A Little Rock man who pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to distribute between 1.2 kilograms and 4 kilograms of fentanyl was sentenced Tuesday to spend more than 18 years in prison by a federal judge in Little Rock.
Darrell Walls, 36, is the last defendant to be sentenced in a drug conspiracy case that resulted in the indictment of 17 people in 2019. He was sentenced to 223 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, who asked, in response to Walls' plea for mercy, in a case like his, "What does mercy look like?"
When he pleaded guilty on Aug. 25, 2021, Walls admitted to being part of a conspiracy with other large-scale narcotics dealers to distribute fentanyl in the greater Little Rock area. Prosecutors said the group was responsible for distributing multiple kilograms of fentanyl, in varying amounts, to dozens of identified customers. Walls also completed eight different controlled sales of fentanyl to individuals working with law enforcement.
As part of his plea agreement, Walls admitted to responsibility for trafficking between 1.2 kilograms and 4 kilograms -- 2.6 pounds to just under 9 pounds -- of fentanyl in Central Arkansas. His attorney, Darrell Brown Jr. of Little Rock, argued that the amount that could be directly attributed to Walls was far less, totaling less than 7 ounces of the drug. Brown argued that because of the smaller amount that could be directly tied to his client as the result of controlled buys and what was found at the time of his arrest, Walls should be sentenced to less than the low-end guideline range of 223 months.
Brown said that had the amount of fentanyl directly attributable to Walls been applied, he would have faced a guideline sentencing range of 168 to 262 months, and he asked Miller to consider a sentence of no more than 180 months -- 15 years -- for his client.
He said Walls' pre-sentence report made numerous references to drug amounts heard over a wiretap that federal investigators placed on Walls' cellphone over a 30-day period that he said could not be substantiated and should not be factored into his client's sentencing guideline range.
Brown also said Walls was not the leader of the conspiracy and said that although he "was not a minor player," and would stand by his plea taking responsibility for up to 4 kilograms of fentanyl, he asked the judge to vary downward by "the amount that he was directly attributable to." Brown said Walls, who has six children, should be allowed out of prison at an early enough age to have a role in raising them.
"A Bureau of Prisons sentence is appropriate," Brown said. "The question here is the amount of time."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens disagreed with Brown's assessment of the amount of drugs involved attributable to Walls.
"He's referring to what we call drugs on the table," Givens said, meaning the total amount of drugs tied directly to a defendant through controlled purchases or found on the defendant's person, in their home or vehicle, or otherwise tied directly to the defendant. He pointed out that two defendants, Desmond Kelley and Javion Robinson, were tied to large quantities of fentanyl through the wiretap but were not physically found with drugs in their possession. Kelley was sentenced to 211 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy and Robinson was sentenced to 10 years. Between 1.4 and 4 kilograms of fentanyl was attributed to Kelley and between 400 grams and 1.2 kilograms was attributed to Robinson.
"But even if we were talking about 190 grams, which we're not," Givens said, "that is an incredible amount of fentanyl."
Fentanyl is a powerful but cheap synthetic painkiller that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and has been blamed for thousands of drug overdose deaths. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, as little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can prove lethal in humans. Using that rubric, 190 grams of fentanyl has the potential to provide a lethal overdose to 95,000 people.
Givens said over the 30-day life of the wiretap, investigators intercepted hundreds of calls and identified numerous customers who purchased fentanyl from the defendant, some of whom confirmed that they purchased fentanyl from Walls on a regular basis.
"Darrell Walls sold fentanyl every single day," he said. "It was a bit of a gift in the plea agreement to limit it to 1.2 to 4 kilograms."
Givens said Desmond Kelley, the purported head of the drug trafficking ring, admitted to selling the defendant some 4-5 ounces of fentanyl a week for more than a year, which would have totaled at least 13-16 pounds of the drug over that amount of time.
"Just taking what Mr. Kelley says was involved in this," Givens said, "you're in the multiple kilograms, more than four kilograms of the deadliest drug that we have."
Walls, calling his actions "stupid," told Miller he had worked hard to rise above his past and had obtained a commercial driver's license while on pre-trial release and started driving trucks as a way to support his family.
"This isn't my destiny. I made a wrong turn and headed down a dead-end street," Walls said. "I made those decisions and I have to live with them. I'm not asking to be free."
Before sentencing Walls, Miller read through a lengthy list of felony convictions dating back to 2007 that had resulted in probationary sentences for Walls that were soon revoked with multiple additional terms of probation added, with subsequent violations that resulted in periodic stays in prison.
"We have all that history and that's what makes Mr. Walls a career offender," Miller said, overruling Brown's variance request. "I understand mercy but I've been known to ask defendants with that much criminal history, what does mercy look like?"