Two defendants in the federal government's long-running drug conspiracy and racketeering case that targeted members and associates of a violent, Pope County-based white supremacist group were sentenced to prison Tuesday in federal court.
Carey Mooney, 46, of Dover was sentenced to 18 years and seven months in federal prison for her role in the kidnapping and assault of a suspected informant, whom she admitted stabbing in the leg.
Michael J. Roberts, 39, of Hattieville was sentenced to nine years and 10 months imprisonment for his involvement in a wide-ranging drug conspiracy directed by the organization.
Both defendants were connected to the New Aryan Empire, a white-supremacist organization that began as a prison gang and trafficked large quantities of methamphetamine and other drugs in and out of Pope County, according to federal authorities.
Mooney pleaded guilty last year to one count each of the violent crimes in aid of racketeering of kidnapping and assault with a dangerous weapon. Roberts pleaded guilty in 2020 to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Under U.S. sentencing statutes, Mooney could have faced maximum sentences of life in prison on the kidnapping count and 20 years in prison on the assault count. Under U.S. sentencing guidelines, she faced a sentencing range of 262 months to 327 months in prison.
Mooney's attorney, Dominique King of Little Rock, argued for a downward variance from the guideline range in a 13-page sentencing memorandum filed with the court on Monday. She argued that Mooney's history of childhood sexual abuse and years of drug addiction presented mitigating factors that warranted a downward variance.
In court, King argued that Mooney's past criminal history of several arrests and periods of incarceration were due to drug addiction and were not violent offenses.
"This is a very tough case," King told U.S. District Judge Brian Miller. "You have a horrible group of people who have done some really bad, horrible things and the guideline range for any of the things associated with this series of events should be steep."
But, King continued, Mooney's actions were more a result of her drug addiction than an inherently violent nature.
"She's not a violent person," King said. "Even the criminal history she has that contributes to the guideline range being so high is drug related. Not drug dealing, not hurting the community and not hurting other people, but ingesting and using drugs and hurting herself."
King argued that Mooney's needs could be met with intensive drug rehabilitation but a lengthy term of imprisonment would be counterproductive.
"I'm not arguing for 60 months in prison on a 223 month sentence, but I am asking the court to vary downward substantially," she said. "She's not the type of person the court should send to prison for over 20 years."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Liza Jane Brown, noting the violent nature of Mooney's offense, argued in favor of a 223-month sentence, 39 months below the minimum guideline sentence but still substantial enough, she said, to address the severity of the offense.
"It's not just one thing, you have to look at the crime as a whole with the first kidnapping of this victim, and Ms. Mooney played a substantial part in that," Brown said, in support of a 223-month sentence. "While they're kidnapping, [co-defendant] Kevin Long is on the phone and he's encouraging them to keep retaliating against this victim, and hitting her and eventually Ms. Mooney is the one who stabs the victim."
The kidnapping, Brown said, was in retaliation for New Aryan Empire members' suspicion that the victim was cooperating with law enforcement investigating a shooting incident involving Long.
Brown referred to a co-defendant, Amanda Rapp, who was sentenced to 262 months in prison for her role in the second kidnapping of the victim in which a second person was kidnapped, beaten and disfigured by having a hot knife pressed against his face by another co-defendant.
"She didn't stab a person," Brown said. "She just beat them up."
Mooney gave a brief statement in which she tearfully apologized for her actions.
"I'd just like to return to society one day in a positive role and to love my family," she said.
Roberts, who was not involved in the kidnappings, pleaded guilty to distributing methamphetamine for New Aryan Empire leadership.
According to the U.S. attorney's office in Little Rock, authorities in 2016 intercepted a package Roberts sent to California containing over $40,000 in cash and another in 2017 that contained $24,000 in cash. The investigation revealed that Roberts had received 5-pound shipments of methamphetamine every week for three months and later increased to ten-pound shipments of methamphetamine every week for one month. The cash was payment for some of those shipments.
In total, authorities said, Roberts was responsible for the distribution of approximately 100 pounds of methamphetamine.
During his sentencing hearing, Roberts sat quietly with his attorney, Lawrence Anthony Walker of Little Rock, as Miller explained the sentencing options available to him, including the statutory maximum penalty range of 10 years to life in prison and a $10 million fine and the guideline range of 168 to 210 months in prison with a fine ranging from $40,000 to $10 million.
Miller granted a downward departure motion made by Walker, sentencing Roberts to 118 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.
With the latest sentencings, the long-running racketeering and drug conspiracy case reached a milestone, as it is now past the halfway point of its conclusion, with 29 defendants sentenced. Another 24 defendants who entered guilty pleas still await sentencing, as does another defendant -- Marcus Millsap -- who went to trial last September and was found guilty on numerous drug conspiracy, distribution and racketeering charges.
One defendant, Troy "Tricky" Loadholdt, 40, of Russellville, has been missing since before the first indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in 2017 and is considered a fugitive.
Of the 29 co-defendants sentenced so far, only one has avoided prison time.
Two more defendants in the case, Courtney Talley and Corey Ford, are scheduled to be sentenced today. Talley, 35, of Dardanelle pleaded guilty to one count each of the violent crimes in aid of racketeering of kidnapping and assault with a dangerous weapon. Ford, 29, of Pottsville pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.