Previously Convicted Drug Trafficker Sentenced To 32 Years

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced James Christopher Gann, 36, of Asheville, to 391 months in prison and five years of supervised release on drug trafficking conspiracy and witness intimidation charges, announced R. Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. 

Nick S. Annan, Special Agent in Charge of ICE/Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and the Carolinas, joins U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, Gann was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and was ordered to serve more than six years in prison.  Upon his release from prison in late 2016 and continuing through February 2017, Gann trafficked more than 22 kilograms of high-purity methamphetamine into North Carolina from a supply source in Oklahoma.  Court records show that Gann recruited his girlfriend and co-defendant, Elizabeth Ann Hollifield, to assist him in the sale of the methamphetamine.

According to court records, during an undercover drug transaction, law enforcement arrested Hollifield, who subsequently agreed to cooperate with the investigation.  According to court records, when Gann became aware of Hollifield’s cooperation with law enforcement, he physically assaulted her on two separate occasions to dissuade her from further interaction with the authorities.

Gann pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and assault with intent to hinder, delay and prevent communication to law enforcement. 

Hollifield was previously sentenced to 63 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. 

HSI led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bradley of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.