If Gregory Paul Carothers hadn't spent so many years in jail and prison, he would have been able to compile more than a mere 20 criminal convictions during a 30-year span beginning when he was 18 years old.
Carother's conviction stacking project is now on hold again.
Last week inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, the 49-year-old felon faced a judge for sentencing after being convicted of illegally possessing a huge cache of ammunition for more than a dozen different weapons.
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Carother's sought a relatively lenient sentence because he lived, he said, “an unfortunate childhood” and suffers from serious drug addictions, namely involving methamphetamine.
His rap sheet is impressive: burglary (1984), DUI (1985), probation violations (1987), second degree burglary (1988), possession of a controlled substance, DUI and providing false identification to police (1990), drug dealing (1991), DUI (1993), driving on a suspended license (1995), possession of drug paraphernalia (1996), drug dealing (1997)–that gave him a lengthy prison trip, possession of more than 150 rounds of ammo (2009), and vehicle theft, drug paraphernalia possession and possession of burglary tools (2010).
Carothers hoped for a punishment of no more than 51 months. A federal prosecutor sought a term of 63 months.The U.S. Probation Office wanted him to receive as much as 96 months.
U.S District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford decided a 63-month punishment was appropriate.
Carothers is today residing in federal custody inside the Santa Ana Jail. In coming days, the man who also uses the names Gregory Paul Deleon and Gregory P. Caruthers will be bused to a federal prison. When he returns to society, he can resume building his rap sheet.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
