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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

SOUTHERN DIVISION

_ _ _

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff,

vs.

DEONTA MATTHEWS, 

Defendant.

Case No. 14-20655

 15-20201

Hon. Marianne O. Battani

_______________________________/ 

SENTENCE

BEFORE THE HONORABLE MARIANNE O. BATTANI

United States District Judge

Theodore Levin United States Courthouse

231 West Lafayette Boulevard

Detroit, Michigan 

Thursday, September 21, 2017

APPEARANCES: 

For the Plaintiff: A. TARE WIGOD

For the Defendant: BEN M. GONEK

BARTON W. MORRIS, JR. 

To obtain a copy of this official transcript, contact:

Robert L. Smith, Official Court Reporter

(313) 964-3303 • rob_smith@mied.uscourts.gov

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Page

Sentence on Case No. 15-20201......................30

Sentence on Case No. 14-20655......................42 

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Detroit, Michigan

Thursday, September 21, 2017

at about 2:20 p.m.

_ _ _

(Court, Counsel and Defendant present.) 

THE CASE MANAGER: Please rise. 

The United States District Court for the Eastern 

District of Michigan is now in session, the Honorable 

Marianne O. Battani presiding. 

You may be seated. 

The Court calls Case No. 15-cr-20201 and 

14-cr-20655, United States of America vs. Deonta Matthews. 

THE COURT: Good afternoon. May I have your 

appearances, please? 

MR. WIGOD: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Tare Wigod 

on behalf of the government. 

MR. MORRIS: Your Honor, my name is Barton Morris. 

I'm appearing on behalf of Deonta Matthews specifically with 

respect to 15-cr-20201. 

THE COURT: Okay. 

MR. GONEK: Good afternoon, Your Honor. My name is 

Ben Gonek. I'm appearing on behalf of Mr. Matthews for the 

2014 case. 

THE COURT: All right. Mr. Matthews, would you 

please come up to the podium with your attorneys. 

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All right. This is -- we will start with 15-20201, 

which is the racketeering and receipt of a firearm case. So, 

Mr. Gonek, you may stay up here or you may sit down if you 

wish. 

MR. GONEK: Thank you, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: All right. Mr. Matthews, did you 

review the presentence report on this matter? 

THE DEFENDANT: Yes. 

THE COURT: Okay. And I did receive an objection. 

Mr. Morris, the objection was regarding paragraphs 18 and 19. 

Do you want to address those? 

MR. MORRIS: Okay. Your Honor, as the Court is 

likely aware, I did substitute for counsel for the sentencing 

here. I did not file this objection, and I presumed it was 

filed, as you said, in paragraphs 18 and 19 contesting 

whether this Court should score a sentence enhancement for a 

death as relevant conduct. It is at this time that I would 

on behalf of my client withdraw that objection. 

THE COURT: All right. Then we don't have to deal 

with that. There's no objections to withdrawing it, I'm 

assuming? 

MR. WIGOD: Correct. I don't know of any other 

objections if that one is withdrawn, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: I think that was the only objection 

that I had. Let me ask you, Mr. Morris, if you had any other 

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objections. I don't have any noted but -- 

MR. MORRIS: No. 

THE COURT: No. Okay. And I have defendant's 

sentencing memo, which was submitted by his prior attorney, 

and the government's sentencing binder actually was submitted 

I think the last time we were here for sentencing, and the 

Court has reviewed those things. 

So, Mr. Matthews, do you have anything that you 

wish to say before the Court sentences you? 

THE DEFENDANT: Yes. I got a letter I wanted 

to say to the Court. 

THE COURT: I'm sorry. Could you please speak into 

the microphone so we can hear you? 

THE DEFENDANT: I say I got a letter that I would 

like to read to you that I wrote. 

THE COURT: Okay. Yes, and I did receive letters 

from you, which the Court has read, but you may go ahead with 

your letter. 

THE DEFENDANT: Thanks. First and foremost, I'm 

willing to accept responsibility for my actions, and over 

these last two and a half years I learned more than I've ever 

learned in my entire life and I'm not the same person I was 

when I first stood in front of you. I'm not the same person 

when I first stood in front of you at 19. I'm 22 now and I 

have grown rapidly mentally, physically and spiritually. 

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I didn't have the male support so I just followed 

the trends and got sucked into the everyday life in my 

neighborhood. It seemed normal. Now I realize I had my 

blinders on and not my wide screen to see the bigger pictures 

in life. 

THE COURT: Could you speak a little slower and a 

little louder so the reporter can get it down, please? Thank 

you. 

THE DEFENDANT: You want me to start over? 

THE COURT: No, no, we have it up until that point. 

THE DEFENDANT: All right. 

MR. MORRIS: You had your blinders on and not your 

wide screen. 

THE DEFENDANT: Oh, I had my blinders on and not my 

wide screen to see the bigger pictures and the important 

values of life.

Since being incarcerated, I have come to a point 

where I love to read, and knowledge is power, and I am 

behind. I never knew of all of the great books that had all 

the answers that I was looking for originally, and that 

easily took the spot of the male role model. I never heard 

of these great books. When the * dashers used to say read a 

lot, I just started borrowing books from school. I didn't 

see how Romeo and Juliet or the Frog who kissed the princess 

could help me, and I'm not the person that these people try 

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to make me out to be, not even close. 

I am not perfect, but that's not me. And no matter 

what happens today, I'm still going to continue to better 

myself every day and stay in tune with my higher self and 

stand on my two feet like a man and grow from this situation. 

And I want the courts to know I'm remorseful for my actions. 

Thank you. 

THE COURT: Counsel? 

MR. MORRIS: Thank you, Your Honor. 

