A Massachusetts man who claimed he could not get a fair trial in Maine from an all-white jury was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 14 years in prison for his role in a drug conspiracy that brought 60,000 to 80,000 bags of heroin into Maine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
A federal jury found Myron “Templer” Crosby Jr., 56, of Springfield, Massachusetts, guilty a year ago of conspiring to bring the heroin, with an estimated street value of $316,000, into the Newport area between May 2015 and January 2016.
Crosby had never been in Maine prior to his arrest in September 2017, according to his attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor.
At the start of his four-day trial last year, Crosby, an African-American man, told U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock that he “did not have a chance at a fair trial” with a jury on which there were no minorities. Crosby also maintained that he should have been tried in Connecticut or Massachusetts, where the drug sales took place, rather than in Maine where the drug was distributed.
Maine residents met Croby in Hartford, Connecticut, or Springfield, Massachusetts, and picked up bundles of the drugs, according to trial testimony. Those co-conspirators returned to Maine and sold the drugs in Newport, Pittsfield, Dexter, Etna and neighboring towns.
Silverstein did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment on the sentence. The attorney said after the trial last year that Crosby was willing to acknowledge selling drugs in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
“Mr. Crosby firmly believes he was not part of a conspiracy to sell drugs in Maine,” the defense attorney said. “He feels very strongly that he was not judged by a jury of his peers.”
Silverstein said last year that the verdict would be appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
In addition to prison time, Crosby was sentenced to five years of supervised release.
Crosby had been held without bail for nearly two years. That time will be applied to his sentence.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Crosby faced between 14 and 17½ years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who prosecuted the case, recommended a 17½-year sentence.
Casey declined to comment on the sentence.