United States Attorney Anne M. Tompkins Western District Of North Carolina
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Miguel Eduardo Silva, 20, of Charlotte, was sentenced on Tuesday, June 18, 2013, by U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. to serve 127 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for drug trafficking and firearms offenses, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Brock D. Nicholson, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and the Carolinas and Chief Rodney Monroe of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) join U.S. Attorney Tompkins in making today’s announcement.
In April 2012, a superseding criminal indictment charged Silva with one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, one count of attempt to distribute marijuana and one count of use of a firearm in furtherance of such drug trafficking crimes. According to evidence presented at Silva’s trial and yesterday’s sentencing hearing, Silva had arranged a drug deal involving the sale of $60 worth of marijuana to a buyer. Trial evidence established that on the evening of Oct. 3, 2011, the defendant and the buyer met at the parking lot of an apartment complex in Charlotte. The buyer got into the rear seat of Silva’s vehicle, but instead of purchasing the marijuana, the buyer attempted to rob at gunpoint Silva and another front seat passenger of their drugs and money. Court records show that in response, Silva pulled a handgun and shot and killed the buyer. A federal jury convicted Silva on all counts, in September 2012.
In sentencing Silva, Judge Cogburn acknowledged the inherent danger that exists whenever guns and drugs are intertwined.
Silva has been in federal custody in the Western District of North Carolina since his arrest in January of 2012. Upon designation of a federal facility, he will be transferred into the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The federal investigation was led by HSI with the assistance of CMPD. The prosecution for the government was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney J. George Guise of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
