LR man draws 9 years on drug, firearm charges
A Pulaski County man was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday by a federal judge who called the sentencing guidelines for his offense “too harsh,” as he varied downward from those guidelines.
Eric Aaron McFadden, 43, of Little Rock, had objected to his designation as a career offender, which changed the recommended guideline sentencing range from 21 to 27 months in prison to a recommended range of 151 to 188 months.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Fields requested a sentence of 180 months — 15 years — in prison.
McFadden pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. in March to one count each of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
In exchange, Fields moved to dismiss one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, which carries a maximum life sentence upon conviction.
Online court records indicate that McFadden is currently facing prosecution in Pulaski County Circuit Court on charges of aggravated robbery and capital murder in two separate cases and that a third case in which he was charged with second-degree murder has been reopened.
McFadden was charged in the October 2016 beating death of 42-year-old Alexander Judd Wyles, but charges were later dismissed after a witness refused to testify. Online court records indicated that the case was reopened in 2022.
On Thursday, Marshall overruled an objection to McFadden’s pre-sentence investigation report that designated him as a career offender, but although he said the recommended sentencing range was excessive, he was bound by precedent from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the designation.
According to court records, on April 29, 2020, investigators with the Pulaski County sheriff’s office conducted surveillance at 100 T.P. White Drive in Jacksonville, trying to locate McFadden to serve him with an arrest warrant.
While watching the building, investigators observed a black Chrysler 300 arrive in the parking lot, and saw McFadden exit the front driver’s side door.
Court records indicated that although investigators watched McFadden enter the building and speak to someone inside, they did not attempt to make an arrest at that time because of safety concerns but instead attempted to block him as he reentered the vehicle and attempted to drive away.
According to records, McFadden was able to evade the investigator’s blockade and fled the scene, slowing down as he crossed a bridge, at which point investigators saw him discard a pistol and two sandwich bags that contained what investigators believed to be cocaine.
Shortly after that, records said, McFadden stopped and surrendered to deputies.
Searching the area where McFadden was seen to throw the objects from the vehicle, records said, investigators recovered a loaded Taurus Model PT 845 .45-caliber pistol and two sandwich bags containing a substance that was later confirmed to be cocaine by the state Crime Laboratory, with one of the bags containing 94 grams of the drug.
McFadden tearfully told Marshall that he had never had a chance to hold his grandchildren and that he had been locked up for the past four years.
“I was going down the wrong road,” he said. “All I ask for is another chance.”
Calling the issue “a challenging one,” Marshall said he has grown “increasingly concerned,” over the length of sentences recommended in cases of career offender designations, and called the guidelines “too harsh.”
Marshall sentenced McFadden to nine years in prison on each of the two counts to run concurrently for a total of nine years.
He also ordered McFadden to serve three years on supervised release on each count after he leaves prison, with those to run concurrently as well. McFadden was also ordered to pay a mandatory special assessment of $200 — $100 for each count.