Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

MADISON, WIS. -- John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Charles A. Evans, 40, and Tiana L. Williams, 24, both of Beloit, Wis., with participating in a conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin from May to September 2014. 
 
The indictment was returned on October 29 by a grand jury sitting in Madison, and was unsealed following the arrest of the defendants in Beloit yesterday.
 
The indictment alleges that as part of the conspiracy, Evans and Williams stored heroin in Williams’ residence in Beloit and distributed heroin to drug customers in the Beloit area from the residence.  The indictment alleges that Evans and Williams sometimes allowed customers to buy heroin on credit, and that Evans used violence and the threat of violence to coerce payment of a customer’s drug debt, by physically assaulting the customer and breaking the customer’s jaw.
 
The indictment alleges that with respect to Evans, the amount of heroin involved in the conspiracy attributable to him is 100 grams or more.  In addition to the conspiracy charge, the indictment charges Evans with four counts and Williams with two counts of distributing heroin.  It also charges the pair with using a place, namely Williams’ residence in Beloit, for the purpose of distributing heroin.
 
If convicted of the conspiracy charge, Evans faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 40 years.  Williams faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on the conspiracy charge.  Each distribution count, and the maintaining a drug house count, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.
 
The charges against them are the result of an investigation by GROC (pronounced gee-rock), a task force formed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Violent Crime Initiative, to address gang and drug-related violence in Rock County through the coordination of investigations among local and federal law enforcement agencies.  Its members include the FBI; Rock County Sheriff’s Department; Beloit Police Department; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 
 
The prosecution of this case will be handled by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Sinnott.
 
You are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. 
 

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