The man who recently was convicted in Lamar County of three counts of drug and firearm charges regarding counterfeit pills has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison on those violations.
Thirty-one-year-old Derell Marcell Willis was found guilty on June 6 by a Lamar County jury of one count of possession of methamphetamine while in possession of a firearm; one count of possession of more than 100 dosage units of alprazolam while in possession of a firearm; and trafficking of more than 100 dosage units of heroin/fentanyl while in possession of a firearm. Hal Kittrell, who serves as 15th Circuit Court District Attorney, said on June 17 circuit judge Richelle Lumpkin sentenced Willis to the following:
- Forty-four years with 30 years to serve day-for-day and 14 years on post-release supervision on the trafficking charge;
- Ten years with five years to serve and five years on post-release supervision on the methamphetamine charge; and
- Eight years with five years to serve and three years of post-release supervision on the alprazolam charge.
The methamphetamine and alprazolam sentences will run concurrent with each other and consecutive to the trafficking sentence, which is 30 years day-to-day. Willis will serve one-fourth – or a quarter – of the five-year sentence, which will equate to approximately one year and three months, for a total of 31 years and three months.
“The big thing is, he got charged with trafficking and got 44 years with 30 to serve, and those 30 years will be day-to-day time,” Kittrell said. “He will not get out for 30 years.
“He will serve 30 years day-to-day on the trafficking, and he’ll serve an additional five years on the other two sets of charges. But the thing is, they’re 25 percent time, so he’ll do about a year and a half on those. So he’ll actually serve around 30, 31-and-a-half years.”
Kittrell said in a statement that Willis’ case involves the trafficking of some of the most dangerous drugs on the black market: counterfeit pills.
“The pills in this case were pressed to look like legitimate prescription oxycodone and turned out to be a mixture of heroin and fentanyl,” he said. “We appreciate the jury holding this offender accountable, the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department getting these dangerous narcotics off the street, and to the court for the 30-year day-to-day sentence in this case.”
