A Lee County convicted rapist and drug dealer who shot at federal agents as they tried to arrest him in 2011 was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday.
Marcus Thompson of Marianna faced at least a 20-year sentence going into Friday’s hearing after he admitted in September that he fired “warning shots” at federal agents serving an early morning no-knock warrant at his home.
Federal authorities, who weren’t struck by the shots, have said they found about 3 pounds of cocaine in the trailer home after Thompson surrendered. In total, Thompson has admitted to helping distribute more than 110 pounds of cocaine in about a two-year period.
Thompson, 39, has also admitted he obtained the 9mm pistol he used to shoot at federal agents through a straw buyer, which an FBI special agent identified Friday as Thompson’s niece, who purchased the gun at a Forrest City pawnshop.
Thompson, who is also known as “Pig” and “PI,” was among about 70 people arrested en masse on Oct. 11, 2011, as part of an FBI-led drug-trafficking and public-corruption sting known as Operation Delta Blues. The investigation resulted in the arrest of five law enforcement officers accused of corruption. All five have since pleaded guilty or been convicted.
During the hearing at the federal courthouse in Little Rock, U.S. District Judge James Moody said a sentence longer than 20 years was warranted because Thompson fired at federal agents, dealt a large amount of drugs and had prior felony convictions, including a 1992 rape in Lee County.
“We not only have an admission to a substantial drug conspiracy, but we also have an admission of discharging a firearm when officers were at the house, which ... could have been worse if any of the officers had been wounded or killed,” Moody said.
Moody then ordered Thompson to serve 15 years in prison for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute. Thompson will serve an additional 10 years for discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. The sentence for the gun charge must be served consecutive to any other sentence under federal law. There is no parole in the federal prison system.
Thompson lived a troubled life that began as young boy, Moody said, which he took into account in ordering a sentence near the low end of the range of 24 to 27 1/2 years in prison recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
Thompson’s mother worked long hours, and his father, who lived in Chicago, rarely visited, leaving Thompson and his three siblings largely on their own. During his childhood, the lone male role model in Thompson’s life was a drug dealer who lived next door, Thompson told Moody.
“I realize Mr. Thompson had a rough upbringing. That’s not his fault ... but he did choose a life of crime and continued on that course,” Moody said.
During the hearing, Thompson recounted a life marred by violence, family tragedy and fear that centered for more than two decades on dealing crack cocaine in the impoverished Arkansas Delta.
In the two years before his arrest, Thompson was spending about $4,000 a week on cocaine, which he then redistributed, he has admitted.
Thompson and two of his family members spoke at length about how he’d started dealing drugs as a teenager, got involved with the Gangster Disciples, a violent street gang started in Chicago, and later became constantly paranoid and emotionally tormented after being shot in his bedroom in the late 1990s.
Thompson testified that he consistently slept with a gun near his bed because he feared the man who shot him would come back for him.
“I pressed charges against him, but he never did get arrested so I thought he might come back and shoot me,” Thompson said.
The morning of his arrest, Thompson said he started firing through the walls because he was afraid and didn’t know he was shooting at law enforcement officers. He couldn’t hear the agents identify themselves over the sound of his alarm system and the noise of an explosive the federal officers used to breach his doorway, he said.
“I was just firing,” he said. He surrendered once he saw it was police.
On Friday, he apologized for shooting at the agents.
“What happened was a mistake. Since I got shot, I’ve always been afraid,” Thompson said.
The gunshot wounds left Thompson seriously injured and required surgery, including the removal of part of his intestines. Thompson said Friday that he still suffers from the effects of the wounds.
The shooting was the main turning point in his life, Thompson said. It spawned from an argument with his sister’s boyfriend in 1999. In the days after the argument, the boyfriend burst into Thompson’s bedroom, he said.
“He just kicked my bedroom door in, and he just shot me in my bed,” he said.
Monica McDaniel, Thompson’s sister, testified that her brother’s personality changed from “laid back” to paranoid after her then-boyfriend shot Thompson.
“He was always afraid of someone coming into the home,” she said.
McDaniel said Thompson’s paranoia deepened after their brother was fatally shot in 2000. The fear was also exacerbated by the fact that authorities in Lee County never pursued charges against the man Thompson accused of shooting him, she said.
During testimony Friday, Thompson and his family members said they had little faith in the justice system in Marianna, which also allowed Thompson to amass four felony convictions without serving prison time.
According to Lee County court records, Thompson was given a three-year probation sentence in his earliest conviction, a theft by receiving charge involving a defaced firearm from 1992.
Also in 1992, Thompson pleaded guilty to rape and was placed on five years’ supervised probation as part of a 15-year suspended sentence. The sentence, part of a plea deal in which prosecutors dropped a kidnapping charge against Thompson, included that he pay a $500 fine, court fees and the victim’s medical bills.
Court records indicate that Thompson didn’t pay the full amount owed in the case until 2009 - after he’d been given probation sentences in two more felony drug convictions in 2006 and 2009, court records show.
“I never did get rehabilitated to understand being a different person. I have been rehabilitated now because I haven’t been locked up like this in all my life,” said Thompson, who has been jailed for nearly 17 months since his arrest in October 2011.
On Friday, Thompson apologized to his family for not turning his life around sooner.
“I’d like to show my family and my kids that there’s something that you can do different,” he said. “All they know is that I was arrested and what I did.”
Thompson’s attorney, Keith Coker, argued that Thompson should be given a chance to have some quality years of life left after he serves his prison sentence to show his family that he’s changed.
“Mr. Thompson broke the law. He’s broken the law many times in his life ... but are we going to warehouse him for the rest of his life, or are we going to give him a chance to redeem himself?” Coker said.
In response, Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters argued that Thompson’s criminal activity compared with other large-scale drug traffickers who pleaded guilty in the Delta Blues investigation and received sentences in excess of 25 years.
Thompson chose to live his life dealing drugs, she said.
“It is true that he had a rough upbringing. It is true that he has not been incarcerated for a large part of his life,” she said. “But I think it’s time that the system jumped in and made a loud statement about his conduct ... I think a 25-year sentence is appropriate.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 03/09/2013