Attorney claims man’s role overblown in drug ring

The attorney for a Columbia man argues that prosecutors have overblown his role in a cocaine-selling ring in mid-Missouri.

Malcolm Redmon was arrested in August 2014 by local and federal law enforcement on Sanford Avenue in central Columbia, charged at the time for selling crack. Three months later, U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson announced a massive slew of charges against Redmon and 26 others throughout the area, suspected of selling cocaine and crack from 2011 to 2014. Since then, several people have pleaded guilty, including Redmon and Kenneth Scott, Sr., whom Dickinson identified as the “leaders” of the operation.

Both will receive their sentences on September 29 in federal district court from Judge Stephen Bough, along with some of those prosecutors considered major parts of the scheme, such as Teka Hayes, Guillermo Perez and Marlon Jordan. Hayes pleaded guilty to housing the drugs at her Boone County residence, Perez pleaded guilty to providing Scott with six kilograms of cocaine for sale and Jordan was considered a “second-in-command” for Redmon in converting the cocaine to crack and selling it in Columbia.

Redmon’s attorney David Kelly asked the judge for the mandatory minimum sentence of ten years. Kelly claimed prosecutors have overstated just how involved Redmon was in the operation, saying their investigation failed to focus on Scott, Hayes and Perez – who have all “cooperated” with the state in the investigation, Kelly wrote. Redmon was in jail “for all but a few months of the entire conspiracy,” and disputes just how much cocaine and “cocaine base” he should be responsible for. Prosecutor Michael Oliver wrote Friday that Redmon accepted responsibility for a little more than 250 grams of cocaine and “cocaine base,” but still contended he directed the sale of far more, based on information from wiretaps and confidential informants.

Kelly said Redmon has long struggled with a drug problem, fueling his habit through selling it. Allowing him to go through drug treatment while in prison would help him rehabilitate.

“Mr. Redmon is capable of being a productive member of society; he asks the Court gives him that chance,” Kelly said.

Oliver, though, called him a “manifest danger to the community,” citing a long list of arrests and convictions for several crimes, including drug trafficking, stealing and resisting arrest. He was involved in several shootings in that time, including one outside the old Boone Tavern while he was on house arrest. From 2000 to 2013, Redmon has been in either jail, prison or supervised release, Oliver pointed out, and a thirty-year sentence was necessary.

“The community is watching,” Oliver said.

The two also disputed Redmon’s “obstruction” in the investigation, when federal authorities took some case information left with Redmon at the Phelps County Jail. Prosecutors feared Redmon had figured out who the confidential informants were in the case, and leaked that information to people outside the jail. However, Kelly said the government has no proof Redmon directed “anyone to do anything with that information.”

Redmon’s sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Jefferson City. Scott, Perez and Hayes are scheduled to follow that afternoon.