ASHEVILLE, N.C. - U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced that a former Western Carolina University student and his two co-conspirators were sentenced to prison today on armed robbery charges, for attempting to rob a rival marijuana dealer at gunpoint. U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger presided over the sentencing hearings.
Vincent C. Pallozzi, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, and Sheriff Chip Hall of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, join U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.
Jonathan Keenan Berkley, 22, of Charlotte, sentenced to 72 months in prison; Kendrick Tyrone Davis, 22, also of Charlotte, was ordered to serve 51 months in prison; and Sawyer Drew Doxtad, 22, of Denton, N.C., was sentenced to 48 months in prison. In addition to the prison terms imposed, Judge Reidinger ordered each defendant to serve three years under court supervision upon completion of their prison terms, and to pay $38,258.75 as restitution.
According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearings, Doxtad was a student at Western Carolina University (the University) in the fall semester of 2017. During that time, Doxtad resided in an apartment in Sylva, N.C., and engaged in distributing marijuana in and around the University. Sometime in September 2017, Doxtad met Berkley, who was not an enrolled student at the University, and Berkley moved into Doxtad’s apartment. Soon thereafter, the third co-conspirator, Davis, also moved into Doxtad’s apartment. According to court records, the three men engaged in dealing marijuana together.
As described in court documents, Doxtad and Berkley used a social media chat group called “Wheestaylit" to identify local marijuana customers. Another individual, identified in court documents as J.R., was also a marijuana dealer in the area and a user of the same chat group. According to court records, J.R. had posted on the chat group a picture of him with multiple pounds of marijuana. Berkley, Doxtad and Davis conspired to rob J.R. of his marijuana and sell it to their own customers.
According to court records, on Oct. 24, 2017, Davis and Doxtad purchased a shotgun from an area pawnshop with the intent of using it to rob J.R. The same day, Doxtad and Berkley contacted J.R. pretending to be interested in purchasing marijuana from him, and arranged to meet him at an apartment in Cullowhee, N.C. Berkley, Davis, and Doxtad arrived at the apartment later that evening and attempted to rob J.R. of the marijuana. Over the course of the robbery, Berkley, who was holding the shotgun, discharged it, injuring an individual inside the apartment. The three men fled the scene.
Each of the three defendants previously pleaded guilty to attempted robbery by force. They are currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the ATF and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for their investigation of this case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
