United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that four defendants were sentenced today in the Western District of Louisiana on various charges. Their sentencing information is as follows:
SHREVEPORT, La. – Chief United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. sentenced Christopher Donta Willis, 46, of Mansfield, Texas, to 264 months (22 years) in prison, followed by 4 years of supervised release, on drug trafficking charges. Willis was charged in February 2019 and pleaded guilty on September 13, 2021 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. During an investigation into drug trafficking activities in the Shreveport/Bossier City area, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) received information that Willis and another individual were attempting to distribute methamphetamine on January 25, 2019. Later that day, a trooper with the Louisiana State Police (LSP) conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle being driven by Willis. Once stopped, Willis fled the scene but was quickly apprehended by law enforcement officers and was found to have methamphetamine on his person. Additional methamphetamine was recovered pursuant to a residential search warrant. The drugs that were seized were sent to the crime laboratory for analysis and were confirmed to be methamphetamine.
The case was investigated by the DEA, ATF and Louisiana State Police, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian C. Flanagan and Earl M. Campbell.
LAFAYETTE, La. – United States District Judge James D. Cain, Jr. sentenced the following defendants in Lafayette, Louisiana:
Marquel Devon Robinson, 34, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, was sentenced to 72 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute heroin. On February 15, 2019, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at the residence of Robinson in Lake Arthur. During the execution of the warrant, officers recovered methamphetamine, heroin, and a heroin-fentanyl mixture along with other drug paraphernalia. The seized narcotics were sent to a laboratory for testing and were determined to contain 168.6 grams of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine, 17.1 grams of a mixture and substance containing heroin, and 13.23 grams of a mixture and substance containing heroin and fentanyl. Robinson pleaded guilty to the charge on November 30, 2021.
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigation, the Lake Arthur Police Department and Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office and the CAT Team, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. McCoy.
Isaac J. Fontenot, 23, of Church Point, Louisiana, was sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for sexual abuse of a minor. Fontenot was also ordered to register as a sex offender. In October 2020, when Fontenot was 22 years old, he engaged in sexual relations with a female victim under the age of 15 years old. Fontenot knew that the victim was a minor but continued having sexual relations with her. He pleaded guilty to the charge on November 30, 2021.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Coushatta Tribal Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Nickel.
Clifton Lamar Dodd, 50, a federal inmate, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for mailing a number of hoax letters to United States Senate post office boxes. Dodd was found guilty at his trial in July 2021 by a federal jury in Lafayette.
On May 2, 2016, personnel at the United States Senate mail facility received four suspicious mailed envelopes, each containing a white powdery substance. Each envelope bore a return address of FCI Oakdale, and each listed a different inmate as the purported sender. The United States Capitol Police’s Hazardous Response Unit responded and confirmed that the white powder was merely talcum powder. In addition to the talcum powder, each letter contained a note scrawled in all caps on a small scrap of paper that stated, “MY BOSS MADE ME DO THIS.” On the back of each note was the name of four different inmates, all of which were housed at FCI Oakdale.
U.S. Capitol Police and agents from the FBI and Bureau of Prisons began an investigation into the origin of the letters. Agents interviewed the inmates whose names were listed as senders of the letters and learned that Dodd had sent one of the inmates threatening notes and bragged about getting the inmate removed from the prison yard. FBI submitted the hoax letters to its crime lab for forensic evaluation and found one of Dodd’s fingerprints on the outside of one of the envelopes.
The FBI, Bureau of Prisons, and U.S. Capitol Police conducted the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Forrest Phillips prosecuted the case.
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