Man Sentenced to Life For Killing Ex-Detroit Officer, A Suspected Drug Dealer

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The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) - A 35-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the 1996 murder of a former police officer who was suspected of being a drug dealer, the U.S. Attorney's office says.

A federal jury found Thelmon Stuckey III of Detroit guilty in July in the death of Ricardo Darbins, 28, who had been under federal indictment for drug trafficking. Last year, Attorney General John Ashcroft decided not to seek the death penalty.

According to federal prosecutors, Stuckey ran a cocaine gang in Detroit and thought Darbins was an informant. Stuckey shot Darbins to death in Highland Park, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyer Anthony Chambers has said that key government witness Steven Felder killed Darbins and blamed it on Stuckey. After the July conviction, he said he planned to appeal.

"I'm going to rely on the appeals court and the Lord to look out for me," Stuckey told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen. "You set me up. You all in this room set me up. I'm an innocent man."

But Rosen said Stuckey convicted himself with his own testimony.

"It was one of the greatest acts of self-destruction I've witnessed in a courtroom in 25 years," the judge said.

Stuckey also was sentenced to life in prison for a federal drug charge, 20 years in prison for a money laundering charge, 10 years for a felon in possession charge and 10 years for a witness tampering charge.

Stuckey also forfeited $13,441, crocodile clothing worth $21,045 and jewelry worth $169,120 that was seized from him at the time of his arrest, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Detroit police fired Darbins after he and another officer forced a drug dealer to eat crack cocaine in 1988. The dealer overdosed but survived.