A member of the Monterrio Fuller fentanyl distribution ring was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday in federal court after pleading guilty in March before U.S. District Judge Brian Miller to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
Cameron Coleman, 39, pleaded guilty to the charge March 10 in exchange for the government's dismissal of one count of using a telephone to facilitate a drug crime. In his plea agreement, he agreed that the amount of fentanyl involved in the offense ranged between 8 and 16 grams, exposing him to a possible sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
A presentence report prepared by the federal office of probation and pretrial services resulted in a sentencing range, according to U.S. sentencing guidelines, of 33 to 41 months in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Jegley requested a sentence of 37 months, which sits in the middle of the guideline range, and Coleman's attorney, Jonathan Lane of Little Rock, said a guideline sentence would be appropriate for his client.
Coleman assured Miller that he has seen the error of his ways.
"This is definitely my last time stepping in any courtroom," Coleman said. "I've got family out there that needs me."
But none of that sat well with Miller, who varied the sentence upward an additional seven months above the maximum guideline sentence after noting Coleman's extensive criminal history spread over 20 years.
"I don't think any sentence I give Mr. Coleman is going to offer any deterrence," Miller said. "Mr. Coleman is a lifelong criminal, and that's what he does.
"Now, does that mean I'm going to give you a bunch of years?" he asked, turning his attention to Coleman. "No. But I'm looking at your record Mr. Coleman, and you're just a doggone criminal, and I'm going to read it to you."
Miller noted that since the age of 18, Coleman had accumulated a total of 858 months, or 71.5 years in prison sentences handed down by various courts in Arkansas.
"That's 72 years you've been given, and that's between the ages of 18 and 39," Miller said. "In 21 years you've been given 71 years of imprisonment. You were on supervised release at the time you committed this crime, in fact, it was two months after you got out of prison that you went out and got arrested for this."
At that point Miller, who has often been critical from the bench of how the state prison system works, noted that Coleman's time in the state prison system had served as no deterrent at all to his criminal activities.
"If you were not in prison -- which in the state of Arkansas is not really putting you in prison but just gives you time, and you don't actually go -- but when you were not in prison you were committing crimes," he said. "It ranges from burglary to dope to whatever. You're just a criminal."
Miller then asked, rhetorically, if there was any amount of time in prison that he could impose that might serve as a deterrent to any future criminal conduct. Miller acknowledged that the amount of fentanyl involved in the offense must have been a very low quantity or the base offense level would have been higher and the guideline sentencing range more severe.
"The record shows that in the 15 or 20 cases you had before this one you probably told those judges the same thing," he said. "The question is, do I send you off to prison forever? Actually this is a case where he probably deserves five or 10 years, but then the question is what's the point?"
At that point, Miller said he would not vary the sentence upward as much as five years, but he would vary it upward "just to let you know that this just has to stop at some point."
He noted that, given Coleman's criminal history, he could probably vary the sentence upward to as much as 10 years in prison and still pass muster on an appeal.
"I think I can justify giving you 120 [months], and this case would get to the 8th Circuit and they would turn it around so fast affirming that you wouldn't even have a chance to get back to your cell," Miller said. "But I'm not going to do that. What I'm going to do is vary upward seven months to 48 months, and that's based on your history and hopefully that will deter you, but I don't think it will."
Miller also ordered Coleman to a period of supervised release of five years. He did issue an order to allow Coleman, at Lane's request, to get out of jail for seven days before reporting to prison and under close supervision and electronic monitoring from the probation and pretrial services office, to visit his father, who Lane told Miller is in hospice care and not expected to live more than a few weeks.