agreement also allows him to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial if U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ultimately decides against the negotiated 10-year penalty. If Marshall accepts the negotiated penalty after reviewing a comprehensive pre-sentence report that has yet to be compiled by court probation officers, Onezine cannot back out.
He has been jailed since his July 2012 arrest and indictment on federal conspiracy charges along with seven other men. In a pretrial hearing in late 2012, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon told a federal magistrate judge, "He started supplying 18- to 20-year-olds in Cabot. We have nine overdoses and two deaths. He's the reason for Cabot's heroin problem -- period."
According to court documents, one of the men, identified only as J.M., died of a heroin overdose on Oct. 27, 2011, in Cabot. The other, identified only as D.H., died from an overdose of the illegal drug on March 24, 2012, in a hotel room in the Petit Jean Mountain area.
Agent Dale Van Dorple of the Drug Enforcement Administration testified in 2012 that after the family of the first man contacted authorities and said the victim's friends had identified Onezine as the supplier, agents checked with Cabot police and learned that the city had a heroin problem. He said agents then documented nine heroin overdoses in the city, including the two resulting in death, between mid-2011 and May 2012. He said the victims ranged in age from 18 to 23, and all the survivors reported getting the drug from Onezine.
In May of 2013, Marshall postponed the trial, which was originally scheduled to begin in July of 2013, to await the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case, United States v. Burrage, that he said was "directly on point on a central issue in this case; the legal standard governing whether the deaths of two heroin users resulted from a conspiracy to distribute heroin."
The high court decided the case on Feb. 3, holding that a drug dealer who supplied one of many drugs to a drug user who ultimately dies or is seriously injured may receive an enhanced sentence -- such as Onezine's automatic life sentence -- only if the drug he supplied was a "but-for" cause of the death or injury. This means that the death or injury would not have occurred in the absence of the drug in question.
The decision reversed the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the enhancement could apply if a drug supplied by the dealer was a "contributing cause" of the death. The 8th Circuit ruling stemmed from a case that originated in Iowa, and it established precedent throughout the 8th Circuit jurisdiction, which includes Arkansas.
The Supreme Court ruling, which makes it more difficult for prosecutors to link drug-related deaths to drug sellers in some cases, has not resulted in motions from lawyers on either side in the Onezine case, the judge said Thursday, in response to a question from the defendant.
The charge to which Onezine pleaded guilty Thursday was a new charge, filed in open court, of conspiring between May 1, 2011, and June 26, 2012, to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute between 100 grams but less than a kilogram of heroin or a heroin mixture.
The penalties are normally five to 40 years in prison and fines of up to $5 million, but in the plea agreement, prosecutors doubled the range to 10 years to life, then agreed to recommend the minimum sentence of 10 years.
"My lawyer's telling me it's either life in prison or this," Onezine told the judge while weighing his choices.
As Gordon read aloud the details of the agreement, Onezine balked when asked if he sold heroin in Cabot, saying he didn't intend to sell it but "sometimes I would share mine. If they wanted to buy some, I would sell it. We really got it to get high, not to sell it."
He also balked when the judge asked if he distributed more than 100 grams of the drug, saying, "I can't say that I sold that much," then agreeing that he probably distributed that amount, even if he didn't sell that amount.
Gordon told the judge that in less than a month's time -- between May 24, 2012, and June 22, 2012 -- law enforcement officers had tracked Onezine making 11 trips to Memphis, where he admitted that he got his supply of heroin.
The charges that Gordon will ask to be dismissed against Onezine if Marshall ultimately upholds the plea agreement are conspiracy to distribute heroin, resulting in death; two counts of distribution of heroin, resulting in death; distribution of heroin; possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking; and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
After Marshall accepted the plea, Sullivan told the judge that Onezine "would like to be released to his family for two weeks." She said he has "missed two years with his little boy," and said that when he was arrested, "He was essentially ripped away from his family."
The last remark generated sarcastic snickers from the families of the dead men.
Marshall denied the request.
Among the other defendants in the case, one pleaded guilty to a lesser charge last month and the others still await trial. All of those awaiting trial are accused of conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in death.
A section on 06/20/2014