Classified career offender, drug dealer given 22 years

LITTLE ROCK -- A White County man accused of drug trafficking by federal prosecutors was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Brian Miller ruled that he met the classification of a career offender under federal sentencing statutes.

Jason Aaron Carter, 37, of Judsonia pleaded guilty in October to one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver after a July 2019 drug arrest by Central Arkansas Drug Task Force agents. Under the U.S. sentencing guidelines based upon Carter's criminal history, the suggested sentencing range would have been 151 to 188 months if he were not classified as a career offender but the career offender designation enhanced the guideline range to 262 to 327 months in prison.

Sentencing guidelines are advisory only and judges are not required to adhere to them but must stay within the statutory range. The statutory sentencing range for the offense is 10 years to life in prison.

Carter's attorney, Bruce David Eddy with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock, objected to Carter's career-offender classification, arguing that his client suffers from drug addiction, and asked Miller to consider the minimum statutory sentence of 10 years for the offense.

"That Mr. Carter has so many drug and drug-related convictions is not because he doesn't respect the law," Eddy said. "On the contrary, it's the addiction that compels drug seeking and use despite the harmful consequences, including the harmful legal consequences."

Carter was arrested at his home by investigators with the task force when a search of his property turned up 464 grams of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, a loaded .22-caliber pistol, police scanners and radios, surveillance equipment, $2,000 in cash and $200 in counterfeit money, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in White County.

The White County prosecuting attorney dismissed the charges after Carter was federally indicted on one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. In exchange for his guilty plea, the U.S. attorney's office agreed to dismiss the weapons counts.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Liza Jane Brown argued that Carter's history of arrests for drugs and drug paraphernalia dating back to when he was 18 suggested more than just drug addiction.

"He starts out when he's 18... he's got three fleeings," Brown said. "By age 21 he gets theft of property and breaking and entering and he gets 60 months in prison. At 24, that's when he's convicted of simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms and possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver -- which is contrary to the argument that he is a drug addict and not a drug dealer."

"When you look at your other convictions, a number of them, they weren't possession cases for the most part," Miller said.

"You've already received 338 months prison time for your convictions if you add them all up and you've been given 84 months of probation if you add them all up. So we have almost 40 years of various types of sentences."

Miller said Carter's record of convictions and incarceration indicated the need for a guideline sentence because Carter is facing state prosecution for another offense, he would order the sentence to run concurrent to any other sentence he might receive.

Brown objected to the concurrent sentence under separate statutes, saying that under one statute a concurrent sentence would not be applicable and under the other, a concurrent sentence could not be applied to a sentence not yet applied.

"I'm going to overrule you to the extent that I can," Miller said. "If it turns out I can't run them concurrently then the Bureau of Prisons will send me a letter like they always do, or call me and tell me you can't do that and I'll adjust.

But as we sit here today," he concluded, "that's the order."

Upcoming Events