AUGUSTA — A New York man who was one of four people arrested after a 2016 exchange of gunfire in the parking lot of the Augusta Walmart was sentenced Thursday to more than 10 years in prison on federal drug conspiracy charges.

Frankie Dejesus, 29, of Rochester, New York, pleaded guilty to a federal charge he conspired with others to acquire heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine in Rochester and distribute it in central Maine.

He was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Bangor to 130 months in prison and three years of supervised release, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dejesus, one of 16 defendants charged by indictment in the conspiracy case, conspired to acquire illegal drugs, which were then distributed from at least 12 residences in central Maine. Dejesus was sent to central Maine to distribute the drugs while living with several residents who were paid for their participation in heroin and crack, U.S. Attorney Hasley B. Frank said in the release.

Dejesus was one of four people involved in a 2016 exchange of gunfire that Justice Robert Mullen said, in a court hearing for one of the suspects involved, seemed “like an old Western shoot-out in the Walmart parking lot.”

In that Augusta incident, gunshots were exchanged between people in two cars in the parking lot of the Walmart at the Marketplace at Augusta. No one was shot and the incident was brought to a halt when armed civilian bystanders intervened.

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Dejesus initially was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault after the Augusta incident, but those charges were dismissed when, in March 2016, he pleaded guilty in state court to a charge of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. Dejesus received a two-year deferred disposition. The special conditions of his deferred disposition required that he depart Maine and return only to meet with his attorney or for court proceedings.

If Dejesus succeeded in remaining trouble-free for two years from sentencing, he was to be sentenced to the time he already served in jail while awaiting trial, about eight months.

If he was unsuccessful, the length of his sentence would be determined by a judge, with a maximum of up to of five years in prison.

On Oct. 24, 2018, his sister, Diana Davis, 30, also known as “Lil C” and “CC,” pleaded guilty in federal court in Bangor to three charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin, fentanyl and crack, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. She also was involved in the Walmart incident, pleading guilty to a charge of assault.

The conspiracy case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from Augusta police.

Proceeds from sales in the conspiracy were sent to Darrell Newton in Rochester, who pleaded guilty in October to being the ringleader of the conspiracy, according to federal officials. Newton faces 20 years to life in prison, as well as a $20 million fine.

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