Xavier Deprey Johnson will be in a federal prison until at least 2028, after pleading guilty to distributing heroin.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes sentenced Johnson, 32, of Jefferson City, Wednesday to 12 years and seven months in federal prison without parole.
Tammy Dickinson, the U.S. Attorney for Western Missouri, said in a news release Johnson pleaded guilty April 27 to distributing heroin and to possessing heroin with the intent to distribute.
Dickinson said Johnson distributed $100 worth of heroin to another person on July 30, 2013, and that person distributed the drug to an informant working with law enforcement.
A month later - on Aug. 27, 2013 - officials executing a search warrant at his girlfriend's apartment discovered more heroin, and Johnson admitted to authorities he had planned to sell the drug.
In an eight-page memorandum asking the court to order the 151-month prison sentence - to be followed by a three-year probation - Dickinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver reported Johnson "admitted that he distributed approximately hundreds of grams of heroin per month between June 2013 and August 2013, and estimated that he distributed between 540 (and) 810 grams during that timeframe."
The memorandum noted Johnson's "relevant criminal history began in 2003 with misdemeanor convictions for the possession of marijuana in Cole County," and continued with more drug arrests and convictions in 2004-06.
"On January 11, 2006, undeterred by the 89 days in custody and fines imposed for his previous convictions, Johnson distributed cocaine base near government housing in Callaway County," Dickinson and Oliver wrote, noting Johnson eventually was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for that case, and was released to parole after about four years.
However, before that sentence was imposed in March 2009, Johnson had served 13 months of a three-year sentence for leaving the scene of a Jan. 29, 2006, Callaway County accident, then resisting arrest.
The memorandum lists several other arrests, charges, convictions and sentences, then reminded the court: "In short, between December 2006 and the commission of the first of the two offenses (involved in the federal case) on July 30, 2013, Johnson had been free from custody for approximately 352 days. During the 216 days he was free in 2008, Johnson suffered parole violations for the following: marijuana and alcohol use, failure to enroll in a GED program, failure to obtain employment, banned association, trespassing on public housing, arrest for distribution of controlled substances, trespass, driving while suspended, and possession of marijuana."
He also was out of prison for 136 days in 2013 and, the memorandum reported, "Johnson suffered parole violations for the following: marijuana and alcohol use, failure to enroll in a GED program, and failure to obtain employment" - and the two heroin cases involved in Wednesday's sentencing.
The U.S. attorneys urged the court to issue a long sentence because "Johnson's participation in the distribution of controlled substances was motivated by greed and the absence of opportunity in a life plagued by poor decision-making. Society should not bear the risk of Johnson's poor decisions.
"Society will only be protected by a significant period of incarceration followed by supervised release."
The attorneys also wrote the sentence should be longer because of the drug involved: heroin.
"The distribution of heroin represents a clear and present danger to society at large and to minors and young adults in particular," Dickinson and Oliver wrote in the memorandum. "After years in hiatus, heroin has rapidly become a drug of choice for millions.
"Unfortunately, the debilitating effects on both individual users and communities are well known. Without doubt, Johnson participated in a criminal enterprise that harmed the public health and welfare."
Jefferson City police and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case, Dickinson said.