Four Sentenced in Federal Court in Louisiana to 31 Years Combined in Separate Cases

Louisiana – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that four defendants were sentenced to 31 years combined on April 21, 2022, in the Western District of Louisiana on various charges. Their sentencing information is as follows:

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.

On January 25, 2019, agents with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) received information that Willis and another individual were attempting to distribute methamphetamine during an investigation into drug trafficking activities in the Shreveport/Bossier City area. Later that day, a trooper with the Louisiana State Police (LSP) pulled over a vehicle driven by Willis. Willis fled the scene after being stopped, but was quickly apprehended by law enforcement officers and found to be in possession of methamphetamine. A residential search warrant resulted in the recovery of additional methamphetamine. The drugs seized were sent to a crime laboratory for analysis, where they were determined 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.

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 (6 years) in prison and three years of supervised release for heroin possession with intent to distribute. On February 15, 2019, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Robinson’s Lake Arthur home. Officers recovered methamphetamine, heroin, and a heroin-fentanyl mixture, as well as other drug paraphernalia, while carrying out the warrant. The narcotics seized were tested and found 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. On November 30, 2021, Robinson pleaded guilty to the charge.

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 (3 years and 10 months) in prison and ten years of supervised release for sexually abusing a minor. Fontenot was also told he needed to register as a sex offender. Fontenot had sexual relations with a female victim under the age of 15 in October 2020, when he was 22 years old. Despite knowing that the victim was a minor, Fontenot continued to have sexual relations with her. On November 30, 2021, he pleaded guilty to the charge.

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.

Personnel at the United States Senate mail facility received four suspicious mailed envelopes containing a white powdery substance on May 2, 2016. Each envelope had a return address of FCI Oakdale and a different inmate listed as the purported sender. The Hazardous Response Unit of the United States Capitol Police responded and confirmed that the white powder was simply talcum powder. Aside from the talcum powder, each letter included a note scrawled in all caps on a small scrap of paper that read, “MY BOSS MADE ME DO THIS.” The names of four different inmates, all of whom were housed at FCI Oakdale, were written on the back of each note.

The U.S. Capitol Police, along with agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons, launched an investigation into the letters’ origins. Agents interviewed the inmates whose names were listed as the senders of the letters and discovered that Dodd had sent threatening notes to one of the inmates and boasted about having the inmate removed from the prison yard. The FBI sent the hoax letters to its crime lab for forensic examination, and one of Dodd’s fingerprints was discovered on the outside of one of the envelopes.

The investigation was carried out by the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, and the United States Capitol Police, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney T. Forrest Phillips.

Follow this link to report a typo or other issue.