Gang probe leads to guilty plea in drug case
A Mississippi man indicted in a wide-ranging, multi-defendant indictment that resulted from an FBI investigation into gang violence and drug trafficking pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute between 100 and 200 grams of cocaine.
Joe Morgan III, 43, of Lula, Miss., pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. to the charge of conspiracy to traffic cocaine. The plea was made in exchange for the government’s agreement to dismiss a count of use of a communications facility in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Morgan was one of 35 people with connections to the street gang EBK — Every Body Killas — who were indicted in November 2022. Another 27 people with connections to a second street gang — Lodi Murder Mobb — were named in a second indictment that grew out of the same investigation.
Morgan was indicted Nov. 1, 2022, but remained at large for more than a year until he was arrested by the FBI on March 6 in Tunica, Miss. On March 7, Morgan was granted pretrial release by a U.S. magistrate judge in Oxford, Miss. On March 25, Morgan appeared for arraignment on the indictment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe, who appointed Mark Alan Jesse of Little Rock to represent him in court.
Morgan faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison, a possible maximum $1 million fine, 3 years to life on supervised release and a mandatory $100 special assessment when he returns for sentencing in a few months. According to his plea agreement, Morgan admitted to conspiring with Freddie Gladney Jr. — the father of co-defendants Freddie Gladney III, Jamal Daniels and Brandon Kingsley Robinson — to distribute cocaine, and the two were intercepted several times on an FBI wiretap of Gladney’s phone discussing drug transactions.
Morgan admitted to the charges with a simple statement of, “I’m guilty,” when Moody asked how he wished to plea. Despite a legal requirement that Moody take Morgan into custody due to the nature of the crime, Moody, noting Morgan’s good conduct while on pretrial release, elected to allow Morgan to remain on release pending sentencing.
“I don’t have any argument or evidence to suggest Mr. Morgan should be taken into custody,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Fields.
Moody said that although he wasn’t clear on the details of how Morgan had managed to avoid arrest in Mississippi for some 16 months following his indictment, he elicited a promise from Morgan to return to court for sentencing.
“Do I have any pause or reason for concern that you’ll come back for your sentencing if I let you stay out between now and then?” Moody asked. “You realize the law requires me to take you into custody unless there’s special circumstances, so I’m sticking my neck out to let you out between now and then? Do you know how grumpy I’ll be if you make that a mistake of mine?”
“I’m gonna be right here,” Morgan promised.
As of Monday, all but six of the original 35 defendants had struck plea agreements with the U.S. attorney’s office, but at least one defendant is scheduled for a plea hearing this week.
Freddie Gladney III, 29, of Jonesboro, known to fans of rap music as the artist, “Bankroll Freddie,” is one of the remaining defendants currently scheduled to go to trial next Tuesday. In addition to Gladney, Jamal Daniels, 29, of Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Marcus Hughes, 47, of Helena-West Helena; Donnell Lakeith Reed, 51, of Alexander; and Marquis Hunt, 41, and Hershel Jones, 56, both of Little Rock, are currently scheduled to go on trial in Moody’s court on April 9 at 9:15 a.m. in a trial that is expected to last about two weeks.
However, Daniels is scheduled to enter a plea Tuesday, and Reed, who is named in both the EBK indictment and a tandem indictment naming 27 people indicted as part of the FBI investigation into the activities of Lodi Murder Mobb, is scheduled to enter a plea in the case before Chief U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker on Thursday. Reed, along with Nicholas Rogers and Deandre Gates, both of Pine Bluff, was named in both indictments.
On March 20, Rogers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute between 20 and 40 kilograms of marijuana as part of a plea agreement in which Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie Peters and Amanda Fields agreed to request the dismissal of the charges contained in the Lodi Murder Mobb indictment, which is scheduled for trial beginning June 10 before Baker.
It was unclear on Monday whether Reed will be released from the EBK indictment as part of his plea deal with prosecutors when he appears before Baker on Thursday to enter a plea in the Lodi Murder Mobb indictment.
Gates, who pleaded guilty before Moody in January to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime in the EBK indictment, had all charges against him in the Lodi Murder Mobb indictment dismissed last August.