If you don't mind, I would like to read something 

from my cell phone, the reason being yesterday I received a 

letter, an additional letter from a pastor at a church that 

my client attended. I sent it to the prosecutor already. I 

just wanted to read it; it is very brief. 

THE COURT: All right. 

MR. MORRIS: This is from God Praises Baptist 

Church on James Couzens, signed by or typed by Pastor 

Fannie Clay. 

Deonta Matthews is a member of God Praises Baptist 

Church. This young man is very respectable to his elders, 

family oriented, always willing to give a helping hand. He 

will give the clothes off his back to the less fortunate. 

Deonta speaks positively to the younger youth and 

peers. 

I attended this young man's graduation from Redford 

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High School and then received the good news that he was 

attending Schoolcraft College. Deonta has been on church -- 

excuse me. 

Deonta has been on church events in and out of 

state to support other church members in achieving their 

dreams and goals. He has volunteered at community activities 

like neighborhood cleanups, feeding the homeless, also 

participated in donations to outside of the state for 

emergency relief programs. 

I felt obviously that was important for the Court 

to understand. And I want to begin with the fact that I am 

new to this case, and I'm standing before this Court for the 

first time representing Mr. Matthews, but I want the Court to 

know I have spent a significant amount of time familiarizing 

myself with the discovery and the facts of this case and the 

reasons why we are here.

But I think more importantly, as I had began to go 

through all of this voluminous information, it became more 

important that I do my best to try to get to know 

Mr. Matthews and his family and how his family feels about 

him and how he feels about his family because I think that 

that's equally as important and probably what I can do most 

to help this Court decide what an appropriate sentence should 

be. And in doing so, I've learned a number of things that I 

think are important that I'm about to -- I'm going to advise 

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you of. 

First, in just reading this letter, it dawned on me 

the significance of the fact that this pastor attended his 

high school graduation from Redford High School. I would 

imagine -- I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of the 

codefendants in this case did not graduate from high school 

and probably didn't even get a GED. What that means to me 

and I think that it explains at a time when he was -- and 

this happened in 2014, he graduated in 2014, when he was, 

what, 18 years old? 

THE DEFENDANT: Uh-huh, yes. 

MR. MORRIS: He intended and wanted to graduate 

from high school. That was a goal of his. He purposefully 

stayed in school obviously knowing that he didn't have to and 

realizing that that wasn't -- but understanding that he 

wanted to finish school. And not only that, after graduating 

from high school, not a GED, he then enrolled in college, 

Schoolcraft College. This is before being indicted on this 

particular offense. This was a time when he wanted to 

improve himself and get out of the street life that brought 

him or brings him before the Court today. 

He went to school for a full two months in January 

and in February of 2015. My client tells me that during that 

period of time he really enjoyed it. It demonstrated and 

showed him really for the first time in his life that this 

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was a life that he could look forward to and not be looking 

behind his back all the time and worrying about whether 

somebody was going to hurt him or kill him and that he could 

improve his life. 

He just told you about how he loves reading books 

now, and this is something that -- this is basically a 

demonstration of the fact that the man that stands before you 

today and even the man that stood -- that was going to school 

at that time is not the same man that committed these 

offenses, the offenses for which he stands before the Court 

when he was just 16 or 17 years old. 

He's been in custody now for two and a half years. 

He's 22 years old now. 16 and 17 years old is when these 

offenses occurred maybe -- yeah, 16 and 17 years old. Now, 

I -- I don't think it's a stretch to say that at that age, 

under the circumstances in which he was living, it doesn't 

provide an excuse for anything, but I think everybody would 

agree that that's a significant age of immaturity and of 

uneducation. 

And growing up where he did under the circumstances 

that he did caused things to happen as they did, but things 

changed after which where he began to understand that he 

could be a better person and was really looking forward to 

the opportunity of doing so and even wanting to leave and get 

out of Detroit. That's part of the reason why he was in 

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Redford, because he wanted to get out of Detroit and out of 

the bad influences that was -- that were there. 

I want to remind the Court that he did plead guilty 

to two counts. The first count, that conspiracy charge for 

racketeering, those are offenses that did occur when he was 

young, and that's a 20-year maximum sentence. And I think it 

would be appropriate for the Court to think about these 

sentences in a bifurcated manner because they did represent 

two distinct periods in his life and two very different 

periods of his life. 

The RICO offense being a maximum of 20 years, and 

then there is the firearm offense at a time when he was right 

before -- after he had graduated from high school, which 

again I just find it to be very remarkable, and then right 

before he enrolled in college, that was a different person, 

somebody that was literally on his way out of that street 

life and presumably and hopefully into something that was 

going to be more positive. Unfortunately he -- 

THE COURT: When was that RICO? 

MR. MORRIS: That started when he was 16 years old. 

THE COURT: Okay. And the gun charge, the second 

charge? 

MR. MORRIS: The second charge that he pled guilty 

to occurred on February 22nd, 2015. 

THE COURT: 2015. 

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MR. MORRIS: He was in school at that time, and, of 

course, he's still obviously carrying -- 

THE COURT: He graduated in '14 so -- 

MR. MORRIS: Right. He graduated in 2014. He 

started school in January 2015. There's a lot of firearms 

charges. My client believes that this particular one that he 

had pled guilty to may have happened in July. I talked to 

the prosecutor about it -- 

(An off-the-record discussion between Defense 

counsel and Defendant was held at 2:35 p.m.) 

MR. MORRIS: I'm talking about the offense that we 

are standing here before you today, Count 4. Count 4 -- 

THE COURT: Count 4. 

MR. MORRIS: Count 4 I believe occurred between 

February 25, 2015 -- or February 22nd to February 25th, 2015 

based upon some evidence of a video recording, is that not 

right? 

MR. WIGOD: That's correct. 

