A San Antonio felon serving life in prison who was pardoned by Barack Obama crashed his car while fleeing officers after attempting a drug sale. He is now under arrest again.
He was freed with more than 1700 other hardened criminals, mostly drug dealers, many also accused of gun felonies.
The guy was a time bomb.
A second chance from Obama — then another cocaine arrest: https://t.co/fva0NQnzaP pic.twitter.com/cpOtMY5ccw
— S.A. Express-News (@ExpressNews) February 4, 2017
Robert M. Gill, 68, had his life sentence for cocaine and heroin distribution conspiracy commuted by Obama and set free last year.
Imprisoned since 1990, he earned some legal education so he could appeal his case.
Robert M. Gill, 68, was profiled last year in the San Antonio Express-News. the story was meant to invoke sympathy. He claimed to have only committed three crimes – not likely.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad ordered him held without bail pending a hearing Feb. 16. Gill is charged with possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. Five hundred grams is a little more than 1 pound.
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He again faces a potential sentence with a mandatory minimum, five years, and he could get up to 40.
He is one of Obama’s nonviolent offenders but he could have killed someone speeding and crashing his car into another car to escape police.
Obama wrote in a signed notification that he granted Gill’s application “because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around. … Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity.”
The San Antonio Express-News is still making excuses for him and sympathizing with this lifelong criminal: After his release in 2015, he began working as a paralegal for local criminal defense law firm LaHood & Calfas, and he appeared to make the most of it. A Vietnam veteran who succumbed to the world of drugs, he said he sought to reform himself. He brought several clients to the practice through contacts he made while living at Crosspoint, a halfway house, attorney Neil Calfas, who hired him, told the paper last year.
Let’s make one point here. He didn’t get succumb to the world of drugs. He is the world of drugs and he did it knowingly.
Hours after meeting with a probation officer this week, he bought more than 2 pounds of cocaine. He was only released in October. This might not have been his first buy or his first attempted sale. This is the one he was caught doing.
The Feds were watching him because, according to a criminal complaint affidavit, HSI agents received information about Gill’s renewed involvement in drugs in mid-January. On Thursday, he contacted an unidentified person, via phone, to arrange a deal to buy a kilo of cocaine, according to the affidavit.
He met with the person and then spotted the sheriff.
According to the affidavit, Gill fled at high speed, and the car he was in collided with another vehicle at Callaghan and Bandera roads.
He again tried to flee, but his vehicle was disabled by cars of other law enforcement officers, according to the affidavit. Agents found the backpack in the car, which contained a kilo of cocaine, the affidavit said.
He “related that he was going to sell the cocaine to make money and would be paying a female $26,000 for the cocaine,” the affidavit said.
His lawyer said the “mandatory minimums were stacked against Bobby”.
Is that why he’s a criminal? That should have been a deterrent if he had any smarts.
The lawyer cares more about the often-deceitful criminals than their victims. How many children got these drugs he sold? he’s buying from cartels and enriching them.
“We are very shocked and extremely saddened by these allegations,” his lawyer said Friday. “At some point, as a civilized society we need to rethink our drug policy. If the allegations against Bobby Gill are true, this is clear proof that extreme prison sentences and mandatory minimums under the federal sentencing guidelines don’t work.”
“Allegations?” “If they’re true?”
Keeping him in prison would have worked better.
Read more at the San Antonio Express
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