Bronx Man Sentenced To 51 Months In Pill Case
BURLINGTON, Vt. - John J. Arvanitis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, announced that Stephen Williams, 37, was sentenced to serve 51 months in federal prison after he pled guilty to possessing with intent to distribute oxycodone and oxymorphone pills. U.S. District Court Judge William K. Sessions III also ordered Williams, who is from the Bronx, New York, to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.
According to court records, on October 20, 2011, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and the Vermont State Police received information that Williams would be trafficking a load of opiate-based pills into Vermont via Interstate 91. That day, the Vermont State Police stopped Williams while he was traveling north on Interstate 91 in a rented vehicle. A police K-9 unit alerted on Williams’ car and law enforcement detained him in order to apply for a warrant to search his person. While at the police barracks, Williams repeatedly attempted to destroy pills that he had hidden in his pants and physically resisted officers’ efforts to protect the evidence from destruction. Eventually, law enforcement found over 500 oxycodone and oxymorphone pills hidden on Williams’ person.
Williams faced up to 20 years in prison. Judge Sessions determined that the appropriate range under the advisory sentencing guidelines was 51-63 months. The United States argued that Williams’ criminal record, which includes a 1994 conviction in New York for attempted murder, for which Williams served approximately eight years in prison, warranted a sentence at the higher end of the recommended range. The government also asked Judge Sessions to consider Williams’ violent conduct with the state police when determining the appropriate sentence.
In sentencing Williams to a term at the bottom of the guidelines range, Judge Sessions noted, among other factors, that Williams had a difficult childhood and was committed to his three children.
United States Attorney Coffin commended the efforts of the DEA, the Vermont State
Police, and the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, Enforcement and Safety Division, for their hard work in this case.