MR. MORRIS: So the reason I say that is because at 

the time that it occurred he was a different person and 

likely and hopefully presumably on his way out of the street 

life that had caused the offenses for which substantiate 

Count 1. 

THE COURT: So he was a different person. You have 

to fill me in a little because I'm getting a -- 

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MR. MORRIS: Yeah. 

THE COURT: I don't know where this comes from. He 

had involvement from when he was kid in 2012 was the murder. 

MR. MORRIS: Right, 2012, which is a -- far 

removed, especially for a young man, in 2015. 

THE COURT: Right, right, but the robberies were in 

April of 2014, and he was graduating I assume in May or June 

of 2014. Would that be right? 

MR. MORRIS: I believe so. 

THE COURT: So what happened between that June 

period in 2014 and when you say he changed in -- in February 

of 2015? 

MR. MORRIS: He enrolled in school and that was the 

basis upon which I was making this argument that he had a 

desire to continue to go to school or continue to school to 

better himself and not just do what he was doing because I 

think those two things are contradictory. Why would somebody 

continue to live this life in the streets and then also go to 

Schoolcraft College to learn to be a chef? And I believe 

that is a recognition or at least some evidence of the fact 

that he was changing, growing up, maturing, and is becoming a 

different person. That's my argument. 

THE COURT: Okay. 

MR. MORRIS: And that is why I recommend to the 

Court that he should not be receiving the -- the people -- 

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the government in this case are asking for the actual -- the 

absolute statutory maximum, 20 years and 15 years, and the 

offenses for which encompass the racketeering charge is 

20 years. I would ask the Court to consider giving him 

20 years for that and an additional five years for the gun 

charge, and that being I think consistent with this Court's 

obligations. 

The 18 350 -- the 3553 factors, as I review them 

and how this Court should see them in (a)(1), the nature and 

circumstances of the offense, he's receiving a significant 

sentence obviously because of the offense, particularly 

Count 1. It also reflects the seriousness of the offense and 

promotes respect of the law as in (a)(2)(A). It also affords 

a significant deterrence to criminal conduct. He's going to 

be protected from society with that type of sentence. I had 

hoped during that -- 

THE COURT: Or society is going to be protected 

from him. 

MR. MORRIS: Yes, that's -- that's what I meant. 

Sorry. He will -- society will be protected from him. 

In short, what I'm saying is that sentence of 

20 years satisfies all of these things. A sentence of 

35 years far exceeds what is necessary in order to -- in 

order to establish what the Court needs to do under these 

factors. 

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I have also wanted to note, there are about 17 or 

18 individuals from the defendant's family here today, 

including his mother and his grandmother and his sister. 

That demonstrates a lot of family support. 

One thing I thought was significant, looking even 

at the defendant's tattoos, he has his mother's name on his 

body and his sister's name on his body. He loves his family. 

I wish the Court could have seen his face when he turned 

around and looked at his family coming into court today, it's 

the biggest smile I've seen since I've known him, and to me 

it just demonstrates that this is no longer that individual 

that committed these offenses. He's -- like I said, he's 

been in custody for two and a half years. This Court is 

going to -- has -- is going to give him a significant 

sentence. We just ask that you not make it more than what is 

necessary. 

THE COURT: Okay. 

MR. MORRIS: Thank you. 

THE COURT: Thank you. 

Mr. Wigod? 

MR. MORRIS: My client would like to say one more 

thing. 

THE COURT: Sure. 

THE DEFENDANT: I just want to add to the fact -- I 

just want to add on about my family, like my mom and my 

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sister and my grandmother, aunty, like a lot of stuff that I 

was into, it was secret, it was stuff that I was doing. It 

wasn't nothing that they knew about or was aware of because 

I'm pretty sure they would have tried to pull me into 

something else. It is something that they wasn't aware of, 

it was things that I was doing. 

THE COURT: They didn't know about your gang 

activities? 

THE DEFENDANT: No, they didn't know. It was stuff 

that I was hiding and keeping to myself. They didn't know 

about it as growing up. They wouldn't have -- they wouldn't 

have agreed to it at all. That's all I just wanted to add to 

the record and let you know that. 

THE COURT: So I take it you had their support 

while you were engaged in these gang activities even though 

they didn't know about the gang activities? 

THE DEFENDANT: Right. 

THE COURT: That you had support from them? 

THE DEFENDANT: Right, from my mom, grandma and 

aunty, yeah. 

THE COURT: And what do you believe is different 

now because they supported you all along, so what's different 

now that would make you change because you had their support 

before? 

THE DEFENDANT: It's just -- a lot of stuff that I 

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see is not important. I see a lot of stuff that's not 

important. It wasn't necessarily that -- they supported me, 

but it wasn't necessarily that they knew all of my problems 

or they knew what I needed or could give to me without all I 

needed what I was looking for. Like I grew up around all 

female, women in the house, so I didn't really 100 percent 

like listen or respect what they say in so many words because 

I feel like they not men so they don't really understand 

where I'm coming from or certain situations that happen 

outside of the house. I feel like I needed a male, so I just 

figured like I go about it myself and learn as I go. But I 

realized that they here and they have the right answers and I 

could have went to them for the answers. A lot of stuff they 

didn't know about, you know. So, it is different now, I 

understand it now. I bumped my head and I learned, I learned 

a lot, so -- 

THE COURT: Okay. So as I look at your background, 

and we have to hear from the government yet, but I just want 

to say, because I have a question, as I look at your 

background, you know, you appear to be -- in my old days we 

would say you were a punk, okay, that's just what you were, 

you were a smarty, you thought you knew better than 

everybody, you thought you were in control of everybody and 

everybody's life. But my question is to you now, you say 

you've learned because you have matured, what can you say to 

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young people, how can we stop young 16, 17, 18-year-old 

mostly boys, how can we prevent them from looking forward to 

years in prison like you are? 

