The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco has affirmed the convictions and sentences of Ricardo Montes, 29, and Luke Scarmazzo, 29, the U.S. attorney's office for California's Eastern District said Tuesday in a news release.
Scarmazzo and Montes had appealed because they claimed the trial judge made a mistake by not granting them a new trial after a juror read and discussed during deliberations a summary of a newspaper article on the marijuana policies of presidential hopefuls.
The Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court in Fresno in finding that the jurors' consideration of such information could not have affected their verdict.
A federal jury in Fresno found the two men guilty in May 2008 of manufacturing marijuana and distributing the drug, as well as operating a continuing criminal enterprise.
In November 2008, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger sentenced Scarmazzo to 21 years and 10 months in prison and Montes to the 20-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.
The evidence at trial showed that from 2004 until September 2006, the two men openly ran the California Healthcare Collective, a marijuana dispensary they cofounded in Modesto.
During those two years they made $9.2 million in sales, with up to 14 employees who cultivated, packaged and distributed marijuana, according to the news release.
Medical marijuana is legal in California, but federal laws outlaw its possession and distribution, even if the activities are allowed under state law.
Source: Modesto Bee
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