Darin James Marker Sentenced in U.S. District Court

Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on April 20, 2011, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, DARIN JAMES MARKER, a 38-year-old resident of Billings, appeared for sentencing. MARKER was sentenced to a term of:

                  

Prison: 15 months

Special Assessment: $100

Supervised Release: three years

MARKER was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to distribution of cocaine.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney James E. Seykora, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

Several cocaine related text messages were intercepted between MARKER and Shon Flores in May and June of 2009.

Shon Flores admitted to law enforcement that he distributed approximately 5 ounces of cocaine to MARKER between September 2008 and June 2009.

On July 23, 2009, MARKER was interviewed and provided a signed statement. From February/March 2009 until May 2009, MARKER admitted that he obtained cocaine from Flores 10 to 12 times. According to MARKER, the largest amount of cocaine that he obtained from Flores on one occasion was 1/4 ounce. MARKER would then distribute cocaine to his "friends." MARKER refused to provide the names of his "friends." MARKER claimed that he only obtained 1/2 ounce of cocaine from Flores. MARKER further admitted to using his cellular phone to obtain cocaine from Flores.

Flores pled guilty to federal charges and has been sentenced.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that MARKER will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, MARKER does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Billings Big Sky Safe Streets Task Force.