THE DEFENDANT: I teach them about this, I teach 

them about the feds, I teach them about the federal system 

and how much time they giving out. It have to be somebody 

that is coming out of there around the age that they can 

listen to because when I was in high school and they used to 

bring up people, fire fighters and people that's 40, 50, we 

weren't trying to listen to them. It would have to be 

somebody around their age that has been through a lot of 

stuff that they can listen to that can kind of relate to 

them. So I teach them about the federal system, mandatory 

minimums, and I teach them about that, that will stop them 

because -- 

THE COURT: Well, that's interesting. So you are 

saying, and that's an idea, that we need people like you who 

have been through the system, who have been of the worst 

kind, to go while you are young into schools and say this is 

what happens to you? 

THE DEFENDANT: Exactly, examples. 

THE COURT: Somebody else had an answer back here. 

I would like to hear from him. Are you the father? 

MR. HARPER: Yes, ma'am. 

THE COURT: Could you come up here please. Just 

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get on the other side of counsel. 

MR. HARPER: Can I hug my son? 

THE COURT: Your name, sir? 

MR. HARPER: Rydell Harper. 

The father plays a big role in the black male 

coming up in society today, and when he's not in the 

household, we tend to run wild. It is a perpetuating 

situation, and it's not going to only to take the black 

folks' help, it's going to take Caucasians also to bind in, 

to stop this destruction of the black home. We are not 

blaming anyone. It starts in the home, and without a father 

in the home, it's hard for a young male to be contained or to 

follow some type of a structure. 

THE COURT: So is the answer for the fathers to be 

in the home? 

MR. HARPER: Around the child more, ma'am, a male 

child especially. It's not a big secret that that's not a 

high percentage in the black communities across America. 

THE COURT: Okay. I mean, I think that's 

absolutely right on, and I accept what you are saying. I 

wish we could do something a little better to take care of 

that because we see these young people coming in all the 

time, and what do you do when you look forward to 20, 30, 

40 years in prison? I mean, that's ridiculous. 

MR. HARPER: Yes, ma'am. 

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THE COURT: Okay. Thank you. 

MR. HARPER: Yes, ma'am. 

THE COURT: Government? 

MR. HARPER: Can I hug my son, ma'am? 

THE COURT: No, I'm sorry, I can't let you do that. 

MR. HARPER: Yes, ma'am. 

MR. MORRIS: Shall we stand? 

THE COURT: Yes, just stand there. Mr. Wigod. 

MR. WIGOD: Thank you, Your Honor. 

Your Honor, there's always a dichotomy between the 

defendant who stands before you at sentencing and the 

defendant who was before and how he got to be before you. 

I have investigated this case for several years. 

I'm very familiar with Mr. Matthews. The only thing that I 

think that he's learned during this time is how to properly 

address the Court because when a person evaluates the 

totality of the circumstances, it's terrifying. 

When he was ultimately detained on these cases, he 

was 16 years old; I'm sorry, he was 19 years old. And when 

you look at between what he did when he was 19 and 16, he 

created havoc, menace and mayhem in his community, and what 

he did in just a short few years is staggering. Had he gone 

on and continued out in the community, it would have been 

devastating. 

And these are just some of the short -- things that 

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he did in the short few years that he was out: He was a 

leader of a criminal street gang, his street name was CEO 

Tay. You are well aware of the case and what these 

individuals did, but they were responsible for murder, 

carjackings, robberies, shootings. These are things that he 

advocated and condoned. He was the leader of these 

individuals. So it is not as if you can isolate his 

behavior. To a certain degree, he's responsible for the 

others that he led. 

He had a direct impact on the other individuals -- 

the younger individuals in the gang. There's mind-blowing 

statements by him on Facebook about what to do. Some younger 

individuals asked Mr. Matthews how do I get into the gang, 

and his response is kill one of our enemies. 

There's photographs all over social media with him 

in possession of firearms. He's glorifying these deadly 

weapons. That certainly has an impact on the younger 

individuals in the community and the younger individuals in 

the gang. So not only is he directing them to kill people, 

he's showing them how to do it with firearms, and then he's 

actually soliciting them and using them to commit crimes. 

When he and his cohorts went to Milwaukee to commit a 

robbery, a smash and grab, one of individuals that went into 

the jewelry store was a minor, he was a minor at the time. 

I'm fairly certain that he was well aware of that. He knew 

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what he was doing. It was by design -- other gang members 

had told us that it was by design that they picked younger 

individuals under the theory that they would get less of a 

punishment. He was literally corrupting a community. 

I mentioned the firearms that the defendant had, 

but when you look at the pictures, for example, on page 32 of 

the government's sentencing memorandum, he's not just in 

possession -- I mean, it is multiple firearms in his pockets 

out in front of him. These are acts of intimidation. These 

are -- this is a message that he's sending to the community 

and to rival gangs that they are not to be messed with. He's 

essentially creating a culture of violence in his community. 

In this gang, having a firearm is having power. And he 

wasn't just boasting about it, he wasn't just putting 

pictures on social media. 

In the summer of 2014, over the course of less than 

three months, he was actually caught with three separate 

firearms on three separate occasions. That's staggering. I 

think June, July -- twice in July he was pulled over at three 

separate times and had a gun on him each time. The first 

question that comes to mind is how many times does he have a 

gun on him when he's not pulled over by the police? I would 

suggest that that's always. The other thing that comes to 

mind is the access to firearms that he has. I mean, to be 

able to lose a gun and then within a very short period of 

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time obtain another gun, illegally obviously, is quite scary. 

Mr. Matthews has a total lack of respect for law 

enforcement and a total lack of respect for the criminal 

justice system. 

