The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on September 19, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, MATTHEW DAVID ODEGARD, a 22-year-old resident of Great Falls, appeared for sentencing.

ODEGARD was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 45 months

Special Assessment: $100

Supervised Release: 4 years

ODEGARD was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vince Carroll, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

Between 2007 and 2010, one of ODEGARD's co-conspirators was buying and selling cocaine in the Great Falls area. ODEGARD, knowing that the purpose was to buy and sell cocaine, aided this co-conspirator by driving him to and from a majority of these cocaine drug deals. ODEGARD also allowed his co-conspirator to use his garage and his residence, located in the Great Falls area, as places to unload the cocaine that had been transported to the Great Falls area. ODEGARD also purchased cocaine from this co-conspirator during this time period, and sold the cocaine in the Great Falls area.

The total amount of cocaine involved in this conspiracy is over 500 grams.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that ODEGARD will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, ODEGARD does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation and the Great Falls Police Department.

 

 

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