INFORMANT'S SENTENCE CUT AGAIN AFTER 24 DRUG ARRESTS

Earl Jack Williams is living proof that honor among thieves doesn't extend
to drug dealers.

Four more years were trimmed off Williams' sentence for drug dealing
Wednesday as a reward for turning in 24 more friends and colleagues in
Seminole County.

His total stands at 44 people either convicted of or arrested on felony drug
charges of dealing crack cocaine as a result of his testimony.

Williams earned his first reduced sentence after his September 2001 arrest
by turning in 20 suppliers and local street-level dealers. That deal spared
him from a possible life sentence.

Sentenced to 13 years in February 2002, Williams continued giving
information about the first group and helped police identify the 24 new
suspects, court records show.

Since going to prison, Williams, 29, has done more than anyone else to bust
crack dealers and clean up the streets of Sanford, according to testimony in
federal court from the prosecutor and his defense lawyer.

His own 20 arrests on drug and motor-vehicle charges show the former
clothing salesman had the makings of a great informant. The worst offenders
often make the best snitches because they know so much.

Fear of Williams' testimony became so widespread among drug dealers that a
man Williams hadn't named surrendered and gave police more than two pounds
of cocaine, prosecutors said. The man said he knew Williams was talking and
thought it wisest to surrender last year before police tracked him down,
according to court testimony.

"He's given us fantastic cooperation," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew
Perry, who with his bosses' approval recommended more time off for Williams
at Wednesday's sentence-reduction hearing.

Evidence of Williams' value prompted U.S. District Judge Patricia C. Fawsett
to reduce his sentence for the second time.

The ruling was so out of character for a judge known for small sentence
reductions that Fawsett took time on the bench to explain. She said she was
treating Williams' assistance as two distinct stages -- before and after his
conviction -- to rationalize her decision.

But cutting Williams' sentence from 13 to nine years still didn't satisfy
his lawyer, Mark NeJame of Orlando.

"We think this sends the wrong message to society and defendants," NeJame
said, claiming the number of years taken away was too paltry to encourage
other criminals to become informants.

Perry disagreed, saying Williams could have been sentenced to life for his
crimes.

The prosecutor persuaded Williams to talk after his arrest in September 2001
on charges of selling crack cocaine and keeping a loaded handgun to protect
his drug dealing. Perry simply explained that two prior felony drug
convictions made Williams eligible for a life sentence.

Williams was such a good informant that the only time he hesitated to
cooperate was when agents asked him about his wife's relatives. He told
investigators he didn't want to talk about drug-dealing by his in-laws,
according to testimony.

Without his help, police seized $236,000 and 8 ounces of cocaine and made
cases in January 2003 in Sanford against the father and uncle of Williams'
wife, Nikia, according to testimony and court records.

"I did give them information that could have cost me my marriage," Williams
told the judge. He is still married.

Williams left court smiling after asking if he could work off more time by
turning in anyone else. He was returned to the Seminole County Jail to be
held until his return to federal prison.