In Facebook communications and off of his -- and in 

social media communications, LOL, you know I still got 

strap -- which is a firearm -- fuck the feds. 

On Twitter, judge said I got -- and I believe he's 

referring to you or just the federal system -- judge said I 

gotta stay away from guns. I'm thinking not, not a chance, 

bum bum. 

This is his mindset, and I don't believe for a 

second that he's changed. To spend 15 minutes in court and 

apologize doesn't change his stripes. And it is not as if he 

just sat back and was an armchair leader directing people 

what to do. As I mentioned, he went to Milwaukee and 

participated in that robbery. He drove with his cohorts to 

Kentucky and participated in that robbery. And during the 

course of the investigation we found a recording that I had 

to listen to so many times to believe what I was actually 

hearing I couldn't understand. 

There's a recording where Mr. Matthews is on the 

phone with another individual who was incarcerated with the 

Michigan Department of Corrections. That individual was 

the -- was a codefendant's half brother. And during the 

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conversation basically the individual in prison was speaking 

with Mr. Matthews about Mr. Matthews becoming a heroin dealer 

for him. And while he's -- while Mr. Matthews is actually on 

the phone with the person in MDOC, and this call is being 

recorded, Mr. Matthews and a codefendant -- or a 

coconspirator of his robbed another individual. You could 

hear them in the background sticking some lady up. 

And when I heard the call, I questioned about 

whether that was really going -- that was what was really 

going on because there were portions that were muffled, but 

then a few weeks later he actually speaks on another recorded 

call to Gino Solomon, the half brother of the heroin dealer, 

and he says oh, funny that you called, I spoke to this other 

individual recently, and what's really funny is that me and 

Wani (phonetic), the other gang member, stuck up a lady while 

we were talking to him. 

This is the mindset that he has. Not only is he a 

danger to the community, he's committing an armed robbery of 

a citizen in the area while on a recorded phone call with a 

Michigan Department of Corrections individual while trying to 

set up heroin deal. 

MR. MORRIS: Judge, I would object to that. 

THE COURT: Well, you can object. They have signs 

up, you know, that these telephone calls are recorded. 

MR. MORRIS: But we don't -- I didn't listen to 

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these. I'm not sure if these calls were even provided to us, 

and this is certainly not something that's in the indictment, 

it's not something that he plead guilty to. 

THE COURT: He's not charged with it in the 

indictment but it's in -- 

MR. WIGOD: They were all provided. The transcript 

is in the sentencing memorandum. 

THE COURT: Right. 

MR. WIGOD: The Court can interpret it however it 

wishes. That's my interpretation. I think it's rather 

clear. 

Judge, let me end on this. You labeled the 

defendant a punk. I respectfully disagree some. He's more 

than a punk, he's a killer. He's a cold-stone killer, make 

no mistake about it. 

A lot of times at these sentences we focus on the 

defendant, and it is appropriate and I understand why, but 

what gets completely lost too many times are the victims. 

And we've spoken about Mr. Matthews' age, we've spoken about 

what he's going to do in the future. He has a future, but 

there is one person who doesn't have a future, that's 

Marcus Cole. 

Marcus Cole was executed, literally executed by the 

defendant. Defendant and his gang members were out hunting, 

and that was a word used by one of the coconspirators, out 

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hunting for Marcus Cole. They heard that Mr. Cole was in the 

neighborhood walking with another individual. Three of them 

were driving around in a car, and Mr. Matthews had a rifle on 

him. They found Mr. Cole, they stopped, he got out of the 

car, aimed the rifle at Mr. Cole, and as Mr. Cole ran away, 

completely unarmed, and shot him seven times. Mr. Cole, 

unfortunately for him, ran into -- when he was fleeing 

Mr. Matthews, he ran into a backyard that was completely 

fenced, he had nowhere to go, and Mr. Matthews killed him, 

then gets back in the car and tells his coconspirators we are 

even, now we are even. Mr. Cole will never have a future. 

Mr. Cole was 16 years old. 

And what did the defendant do after that? He went 

on and became a significant gang leader and he continued his 

criminal activity. He continued with the possession of a 

firearm, he continued robbing people, he continued. He 

essentially bragged about this killing and it got him street 

credit. 

But the most important thing about that is that 

Mr. Matthews -- there has to be retribution. And I don't 

think for one second that he's changed. Over the course of 

several years he's been violent and an entirely negative 

impact on the community. I think under the totality of the 

circumstances, his continued criminal behavior and the 

terrible acts he committed, a sentence of 35 years is 

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appropriate. 

THE COURT: All right. It is the Court's 

obligation to impose a sentence that is sufficient but not 

greater than necessary to comply with the purposes of our 

law. And I have to look at the sentencing guidelines, which 

we've discussed, and with the 3553(a) factors, which we will 

discuss. 

You know, as I read before in the government's 

sentencing memorandum, and as I read the indictment and all 

the different things that happened here, my inclination is 

simply to want to basically throw you in prison for the rest 

of your life. And as the Judge, what I have to do is look at 

all of these particular factors and restrain the natural 

instinct of anybody who would hear what the government just 

laid out for you and want to punish you to the extreme. I 

have to look at something that I truly believe would be 

sufficient but not greater than necessary. 

We know certainly that the -- that the nature of 

this charge -- charges, these are very, very extreme, 

probably the most extreme charges that I have seen, and I've 

done some gang work unfortunately here as we have done, but 

what you have done and your gang and your entry to the gang 

is truly extreme and it's evil. And there are, it is 

frequently said, two kinds of people: one that, you know, you 

make a mistake, you are immature, et cetera, but you could be 

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rehabilitated; and then there are those people who are simply 

evil, that they have no sense of right and wrong. 

