Two Broward County women were sentenced on Wednesday on federal racketeering charges as part of an East Coast ring that smuggled cocaine aboard cruise ships into Fort Lauderdale.
Patricia Clarke received a life sentence and Chantell Biggs was given 30 years in prison by U.S. District Judge William Stafford.
Six other defendants were earlier sentenced to life on the racketeering charges that grew out of last year’s bombing death of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James Fulford.
Fulford was killed instantly near Tallahassee by a bomb intended for two women who refused to testify for one of the defendants in a 1991 Broward murder case, prosecutors said.
Two Fort Lauderdale men, Paul Howell, 27, and his brother Patrick, 21, face state murder charges this summer in Jefferson County in Fulford’s murder.
Clarke, 21, of Sunrise, was convicted on racketeering charges stemming from the Broward murder, which took place during what police say was a drug rip- off.
Biggs’ charges stemmed from the drug ring’s money laundering and conspiracy activities.
The eight defendants were convicted after a two-month trial in which jurors heard from about 150 witnesses.
Beautiful girl, wasted youth. Is she Jamaican? It says African American but then she was on ICE hold. She accomplished while incarcerated but then what a wasted life!!
Convicted in Trooper’s Murder, Paul Howell Is Executed, Gov. Scott’s 15th
Feb. 26 Update–Paul Augustus Howell, who was sent to Death Row for the 1992 murder of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, was executed Wednesday at Florida State Prison near Stark. Howell, 48, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m., according to the Gov. Rick Scott’s office. Howell, who had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as his final meal, was the 15th Death Row inmate executed in Florida since Scott took office in 2011.
https://flaglerlive.com/63260/paul-howell-death-sentenc/
https://flaglerlive.com/63260/paul-howell-death-sentenc/
During his statement, Howell said he’d instructed Watson that no matter what, “Don’t let a cop get in the car.” He also said he originally was going to place the bomb inside a television set, but another woman, a cousin described in court documents as another potential witness, told him to put it in a microwave because the woman he intended to kill would be using it to heat up a bottle for her baby.
More while mi tink suh deep mi gone all pass di consequences… Mi a wanda wha ppl tink bout when dem duh certain tings. A graduate pic dat uppa tap deh.. Dat mean a neva dah life deh stawt out. Jah know money mek ppl see di battyhole an enter instead a exit.