A convicted drug smuggler currently serving a 14-year prison term went to court on Friday to challenge the length of his sentence. The complainant told the court he was entitled to an early release because prosecutors violated the terms of his plea agreement.
Defendant Craig Richardson, 48, was part of a drug conspiracy case with multiple co-defendants, including a Planning and Natural Resources enforcement officer and a member of the Government House security detail.
Represented in court by a new attorney, the complaintant appeared by way of live stream video.
Richardson began serving his 168-month sentence in August 2018 after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy charges. According to a statement released by then-U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert, details of the conspiracy emerged during the trial of Germaine Hall.
“According to the testimony at Hall’s trial, between 2014 and 2016, both Richardson and Hall were members of a large-scale cocaine smuggling organization that operated out of the Cyril E. King Airport. The organization smuggled cocaine by utilizing a former security officer at the Office of the Governor who used his law enforcement credentials to bypass security screening at Cyril E. King Airport to smuggle large kilogram quantities of cocaine from St. Thomas to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Once in Florida, the officer delivered the cocaine to another member of the conspiracy for distribution in the continental United States,” Shappert said.
Prosecutors said the conspiracy remained in place between 2014 and 2016 until agents of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol received a tip leading to an interception and arrest of the courier.
He was later identified as Neal Chesterfield, a former security officer for then-Gov. Kenneth Mapp. Convicted at trial, Chesterfield was sentenced to 70 months in prison.
During his trial, Richardson also identified Hall as a conspirator who directed the smuggling operation. But at a hearing held Friday before Chief District Court Judge Robert Molloy, Richardson’s lawyer said prosecutors ignored a promise they made as part of the plea deal not to ask for a harsher sentence because he was identified as a conspiracy leader.
The Third Circuit frowns on breaches of plea agreements, said defense attorney Richard Della Fera. Appeals of cases tried in District Court of the Virgin Islands are heard in the U.S. Appeals Court for the Third Circuit.
“My client seeks a resentencing,” Della Fera said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Natasha Baker refuted Richardson’s claim, suggesting that any breach of the plea deal originated with the defendant. The judge posed a question for both sides to answer.
“My question is, whose burden is it to show that if not for the government’s breach, the outcome would have been different?” Molloy said.
The judge also pointed out that Richardson’s role as a leader of the drug conspiracy was written into the plea agreement. The hearing was then continued, giving the legal teams until Sept. 22 to produce further evidence and testimony.