Now, you are telling me today that you, in fact, 

have matured and that you are different now than you were 

there. And I really, really, really hope that's true, I hope 

that's true. You've got all of these people here who are 

supporting you, and I would hope if anybody could make it 

ultimately, you can. 

But what concerns me is you had all of these people 

supporting you and it didn't seem to make any difference. 

And I understand what your father said and what you said, 

that there was no male role model, and that's got to be very 

difficult and something that maybe this Court cannot be as 

sensitive to as others who have grown up in this environment, 

but we can't let it be an excuse because you know what? You 

went around and you victimized your own people, you 

victimized your own people. So I don't see that excuse. I 

think you just simply were immoral. 

The background that you have -- well, you don't 

have much of a background. I mean, your background is in the 

criminal justice system from the time -- from the time that 

you were 14, at least that I'm aware of, but if you were out 

there shooting guns when you were -- in 2012, I would say 

that you were doing a lot of things back then that were 

criminal in nature. 

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And the Court has to look at, you know, what 

sentence is sufficient, what sentence is sufficient? What 

can we do when you are sentenced for you? How can we do 

something to help you? Can the prison system help you? That 

might sound contradictory, but truthfully there are -- I 

mean, that is a purpose of sentencing is to get you into the 

programs, the educational level. You are a smart kid. You 

graduated from high school and you went on to college, I mean 

you took courses for a couple months anyway, you got in. So 

hopefully the prison will provide you with some further 

education, further reading, et cetera. 

But I think it is very important to protect the 

public from you because you obviously -- you know, you say 

now you have matured, and I hope that's true, but I don't 

know that's true. But what I do know is how dangerous you 

were, how terribly dangerous you were. The question is are 

you now? I don't know. If I had to guess, I would come down 

on the side of the prosecution and say, yeah, you are still 

dangerous. But I would hope in your time in prison you would 

be able to overcome that so that when you do get out of 

prison, you could be a productive member of society. 

And also we need to provide an example to other 

young men. As you said, you know, you need to get to them 

and you need to tell them what happens to you when you are a 

young man and you put yourself above God, you put yourself 

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above other young men and you are the ruler and the leader. 

What happens to you when you are the ruler and the leader? 

You end up locked in a cell. It gives you a lot of power. 

So the Court considered all of these factors, and I 

considered the guidelines and what your counsel asked for and 

what the government asked for, and I'm going to commit you to 

the Bureau of Prisons for a term which is going to be 

equivalent to 25 years. I will get down to the details. And 

why do I say 25 years instead of 35 years? Because I can't 

even imagine a young man like you looking ahead 25 years. It 

is like your whole life again. And either you are 

rehabilitated in your 25 years or you're going to come out 

and you will just be killed or go to prison for the rest of 

your life. 

And there are victims here. There are more than 

this young man who was killed. There are all of these other 

people that you put in terror. There's the people that you 

committed -- you know, that you held up while you were on the 

phone. And I can't even imagine how many others, though I 

think we can all believe that there were many people who were 

terrorized by you. 

But I do think that for the most of this, you were 

very young and that just maybe, just maybe you would be one 

of those people who can be rehabilitated and, with the 

support of your family, lead a crime-free life. 

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So I think that an appropriate sentence is on 

Count 1, 276 months; 36 months on Count 4 to be served 

concurrently with Count 1; and 24 months consecutive to the 

other counts. We didn't talk about that but that's the 

sentence enhancement that the government had because you 

committed this crime while you were under indictment on 

another charge. That's for a total of 300 months, which is 

25 years. 

Upon release from imprisonment you will be placed 

on supervised release for a term of five years on Count 1 and 

three years on Count 4. 

You will pay a special assessment of $100 per count 

for a total of $200, which is due immediately. 

The Court waives the imposition of a fine, cost of 

incarceration and cost of supervision due to your lack of 

financial resources and restitution obligation. 

Restitution in the amount of $28,000 is ordered to 

the victims of the offense. Restitution shall be paid 

jointly and severally with your co-defendants in this case 

and interest will not accrue. 

You will pay your $28,000 to the Clerk of the 

Court. $10,000 will go to Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers in 

Milwaukee, and $18,000 to Jewelers Mutual in Wisconsin. So I 

think that's something that you are going to have to work 

when you get out of prison because you are not going to make 

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that money in prison, you're going to have to make it when 

you get out. 

While in custody you will participate in the Inmate 

Financial Responsibility Program. The Court is aware of the 

requirements of that program and approves the payment 

schedule of the program and orders you to comply with it. 

Mandatory drug testing is ordered. 

While on supervision you will abide by the standard 

conditions adopted by the United States District Court for 

the Eastern District of Michigan, and you will comply with 

the following special conditions: 

You should be lawfully and gainfully employed, so 

that means you are working 40 hours a week, and if you have a 

part-time job, then you spend the rest of the 40 hours 

seeking employment. 

You will be in a program approved by probation for 

mental health counseling if necessary. 

And this goes without saying, you cannot be a 

member of a gang, an association. Do you understand that, of 

any kind, whether you are in prison or out of prison? 

THE DEFENDANT: Yes, I understand. 

THE COURT: Okay. And you shouldn't be in the 

company of those that you believe wear or display in any 

manner a sign that they shall be -- that they are in the 

gang, and, of course, you should not wear anything associated 

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with a gang. You shouldn't use hand signals, body signals, 

anything else with a gang. 

And I don't know what the state of the social 

networking, we can only imagine what it will be in 25 years, 

but, you know, you were so stupid you advertised everything 

you did, so when you get out, you are not to use social media 

while you are on supervised release. 

You will provide the probation officer access to 

any requested financial information, and you will make 

monthly payments on which you owe in restitution and 

assessments, and the Court will approve what is recommended 

by probation. 

