MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Davonte F. King, 29, Madison, Wisconsin, was sentenced yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to a total of 7 years in federal prison for possessing fentanyl intended for distribution and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The prison term will be followed by 6 years of supervised release. King pleaded guilty to these charges on June 27, 2024.
In October and November 2022, King was intercepted over a wiretap speaking with the leader of a drug trafficking organization in Madison who was selling cocaine and fentanyl pills which were designed to appear like commercially manufactured oxycodone pills. King was often ordering hundreds of fentanyl pills at a time and was believed to be distributing them in the Madison area.
On October 19, 2022, King and the drug source set up a deal for fentanyl pills. After they met in Madison, a Madison Police Department officer attempted to conduct a traffic stop on King’s vehicle, but he fled at a high rate of speed in a residential area and got away. After the flight, King called the drug source and said he could not stop because he was a felon with a firearm.
On November 17, 2022, King was again intercepted setting up a deal with his drug source for 100 fentanyl pills. Officers observed King enter the drug source’s business and exit after a short time. The vehicle King was in then stopped at a grocery store parking lot where two people made brief contact with the vehicle consistent with drug deals. The vehicle was pulled over shortly after leaving the parking lot. King was ultimately arrested, and a search of his person revealed baggies with fentanyl pills and cocaine, $1,383 in cash, and drug trafficking paraphernalia including multiple baggies and small rubber bands.
During a search of the vehicle, law enforcement located a Taurus 9mm handgun under the front passenger seat where King had been seated. The Taurus was loaded with a bullet in the chamber. King is prohibited from legally possessing firearms and ammunition because of a prior felony conviction.
At the time of these events, King was on state supervision for a 2016 second degree reckless endangering safety conviction and a 2021 domestic battery conviction. King’s supervision has since been revoked and he is currently serving a 25-month state prison revocation sentence. Judge Peterson ordered that the federal sentence run consecutive to the remainder of the revocation sentence.
At sentencing, Judge Peterson said that this case involved a serious drug trafficking offense, as cheap fentanyl pills are flooding into communities. Judge Peterson also found King’s history of firearms possession and violence to be aggravating factors.
The charges against King were the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS Criminal Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, and Dane County Narcotics Task Force. The investigation was conducted and funded by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a multi-agency task force that coordinates long-term narcotics trafficking investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven P. Anderson prosecuted this case.
This case is also part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
