Cedar Rapids man sentenced to nearly 14 years for distributing heroin and fentanyl

Gazette - 10/17/2019

Oct. 16--CEDAR RAPIDS -- A Cedar Rapids man was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 14 years in federal prison for distributing heroin mixed with fentanyl.

Reginald Love, 28, formerly of Chicago, pleaded May 6 in U.S. District Court to one count of distribution of heroin and fentanyl. In a plea agreement, he admitted to selling $80 of heroin to a person, who was a confidential informant, Nov. 21, 2018.

A few days later on Nov. 26, the informant again contacted Love and purchased more heroin for $80, the plea shows. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation lab, in testing later, found this heroin and the one in the earlier buy also contained fentanyl.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents also searched Love's home Nov. 30, 2018 and recovered several plastic bags with missing corners, other plastic bags not cut and a digital scale, according to the plea.

Love has two prior felony convictions in Illinois which qualified as predicate offenses, deeming Love a career offender in regards to sentencing, which enhanced his prison time.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Chatham said Love's criminal history showed he was an "extreme danger to recidivate." He started committing crimes of violence at age 16 with assault and battery and was a member of the "Disciples" street gang in Chicago at age 19. He then committed a burglary at 20 and served time in a boot camp.

Chatha said a few years later Love had two convictions for distributing marijuana, paroled in 2014 and then convicted again in 2015 for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Love was sentenced to four years in prison for the firearm offense, paroled in late 2017, moved to Iowa and then started distributing heroin and fentanyl. Those two incidents in the plea were not his only sales, he added.

Diane Helphrey, Love's attorney, asked U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams to go below the advisory sentencing, saying the career offender status was "disproportionate to the record" in this case. Most of his criminal history was when he was younger and he lacked impulse control, she said.

Love, during the hearing, thanked his mother and stepfather for supporting him, and he apologized to the community for his actions. He wants to take this time while in prison and change his life, he added.

Williams called Love's criminal history "troubling," combined with his lack of employment and education. Love dropped out of school and doesn't have a GED, he noted.

Williams disagreed with Helphrey, saying Love's criminal history did fit the career offender status and he will not vary downward from the advisory guideline.

He sentenced Love to 166 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release following his prison term.

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