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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Washington, D.C. - After two days of deliberations, a federal jury in the District of Columbia yesterday found Marcus Jermaine Pinckney, 34, of Forestville, Maryland, guilty of four counts of distribution of phencyclidine (“PCP”) and two counts of distribution of PCP within 1000 feet of a public school, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor.
After additional deliberation, the jury was dismissed by U.S. District Judge James Robertson when it was unable to reach unanimous verdicts on a fifth count of distribution of PCP and a third count of distribution in a school zone. Pinckney is scheduled to be sentenced on August 15, 2007. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, Pinckney faces a minimum range of 63 to 78 months in prison.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Pinckney sold PCP to a former associate on five separate occasions between August and December 2002. In August 2002, that former associate had begun cooperating with the Safe Streets Task Force, comprised of law enforcement agents from the FBI, DEA and Metropolitan Police Department. The undercover operations were recorded, along with several telephone calls between Pinckney and the cooperating witness to set up the deals.
In announcing the guilty verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended FBI Special Agent Richard Stallings and MPD Detective Joseph F. Sopata, of the Safe Street Task Force, who investigated the case, and Paralegals James Mazzitelli, Carolyn Carter-McKinley, Kashara Boston, Nicole Tate and Nicole McGhee, who assisted in the preparation and trial of the case. U.S. Attorney Taylor also commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Martin Dee Carpenter and Edward A. O’Connell, who prosecuted the case.
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