And you should not incur any new credit charges or 

open any additional lines of credit unless you are in 

compliance with your payment schedule and approved by the 

Probation Department. 

Okay. The Court accepts the Rule 11. 

MR. WIGOD: I'm sorry, Your Honor. There was no 

Rule 11. 

THE COURT: That's right, he pled on the nose. 

Okay. 

MR. WIGOD: I just had a question as to the Court's 

apportionment of the sentence. 

THE COURT: Do you want me to repeat that? 

MR. WIGOD: Yes. 

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THE COURT: Let's make sure it adds up. It is -- 

PROBATION OFFICER: Your Honor, upon looking at 

this further, I believe Count 1 would have to be the 

240 months with the 20-year max, and then you could do the 

36 months -- 

THE COURT: I thought you told me differently. 

PROBATION OFFICER: Yes, I apologize. I looked at 

it again. 

MR. WIGOD: Your Honor, the enhancement only 

applies to Count 4, not Count 1, so the statutory maximum on 

Count 1 would be 240. 

THE COURT: Okay. Is that what you're saying? 

PROBATION OFFICER: Yes, Judge. Upon looking at it 

further, I realized that the 240 months should be on Count 1, 

and then on Count 4 you could do, to reach the 300 months, 

36 months consecutive to Count 1 plus the 24 months 

consecutive to the sentence on Count 4. 

THE COURT: Okay. Let's make sure this adds up. I 

did the total because I wanted it to be 25 years and not 35, 

so let's go back and just make sure. 

It's 240 months on Count 1, 36 months on Count 4, 

and 24 months -- the 36 months to be consecutive to -- 

MR. WIGOD: All three sentences should be 

consecutive to each other. 

THE COURT: Yes. The 36 months will be consecutive 

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to Count 1, and then the 24 months will be consecutive to 

Count 4, so that's a total of 300 months; is that right? 

PROBATION OFFICER: Yes, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: I'm sorry. I did -- my math was wrong 

and I'm glad you caught that. 

Okay. Do you have any questions on that? Do you 

want me to go over that again? 

THE DEFENDANT: No, it's 25. 

MR. MORRIS: No, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: Okay. Then we have -- oh, are there 

any objections to the sentence as stated? 

MR. WIGOD: No, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: Defense? 

MR. MORRIS: No, Your Honor. We have no questions. 

THE COURT: Okay. Is there anything else, Counsel? 

MR. WIGOD: Not as it relates to this. 

THE COURT: I know we have another sentencing but 

anything on this? 

MR. MORRIS: No, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: Okay. You do have the right to appeal 

this matter if you wish, and you must do so within 14 days of 

today's date. Okay. 

Now, going to the other case, which is 15-30102, 

possession of a firearm with the altered serial number. 

I didn't receive any objections on that case. Is 

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there anything -- I'm sorry, we have to do new attorneys. 

I'm very sorry. Okay. 

On this case let's do appearances again just to be 

sure the record is clear. 

MR. WIGOD: Tare Wigod on behalf of the government. 

MR. GONEK: Ben Gonek on behalf of Mr. Matthews for 

this case. 

THE COURT: Okay. And, Mr. Matthews, have you gone 

over this presentence report with your attorney, Mr. Gonek? 

THE DEFENDANT: What did you say? 

THE COURT: Have you gone over the presentence 

report with Mr. Gonek? 

THE DEFENDANT: No, I haven't. 

THE COURT: Pardon me? No? Did you say no? 

THE DEFENDANT: I thought he was taking care of it, 

Your Honor. I didn't know -- I thought he was going to take 

care of it. 

MR. GONEK: Do you want Mr. Morris to represent you 

on this? 

THE DEFENDANT: Yeah, he can. I thought that's 

what was going on. 

MR. GONEK: Your Honor, I think there was -- 

THE DEFENDANT: I thought he just took care of it. 

I didn't know he was coming up. So I don't know what's going 

on basically. I thought he just took care of everything. 

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THE COURT: Well, your attorney, Mr. Morris, filed 

in the one case only to represent you, and Mr. Gonek 

continues then to represent you in this case. 

Have you gone over this presentence report with 

him? 

MR. GONEK: I have not. I went down -- we sent the 

presentence report a while back, we came here for a 

sentencing a while back, and it was adjourned until today. 

There weren't any objections filed. I think Mr. McManus 

actually represented Mr. Matthews when this presentence 

report was prepared because it was quite some time ago. 

Because I was confused today procedurally how we would 

proceed in light of the fact that Mr. Morris substituted in 

on one case and not the other. 

THE COURT: Well, we are proceeding to sentencing. 

MR. GONEK: No, I understand that, Your Honor. But 

when I went -- I -- it was -- it has always been my 

understanding that Mr. -- and correct me if I'm wrong, you 

didn't want me as your lawyer, right? 

THE DEFENDANT: Correct. 

MR. GONEK: And that's why you retained counsel, 

correct? 

THE DEFENDANT: Correct. 

MR. GONEK: And I think there was just a -- I don't 

know -- 

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THE COURT: So, Counsel, both of you, why didn't 

you take care of this before? This is not too confusing. 

Mr. Morris, are you representing him on this case? 

MR. MORRIS: Judge, I didn't know of this case, the 

pendency of this case. I was focused on the big case, that's 

all I was -- I didn't realize this other case was even 

scheduled for today until he came into custody and wanted to 

talk to him about it, so that perhaps is certainly my fault 

but I didn't -- I wasn't even aware of it. 

