Pubdate: Tue, 28 Feb 2012
Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright: 2012 The Commercial Appeal
Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm
Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95
Author: Lawrence Buser

REMORSE MISSING; SO IS LENIENCY; CRIME HISTORY EARNS MAN 240-YEAR SENTENCE

Admitted drug trafficker Curtis Keller walked into Criminal Court for
sentencing Tuesday, shielding himself from cameras with a sheet of
paper on which he had printed: "Massive Corruption Within the Courts."

Things went downhill from there.

Keller, in bright red jail garb and escorted by two jail officers, was
convicted last fall of directing a 2010 home invasion in Collierville,
a scheme he acknowledged planning in an effort to get his marijuana
back.

Kicking in a door in the middle of the night, threatening a woman and
children with guns and pistol-whipping the man at the house, however,
was the crowning achievement in a lifetime of crime, the judge said.

"I don't care if there was 100 pounds of gold in there," Criminal
Court Judge James Lammey said in giving Keller a sentence of 240 years
in prison for his eight felony convictions in the case.

"He doesn't have the right to terrorize a family because someone took
his weed. He makes it sound like it was their fault. It would be a
travesty if Mr. Keller ever walked the streets of Memphis again."

The incident occurred around 3:30 a.m. on May 26, 2010, when several
masked gunmen broke into a home in the 400 block of South Main
Extended in Collierville.

A man, his girlfriend and her two teenage sons were rousted from their
sleep and threatened by the gunmen, who demanded money or marijuana.

One of the teenage boys who had been hiding in a closet called police.
They arrested Keller and another man, Aaron Tate, at the scene. Tate,
35, was sentenced to 138 years in prison last month.

Keller said he had fronted the man 15 pounds of marijuana, but that he
later learned the man was selling the marijuana after telling Keller
that it had been stolen.

He told police he went to the house to get $10,000 or the marijuana
back, and on Tuesday he denied having a gun that night or harming
anyone in the home.

"Each one of the witnesses lied with perjured testimony," said Keller,
who also accused his attorney, Rebecca Coffee, of colluding with
prosecutors. "Their testimony was co-rehearsed with
prosecutors."

State prosecutor Eric Christensen urged the judge to sentence Keller
to the maximum for especially aggravated burglary, aggravated assault,
attempted aggravated robbery and other convictions in the case.

A small amount of marijuana was found in the house, the prosecutor
said, but it was not clear to whom it belonged.

"This man had a chance to show some remorse, but all he can do is
whine and cry and complain," Christensen said. "He began his criminal
career in the 1980s and he's never stopped. He's been pointing guns in
people's faces for 30 years. He's been working toward this moment his
entire life."

Keller, a muscular man of 330 pounds who has been prone to angry
outbursts in the past, was outfitted with a court-ordered stun cuff
that could deliver an electrical shock from remote devices held by two
special deputies seated behind him in court.

He was out on $300,000 bond on other criminal charges when he was
arrested in Collierville.

His attorney, Coffee, noted that Keller is 48 and that a 60-year
prison sentence would be plenty, but Lammey said the defendant had
shown no remorse or any other reason to merit leniency from the court.

Saying 240 years was the appropriate sentence, the judge added, "He'll
have to serve those years as best he can." 
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