These vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana were found in two suitcases federal agents intercepted at Jacksonville International Airport, according to court documents that said Yaquasia Delcarmen left the airport with the man who brought the luggage.
A Jacksonville marijuana dealer who shot and killed one of three armed intruders while protecting his girlfriend and infant son has some prison time ahead, but not for the killing.
Senior U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan sentenced 26-year-old Tyler Parker-Rivero to 40 months behind bars March 19 for possessing marijuana with intent to distribute and having a gun during a drug-trafficking crime.
The exchange of gunfire that led to the Sept. 1, 2022, death of Melvin Keepler Jr. might not have happened without the drug-dealing for which more than 80 pounds of pot was stored in Parker-Rivero’s Southside apartment, Corrigan noted.
Parker-Rivero was not legally at fault for the killing, however, as he was the victim of an armed burglary acting within his rights to defend his home and family.
Jacksonville police filed murder and armed burglary charges against Tyss Harris and Talint Curtis, saying they were Keepler’s companions in the burglary and responsible for his death. Harris, now 23, pleaded guilty in state Circuit Court and is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, March 24.
Before the killing, though, Parker-Rivero was already under federal investigation for operating an active pot dealership.
During a five-week span before the fatal shooting, a confidential source for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had bought a little over four pounds of pot and a rifle during three deals involving either Parker-Rivero or his girlfriend, Chloe Crawford, court records showed. The pot was vacuum-sealed in plastic bags usually weighing a pound each, the records said.
Parker-Rivero and Crawford were indicted together in 2023 and both signed plea agreements in August 2024. Parker-Rivero has been behind bars since December 2023, held in the Bradford County jail until charges against him were resolved.
A police report on Harris’s murder arrest described a large-caliber shell casing found at the apartment entrance and a hole in the floor tile apparently cause by gunfire as well as multiple casings and a handgun found in a bedroom that had been converted into an office.
The report said Crawford told police she had been giving her baby a bath when she heard bangs elsewhere in the apartment and someone hitting the bathroom door. Crawford told police that Tyler-Rivero came into the bathroom with his gun and shot through the door multiple times while she held the door closed, the report said.
The intruders left after the midday gunfire, the report said. Keepler was found later on a sidewalk at a freestanding Westside emergency room, from which he was taken to Orange Park Medical Center and pronounced dead.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cannizzaro told the judge Parker-Rivero and Crawford had both actively cooperated with both police and federal authorities and he recommended lenience in their sentences because of their substantial assistance.
The recommendation led Corrigan to deviate from normal sentencing rules requiring at least a five-year term for the gun charge Parker-Rivero had admitted in addition to a sentence for the drug count. The 40-month combined sentence Parker-Rivero received will include the 27 months he’s been in jail already, meaning he could be released by spring of next year.
Crawford, now 21, had pleaded to conspiring to distribute marijuana but didn’t face a gun charge. The judge sentenced her to time already served ― a single day when she was arrested ― and three years of supervised release, saying her strong work record and commitment to raising her son suggest harsher punishment isn’t needed.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville pot dealer who killed home intruder gets prison for weed
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
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