MR. GONEK: Your Honor, if I could just give the 

Court -- when I was contacted, it wasn't by Mr. Morris, it 

was by his assistant to substitute in. I made arrangements 

to copy our files on the computer disk and I signed -- or 

gave my consent to sign a stipulation for substitution. I 

did advise Mr. Morris' assistant that there was another case 

and that there -- that -- and the assistant advised me they 

wouldn't be representing Mr. Matthews in that case. I should 

have at that time contacted Mr. Morris and got some type of 

joint plan together to make some sense out of this, and so I 

am somewhat culpable as well. 

THE COURT: Let's take a short break and, Counsel, 

both of you, if you would talk with the defendant, he can 

stay up here. 

Mr. Matthews, this presentence report is 

basically -- correct me if I'm wrong, but as I read it, 

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except for the facts of case and the guidelines, it is 

exactly the same as the one that you went over with 

Mr. Morris. 

THE DEFENDANT: All right. 

THE COURT: So you can take a minute to just look 

at it, to look at the facts of the case, and the sentencing 

guidelines in this case are 18 to 24 months, most likely will 

be concurrent. I don't see any sense in adjourning this and 

having everybody come back, so let's take a minute. 

MR. GONEK: If we could have five minutes? 

THE COURT: That would be fine. 

THE CLERK: All rise. This Court is in recess. 

Please be seated. 

(Court recessed at 3:18 p.m.)

_ _ _ 

(Court reconvened at 3:22 p.m.; Court, Counsel and 

all parties present.) 

THE COURT: All right. Continuing with the 

sentence, Mr. Gonek. 

MR. GONEK: Yes, Your Honor. Both Mr. Morris and I 

spoke with Mr. Matthews. He does want to proceed to 

sentencing on the '14 case today, and he has no problem with 

me representing him at this sentencing. Is that correct? 

THE DEFENDANT: Yeah. 

MR. GONEK: Okay. 

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THE COURT: Okay. And, Mr. Matthews, you 

understand that this -- you have reviewed the report, at 

least you reviewed it with Mr. Morris, correct? 

THE DEFENDANT: Yeah. 

THE COURT: Okay. I'm looking at that other 

report. Just one minute. Okay. So before the Court passes 

sentence, is there anything else that you wish to say? 

MR. GONEK: I just would like to make one brief 

point that I think speaks to Mr. Matthews' maturity. In this 

case, the 2014 case, the gun that was found was found in a 

trunk, it wasn't found on his person, I believe, or, you 

know, in close proximity. He fully cooperated with the law 

enforcement officer that pulled him over or stopped him and 

arrested him, and he did accept responsibility by pleading 

guilty straight up to this offense with the understanding 

that he could go to prison. He accepted responsibility for 

this wrong, Your Honor, and I think that that was a, you 

know, I believe the first start of a turning point that's 

going to continue in Mr. Matthews' life. 

And in light of the sentence on the other case, 

Your Honor, I would ask the Court to consider just -- I 

understand what the guidelines are, 18 to 24 months, but just 

imposing a sentence of a day and closing this case out in 

light of the sentence in the other case that he was just -- 

that he just received. Thank you. 

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(An off-the-record discussion between 

Defense Counsel and Defendant was held at 

3:25 p.m.)

MR. GONEK: I may have used a poor choice of words 

when I indicated that when Mr. Matthews was arrested he 

cooperated. He didn't cooperate in terms of giving 

information. He just did what the officer asked in terms of 

being arrested. He didn't flee, he didn't hit the officer. 

He just did what he was told at the time of his arrest. If I 

used the words cooperated, by no means has Mr. Matthews ever 

cooperated with the government in providing any type of 

information. 

THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Matthews, do you have 

anything else that you wish to say? 

THE DEFENDANT: No, Your Honor. Thank you. 

THE COURT: Okay. Government? 

MR. WIGOD: I would just ask for a guideline 

sentence, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: Okay. Well, wait a minute because you 

submitted a presentence report, the guidelines are 18 to 24, 

which you acknowledge, but you are requesting 15 months? No, 

is this not the case? 

MR. WIGOD: The guidelines are 18 to 24, Your 

Honor. 

THE COURT: I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. 

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The Court is going to impose a guideline sentence 

in this case and commit you to the Bureau of Prisons for 

18 months, but I'm going to do it concurrent to your sentence 

that I just imposed in the other case. Okay. 

And, again, on this case you have the right to 

appeal, but if you do so, you would have to do so within 

14 days of today's date. Okay. 

Anything else the government? 

MR. WIGOD: No, Your Honor. Thank you. 

THE COURT: Defense? 

MR. GONEK: No, Your Honor. 

MR. WIGOD: I believe there is a special 

assessment, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: Oh, I'm going too fast. There is a 

$100 special assessment on this case also, and there will be 

a period of supervised release of two years which would run 

concurrent with the supervised release on your other case, 

and the same conditions apply as I imposed on the other one 

regarding you cannot associated with gang members, you can't 

be in a gang. Okay. Anything else? 

PROBATION OFFICER: Your Honor, the Court may wish 

to waive the fine, cost of incarceration and cost of 

supervision in this case as well. 

THE COURT: Yes. I will waive the cost of 

supervision and the fine. Okay. 

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MR. MORRIS: Thank you, Your Honor.

MR. WIGOD: Thank you, Your Honor. 

(Proceedings concluded at 3:28 p.m.)

_ _ _ 

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CERTIFICATION

I, Robert L. Smith, Official Court Reporter of 

the United States District Court, Eastern District of 

Michigan, do hereby certify that the foregoing pages comprise 

a full, true and correct transcript taken in the matter of 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs. DEONTA MATTHEWS, Case No. 

14-20655 & 15-20201, on Thursday, September 21, 2017.

s/Robert L. Smith

Robert L. Smith, CSR 5098

Federal Official Court Reporter

United States District Court

Eastern District of Michigan

Date: 06/08/2018

Detroit, Michigan 

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