The final defendant in a 2012 indictment accusing 13 people of participating in a "significant" Pine Bluff-based cocaine-trafficking ring was sentenced Thursday to 90 months -- seven-and-a-half years -- in prison.
At the sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., defense attorney Willard Proctor Jr. said Brandon Caffey had a "minor role" in a drug ring that authorities said distributed up to 8.8 pounds of crack cocaine monthly between October 2009 and Feb. 7, 2012, in Pine Bluff, southeast Arkansas and Little Rock.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner replied that Caffey "was not a minor player." She told the judge, "He was the one they went to to get large amounts. ... The cocaine was ordered from and delivered to Mr. Caffey."
The purported leader of the drug ring, Quentin Tidwell, pleaded guilty Oct. 24, 2012, to the main charge of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and he was sentenced Feb. 13, 2013, to 135 months -- more than 11 years -- in prison.
Of the 11 other people who were indicted jointly in the case after a 2 1/2-year investigation, court records show four of them are serving prison sentences ranging between five and nine years; prosecutors dropped charges against the others.
Caffey, who was the second-named defendant behind Tidwell, has a prison record that contributed to him facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison under federal statutes, and up to 11 years under federal sentencing guidelines, for his August guilty plea to the conspiracy charge. However, he was permitted to be sentenced within a lower range of 78-99 months after prosecutors filed a motion requesting it.
Caffey's mother told the judge that she blamed herself for his crime because she was addicted to drugs while he was younger and "he had to raise himself."
Proctor acknowledged that Caffey has brothers who are in prison.
While conceding that Caffey has had a hard life, Gardner told the judge that Caffey is himself a father, and asked "how many generations" the pattern must continue through before it's stopped.
"As we go down the line, it seems to be nobody's fault," she said. "There's got to be a point where you take responsibility. ... Where does it end?"
Requesting a sentence at the high end of the range, she said prosecutors had already given Caffey a break.
"I think this is one of those cases where both of the lawyers are right," Marshall said. "I should take account of his life growing up, and the fact that this is a serious crime. Mr. Caffey was a major source of supply for this drug conspiracy. ... Those drugs are poisoning our community."
Marshall said he also had to take into account the sentences he had imposed on the other defendants in the case.
Metro on 05/16/2014