The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on October 13, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, CORTNEY T. ELLEN, a 23-year-old resident of Murrary, Utah, appeared for sentencing.

ELLEN was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 30 months

Special Assessment: $100

Supervised Release: 4 years

ELLEN 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, two of ELLEN's co-conspirators approached him and had ELLEN rent a vehicle in ELLEN's name for them to drive from the Salt Lake City, Utah area to the Great Falls area to sell cocaine. Eventually, ELLEN began driving his co-conspirators to the Great Falls area so they could sell cocaine. ELLEN was paid by his co-conspirators to do that. ELLEN also maintained a couple of bank accounts in his name and would allow his co-conspirators to deposit money from the sale of cocaine into those accounts. ELLEN would then withdraw the money and give it, minus a small fee, to his co-conspirators. ELLEN also allowed his co-conspirators to "stash" or hide cocaine at his residence in Utah.

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 ELLEN will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, ELLEN 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, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, the Great Falls Police Department and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

 

 

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