By STEPHEN STEED
Special to the Leader
George Wylie Thompson, 65, of Cabot was sentenced to 8½ years in prison Friday following his convictions late last year on a variety of federal firearms and gambling charges.
U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson gave Thompson about a two-year break for his service as a Marine during the Vietnam war.
The sentencing of Thompson closes a case that also netted prison sentences for two North Little Rock aldermen: Sam Baggett and Cary Gaines. Baggett reported to prison late last month to serve 23 months at the Federal Correction Complex in Forrest City. Gaines is serving four months at a federal prison in Millington, Tenn., and is scheduled to be released in October.
Thompson was convicted Dec. 17 in U.S. District Court in Little Rock of eight counts of federal firearms charges, gambling charges and marriage fraud.
Wilson gave Thompson 103 months on the firearms convictions, 60 months on gambling convictions, and 12 months on a conviction for aiding and abetting marriage fraud. All those sentences will be served concurrently. Federal sentencing guidelines called for a range of 121 to 151 months.
Wilson declined Thompson’s request that the sentence be served concurrently with a 10-year sentence he received in March for an October 2008 conviction on federal cocaine-trafficking charges. A co-defendant, Richard Deleo, of Somerville, Mass., was sentenced to 12 years. Both Thompson and Deleo still face racketeering charges in Massachusetts.
Wilson gave Thompson a bit of leniency for his service in Vietnam, from 1963 to 1967, as a door gunner of a UH-1 Huey “gunship.” Wilson briefly recounted his own service in the Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin, where he witnessed the heroism and courage of helicopter crews sent out to rescue downed American pilots.
While other judges may not have given Thompson any leniency for his service, Wilson said, “That’s their discretion. I’m going to give him some credit for it.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Harris said he didn’t want to dismiss or downplay Thompson’s service, except that Thompson has sought to use his service as a crutch every time he has faced sentencing. “He is now 65,” Harris said.
“He’s been committing crimes for the past 25 years and, at some point, he’s got to grow up and quit doing this stuff.”
He also said Thompson, a first lieutenant in the Marines, was court-martialed for an incident in which he stabbed a lance corporal in 1967 in Okinawa.
The lance corporal survived.
Wilson also gave consideration to Thompson’s health but decided not to grant any leniency for what he termed “some problems most of us his age or older” deal with. Wilson said he’ll recommend that Thompson serve his time at prisons in Fort Worth, Texas, or Springfield, Mo., if any special medical treatment is needed. If no specialized treatment is needed for Thompson, Wilson will recommend that he serve his sentence at the federal prison in Texarkana.
Asked if he’d like to speak, Thompson said he would. In brief remarks from the defense table, flanked by his lawyers, Blake Hendrix and Jason Files of Little Rock, Thompson thanked his lawyers for their work, Judge Wilson for considering his health, medical staff who have been treating him, and friends and family for their support.
Thompson was convicted in 1989 and 2003 on drug charges and served time for those convictions. Authorities were investigating Thompson and Deleo on suspected drug dealing when a court-authorized telephone wiretap permitted them to key in on Baggett and his relationship with Thompson.
That extended investigation also brought an indictment of Gaines, on charges that he was seeking to rig city bids and pay Thompson for gambling debts.
