An Ohio man found guilty of mail fraud and forgery was linked at sentencing to a killing in 2001. Facing 15 to 21 months on the original charges, his sentence was increased to 30 years.
In a case strikingly similar to Williams', a 35-year-old West Virginia man convicted last year of several drug and money-laundering counts received a 240-year sentence after the judge found by a preponderance of the evidence that he also ordered the killing of an informant working with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
U.S. District Judge David A. Faber acknowledged that the evidence linking Maurice Taft "Mo" Gibson to the murder probably wouldn't have held up in a criminal trial.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in the Maryland section of Friday's editions of The Sun about the sentencing of a Harford County man on drug charges misspelled the first name of the defense attorney.
The attorney's name is Christie Needleman
The Sun regrets the error.
"Gibson had motives for ordering the murder. ... Further, it is clear that [the two men accused of carrying out the killing] are hiding something," Faber wrote in an opinion. "While the evidence falls short of meeting the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard that would apply in a murder trial, the court is persuaded that it meets the preponderance of the evidence test that applies to sentencing issues."
Charles Miller, the U.S. attorney for West Virginia's Southern District, said the provision is useful for holding defendants accountable for all of their actions related to a crime. He noted that if formally charged with murder, a defendant would face the death penalty, something that is not on the table with sentencing enhancements.
"The intent of the federal sentencing guidelines is to punish a defendant not so much for what they're convicted of, but what they did, if that makes sense," Miller said. "If you kill somebody in connection with drug dealing, you ought to be sentenced for murder. Sometimes the evidence is not as strong as you would like, but the standard is lower at sentencing."
Armed with more evidence in a separate case, Miller's office successfully won murder convictions against a man and a woman accused of killing an informant.
Andrew C. White, a Baltimore defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said defendants have ample opportunity to counter accusations brought forward in sentencing.
"It's extremely frustrating as a defense lawyer to have the government bring up inflammatory facts not proved beyond a reasonable doubt," he said, "but from the other perspective, it certainly can't be said that it's not fair or relevant that a judge should consider such information in determining what sentence to give."
