United States v. Jones

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In 2013, a confidential informant informed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives about Toby Jones, the leader of a drug‐distribution operation on Chicago’s West Side. The informant introduced Toby and his brother, Kelsey, to ATF Agent Labno, who posed as a firearms and drug dealer. During several controlled drug purchases, Toby negotiated a drugs‐for‐guns transaction with Agent Labno. Eventually, Toby instructed one of his drug workers, Fields, to complete the transaction; Fields was arrested immediately after the exchange. Toby and Kelsey engaged in a week‐long effort to track down and kill the informant, resulting in two separate shootings. In the later shooting, Kelsey fled the scene in a getaway car driven by Whitfield. The brothers were later arrested and convicted of several crimes. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentences. The court rejected claims that there was insufficient evidence to support convictions involving retaliatory intent, drug conspiracy, and possession of a gun in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and upheld the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress eyewitness identification and its imposition of sentencing enhancements. View "United States v. Jones" on Justia Law