Dallas Roommates Sentenced in Federal Firearms Offense Case

One, a Convicted Felon, Sentenced to 180 Months in Federal Prison for Conspiring to Obstruct Justice

DALLAS — A convicted felon, who admitted conspiring with his roommates to have a federal jury acquit him at trial, was sentenced today, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Chaddrick Darrion Ashley, 25, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to 180 months in federal prison.  He pleaded guilty in March 2015 to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

In April 2015, Ashley’s roommates, Daisy Emerson, 24, and Ofelia Nunez, 19, were each sentenced by Judge Lynn to 21 months in federal prison.  Each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and one count of making a false declaration before a court.

According to documents filed in the case, Emerson and Nunez’s roommate, convicted felon Chaddrick Darrion Ashley, 25, was arrested on March 26, 2014, for possession of a firearm by a felon.  Shortly after his arrest, Emerson conspired with Ashley and Nunez to come up with a strategy to exonerate Ashley.  They agreed that Nunez would execute a false affidavit claiming she, not Ashley, owned the gun, and that Nunez had mistakenly left her gun in the car.

Nunez executed that false affidavit, and just days before Ashley’s trial on that offense in federal court, she executed a second affidavit affirming those facts.  Both she and Emerson falsely testified in Ashley’s federal trial on the firearm offense in September 2014 to corruptly obstruct and influence those official proceedings.  Nunez falsely testified as to several facts about events on the day of Ashley’s arrest, and Emerson falsely testified, denying any involvement in producing the false affidavit.  The goal of their conspiracy was, through false affidavits and false testimony at trial, to have the jury acquit Ashley.

Ashley’s trial ended in a mistrial.  Approximately one month later, however, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.  He pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count, admitting he helped Emerson and Nunez execute a false affidavit and encouraged them to testify falsely at his trial.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.