U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney

District of Connecticut

PRESS RELEASE

January 29, 2009

NEW HAVEN MAN SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR FEDERAL PCP OFFENSE

Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that DEMETRICE WOODS, also known as “Mad Dog,” 33, of Chapel Street, New Haven, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Christopher F. Droney in Hartford to 48 months of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release.  On September 11, 2008, WOODS pleaded guilty to one count of using a telephone to aid a conspiracy to distribute phencyclidine (“PCP”).

On March 26, 2008, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging WOODS and several other individuals with various narcotics offenses involving the distribution of PCP in New Haven and the surrounding area.  The charge against WOODS stems from a transaction that occurred on March 7, 2008, during which WOODS’ co-defendant, Keith Jenkins, sold four ounces of liquid PCP to another co-defendant, Anthony Washington.  Washington’s cellular telephone was the target of a wiretap investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Haven Safe Streets Task Force, and WOODS was recorded aiding the March 7, 2008 transaction.        WOODS has been detained since his arrest by Task Force agents on July 21, 2008.

Jenkins and Washington currently are serving federal prison terms of 77 months and 120 months, respectively.

This matter was investigated by the FBI New Haven Safe Streets Task Force, which is composed of representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Haven Police Department, the Ansonia Police Department, the Milford Police Department, the Hamden Police Department, the East Haven Police Department, the Connecticut State Police and the Connecticut Department of Correction. This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert M. Spector.