'Unprecedented' cooperation results in huge sentencing break for Toulminville drug kingpin

MOBILE, Al.
Lorenzo Evans Jr. fit the profile today of a man staring at a throw-away-the-key prison sentence: He was a repeat offender who presided over a large cocaine operation.

Evans

He faced at least 27 years under advisory guidelines, with a mandatory-minimum of 20 years.
But the Mobile man had support from 30 to 40 people who wrote letters on his behalf — including, the judge noted, at least one public official. Evans had something else going for him: His cooperation with law enforcement investigators helped take down the entire organization — 30 other defendants, including folks who peddled crack cocaine on the streets of his Toulminville neighborhood and suppliers in 3 states where he got the cocaine from.
Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. said he could not recall sentencing a defendant who provided more assistance to law enforcement officers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele O’Brien gave Butler details of that cooperation outside the earshot of the defendant’s friends and relatives who packed the courtroom.
The judge sentenced Evans to 6 years in prison — well below the 16-plus years that O’Brien recommended. Still, Butler said he did not want to minimize the impact of the defendant’s conduct.It also was less than the prison terms handed down to some of the people who worked under him.
“Day after day after day after day that you were doing this, you were distributing and causing to be distributed that poison into our community. ... So you’ve done a lot of damage,” he said.
Evans, 42, admitted that he acquired multiple kilograms of cocaine from out-of-state suppliers and then “fronted” it to Joel Quentin Boone and others to cook into crack cocaine. A network of neighborhood dealers then sold it.
Boone is serving more than 12 years in prison for his crime.
As part of the deal with prosecutors, Evans agreed to forfeit $53,697 in drug proceeds, a Heckler and Koch 12-gauge shotgun, a 2003 GMC Yukon XL-V8, a 1997 GMC light duty Sierra pickup truck and an Apple iPad.
Butler asked Evans’ mother, Francine Evans, why her son turned to drugs despite obvious family support.
“I just think he made a little mistake,” she said.
Retorted Butler: “More than a little mistake. He made a pretty big mistake.”
Butler also noted that it was not Evans’ first one. He served a 5-year prison sentence for a federal drug conviction in 1994.
When it was his turn to speak, Evans turned to his family and apologized. He told Butler that his attitude is different than the first time he went to prison.
“I was 22 years old. (I was) young,” he said. “I was in a totally different mindset.”
Evans said he would make the most of a third chance, if he got it.
“I can’t change the past, but I can work on the future,” he said. “I made some bad choices, but I’m definitely not a bad person.”
Defense attorney Rick Yelverton told Butler that Evans is “charismatic,” perhaps his favorite client in 26 years.
“I’m proud of the judge,” he said in an interview. “I think he recognized his cooperation was unprecedented. I’ve never seen anything close to what his cooperation was.”