DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GRETCHEN C.F. SHAPPERT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2008

CONTACT: SUELLEN PIERCE
704.338.3120
FAX 704.227.0264

STATESVILLE MAN SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON Federal Drug Conviction with Prior Felony Record Make for Heavy Prison Term CHARLOTTE, NC - Gretchen C. F. Shappert, United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced that Jeffrey Lynn Myers, 44, of Statesville, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 30 years in federal prison based upon a federal jury conviction following a January 2007 trial. Myers was convicted on five counts: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, simple possession of cocaine base, and three separate counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base in Iredell County.

Myers’ conviction and sentencing are the culmination of an investigation by officers of the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office. According to official court records and evidence presented at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing in federal court in Statesville, Myers had been out of prison for only about a month on a previous 1990 federal drug conviction before he resumed involvement with drug dealing. Evidence indicated that Myers had been arrested or cited 24 times since 1979, and that eight of those arrests resulted in convictions. Three of those convictions were for felony drug offenses.

Myers, therefore, was also sentenced Wednesday to an additional 33 months in the 1990 federal drug case, for violation of the terms of his federal supervised release; he had originally been sentenced on December 10, 1990 to a term of 330 months (subsequently reduced to 210 months) as a result of his conviction for a series of federal cocaine offenses.

United States Attorney Gretchen Shappert, who tried the case in January 2007 and who participated in yesterday’s sentencing hearing, argued that Myers was a career offender, and likely to engage in additional criminal activity if given the opportunity. “Some people use their time in prison to pay their debt to society, to obtain educational opportunities, and to better their lives. Evidently, Mr. Myers was not one of those people. Upon his release from custody, he promptly returned to the drug dealing that sent him to federal prison in the first place,” Shappert said.

Shappert also praised the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office for their high-quality investigation. “We are grateful for the dedication of the Iredell County Sheriff’s Vice & Narcotics Unit,” she said. “Their professionalism and hard work made all the difference.”

USA v. Jeffrey Lynn Myers
Docket Number 5:06cr33 and Docket Number 5:90cr10
JEFFREY LYNN MYERS
Statesville, NC