On 1 February 2013, US District Judge Dana Christensen sentenced Montana Cannabis partner Christopher Wayne Williams, 38, of Helena, to five years in federal prison on a firearms count plus 130 days of time served on a drug count, at a federal court session in Missoula.[1] A jury had convicted him on 27 September 2012, after a four-day trial, of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess marijuana with intent to distribute, manufacture of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, and possession of a firearm during drug trafficking.[1] Under a post-conviction agreement, prosecutors dismissed six counts in exchange for Williams waiving his appeal, and he was sentenced on the remaining two.[1]
Williams was the only one of more than two dozen Montana providers raided in March 2011 to insist on a trial; his partners took pleas, two testifying against him, while a third, Richard Flor, died four months into a five-year term.[2] Barred from telling the jury that his business supplied patients under state law, he was convicted on all eight counts, whose stacked gun mandatory minimums exposed him to 80 years.[2] Trial evidence showed about 950 plants and protectively placed firearms at the Helena grow along with distribution-ready marijuana and a gun cache at the Miles City home, and prosecutors said the conspiracy produced at least $1,728,000 in marijuana.[1] US Attorney Michael Cotter said Williams was “a convicted marijuana dealer who operated a drug trafficking organization outside both federal and state law.”[1]
