Week in Review—South Bend

SOUTH BEND, IN—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that:

PLEAS:

Cedric Williams, 22, of South Bend, Indiana, pled guilty before Judge Robert Miller, Jr. to the felony offense of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Sentencing has been set for 4/12/12. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald Schmid.

Larry Roth, 45, of South Bend, Indiana, pled guilty before Magistrate Judge Christopher Nuechterlein to the felony offense of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Sentencing has been set for 4/16/12. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald Schmid.

James Rodgers, 50, of LaPorte, Indiana, pled guilty before Magistrate Judge Christopher Nuechterlein to the felony offense of possession with the intent to view child pornography. The investigation into Rodger’s conduct began in December 2010, when law enforcement working in an undercover capacity used a publicly available peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download from a user multiple video files depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The results of an administrative subpoena issued to the Internet service provider of the user identified the subscriber as Rodgers. A federal search warrant was subsequently obtained and executed at Rodgers’ residence in LaPorte, Indiana, where law enforcement found numerous images of child pornography on two computers in his home. Sentencing has been set for 4/16/12. This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John Maciejczyk.

Billy R. Sparks, 62, of Peru, Indiana, pled guilty before Magistrate Judge Christopher Nuechterlein to the felony offense of making false statements to federal agents in the case U.S. v Moore et al. Sentencing has been set for 4/13/12. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald Schmid.

The specific sentence in each case to be imposed upon conviction will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

DISPOSITIONS:

Zach Adams, 26, of Elkhart, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Robert Miller, Jr. to 42 months’ imprisonment and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of burglary of a controlled substance in the case U.S. v Rach et al. Adams was ordered to pay $40,878.92 in restitution to be disbursed as follows: $35,611.81 to CVS Pharmacy and $5,267 to Walkerton Police Department. This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Schaffer.

Phillip Williams, 36, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Robert Miller, Jr. to 37 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession with the intent to distribute crack cocaine. This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Schaffer.

Darius Lamar Jiggetts, 21, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Robert Miller, Jr. to 171 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of bank robbery and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Jiggetts was ordered to pay $12,281.35 in restitution to be disbursed as follows; $8,861.35 to the 1st Source Bank and $3,420.00 to 3SI Security Systems. This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the South Bend Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald Schmid.

James Kevin Taylor, 27, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Jon DeGuilio to 70 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of making false statements in the purchase of a firearm. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Project Disarm Task Force. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald Schmid.

Tracy Heath, 43, of Elkhart, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Jon DeGuilio to 24 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a stolen firearm. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald Schmid.

Linda Figueroa, 35, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Jon DeGuilio to three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and $9,184.00 in restitution after pleading guilty to the felony offense of theft of government funds from the Social Security Administration. This case was the result of an investigation by the Social Security Administration. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John Maciejczyk.