Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Two Dallas Roommates Each Sentenced to 21 Months in Federal Prison for Conspiring to Obstruct Justice and Lying to Exonerate another Roommate Facing a Federal Firearm Offense
DALLAS — Two women who pleaded guilty in November 2014 to federal felony offenses stemming from their conspiracy to obstruct justice to exonerate a fellow roommate, have been sentenced, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Daisy Emerson, 24, and Ofelia Nunez, 19, were each sentenced on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. 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 Ashley 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. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 1, 2015.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.