The president pardoned LeAnton Sheldon Hopewell, Sr., a Huber Heights man and commuted the sentence of Mark J. Thornton of Hamilton.
Hopewell was listed as a resident in Huber Heights until October 2016.
Hopewell’s offense was aiding and abetting theft from interstate shipment and he was sentenced to three years probation. Hopewell said he was convicted of stealing money from an armored car company he worked for at age 23, according to a 2011 petition to expunge his criminal record, submitted to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
“The mistake and error in judgment I made at the age of 23 would never be the mistake I would make at my current age of 43,” Hopewell wrote in his 2011 petition.
Hopewell tried to have his record expunged in 2011 through the Second Chance for Ex-offender’s Act of 2007, according to the 2011 petition.
Hopewell wrote in his 2011 petition that he initially sought a presidential pardon before deciding to seek expungement through the Second Chance for Ex-offenders Act. Former president George W. Bush denied Hopewell a pardon in 2002.
Hopewell eventually joined the U.S. Army and he was awarded a Purple Heart in December 2010 for being injured in action on Aug. 31, 2010 in Afghanistan.
“I have grown and learned a lot since my conviction,” Hopewell wrote in his 2011 petition. “I am a law-abiding citizen and I love serving my country and would like to continue until retirement.”
In February 2008, Thornton was given a mandatory life sentence in prison under the 1988 “three strikes” law.
Thornton was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine and in excess of 50 grams of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute in excess of 500 grams of cocaine; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to a media release.
The U.S. attorney’s office said in 2007 that Thornton and co-conspirator Nirvana Martin would buy multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine from Mexican suppliers, re-package it into smaller quantities and convert some of it into crack cocaine. They would then re-sell the narcotics to other street-level drug dealers and users in the Dayton area.
Obama also granted commutations to cases in Toledo, Akron, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
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