Press Release
Contact:
MICHAEL L. SCHIPPER
ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY
PHONE: (616) 456-2404
ARMED DRUG DEALER SENTENCED
MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2008 - GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Andrew Damar Morris, 29, of Three Rivers, has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for possessing cocaine for purposes of distribution and for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, U.S. Attorney Charles Gross announced today. In addition, Morris will serve 5 years on supervised release following his term of imprisonment.
Morris pled guilty to the charges, which arose from evidence obtained during the conduct of a search of his apartment on September 20, 2006. During the search, Southwest Enforcement Team (SWET) officers and Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers found marijuana, powder cocaine, crack cocaine and a .22 caliber revolver.
Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell’s 13 year sentence was based in part on Morris’s lengthy criminal history, which includes a 2007 child abuse conviction for which he is currently serving 4 to 8 year in state prison. That conviction involved a March 2007 incident in which Morris’s 5-month old son was rushed to the hospital with multiple broken ribs, severe head trauma and bleeding on the brain.
U.S. Attorney Gross commended the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Kalamazoo area SWET Team and Kalamazoo DPS for their work on the case. The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal, state and local initiative focused on reducing gun crime in Western Michigan by obtaining substantial federal sentences for persons with a history of gun-related violence. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. Schipper.
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