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Date: 05-03-2023

Case Style:

United States of America v. Mantell Alabi Stevens

Case Number: 5:20-cr-00143

Judge: Danny C. Reeves

Court: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky (Fayette County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: United States Attorney's Office in Fayette

Defendant's Attorney:




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Description: Lexington, Kentucky criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and heroin.

Mantell Alabi Stevens sold what turned out to be fentanyl to Ashley Markham, who in turn sold it to Nick Adams. Apparently thinking it was heroin rather than fentanyl, Adams overdosed and died. The government charged Stevens with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and heroin and distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), 846. Before trial, the government used one of its peremptory challenges to strike an African American juror. Stevens challenged the strike under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), claiming that it was motivated by racial discrimination. In response, the government claimed that it struck the juror because she said she might know a potential witness and because she worked in the mental-health field. The court allowed the strike.

At trial, Stevens’s attorney conceded the conspiracy charge. But he argued that the government hadn’t established that Stevens sold the drugs that led to Adams’s death. At the close of the government’s case, Stevens moved for a judgment of acquittal, claiming that no reasonable juror could find him guilty. The district court denied his motion, and the jury found him guilty on both counts.

Outcome: 240 MOS. IMPRISONMENT ON TO RUN CONCURRENTLY TO 480 MOS. ON COUNT 2; 5 YEARS SUPERVISED RELEASE TO RUN CONCURRENTLY TO COUNT 2; $100 SPECIAL ASSESSMENT; $21,699 RESTITUTION

480 MOS. IMPRISONMENT TO RUN CONCURRENTLY TO COUNT 1; 5 YEARS SUPERVISED RELEASE TO RUN CONCURRENTLY TO COUNT 1; $100 SPECIAL ASSESSMENT;

Affirmed on appeal.

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