A federal judge has handed down an eight-year prison term against a woman who prosecutors say distributed crack cocaine in the Hudson Valley as a member of the Gorilla Stone gang.
Roberta "Trouble" Sligh was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Phillip Halpern, the same judge who is scheduled to sentence Casanova in December. Sligh pleaded guilty earlier this year to a drug conspiracy charge.
Sligh is one of six defendants who have been sentenced so far in the massive RICO case targeting Gorilla Stone. Casanova pleaded guilty in May to racketeering and drug charges and is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 6. Prosecutors haven't yet revealed what sentence they will seek against him. So far, the sentences have ranged from three to 10 years in federal prison.
Federal authorities officially linked Sligh to between 280 and 840 grams of crack, but allege that she was part of an ongoing drug distribution ring centered in Winchester County, New York. The ring was connected to the Gorilla Stone gang, and Sligh was also accused of assaulting a man with the gang's "Godmother," inside a convenience store.
But Sligh's defense attorney accused prosecutors of misconstruing the alleged assault and described the purported victim as an aggressor and Sligh as a peacemaker who prevented the incident from escalating. They asked for a five-year and six-month sentence.
Sligh wrote an apology letter saying that the criminal charges against her were a wake-up call.
"Unfortunately, it took my incarceration for me to realize I was hurting myself, my loved ones, and the community I grew up in," she wrote.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence ranging from 10 years to 151 months, writing in a sentencing memo that Sligh "worked hand in glove" with a Gorilla Stone leader and "acted as an intermediary and a street saleswoman" in the crack cocaine ring.
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Written by: Nate Gartrell
