High-profile meth dealer’s ‘brothers’ waved, wished him well after sentencing in Gulfport

A Vancleave man who for years led a major meth-dealing operation on family property called The Hill — where crimes of violence also were reported — has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. sentenced Terry Lee Reddix, 43, on Thursday in front of about 20 relatives and friends who attended the hearing in federal court.

Reddix lived on The Hill, what locals call a family compound of several homes in the 14000 block of Mississippi 57. It’s behind Martin Luther King Park and north of Vancleave High School.

Reddix, known by the nickname of “Fathead,” laughed and talked to relatives before Guirola entered the courtroom.

When called to stand before the judge with his attorney, Reddix smiled at the audience and jingled the chains that bound his wrists as he walked to the podium.

He became sheepish and almost at a loss for words before Guirola ordered prison time, a $15,000 fine and five years of probation.

“It’s lots of stress, you know?” Reddix said of his actions and the pending sentence. “I wish I could change it, but I can’t.”

He encouraged his family and friends “to keep their heads up.”

His attorney asked the judge to consider giving Reddix 30 years instead of 40.

“At 360 months, he will be 73 when he gets out,” said John Weber, a federal public defender.

Weber called the judge’s attention to the number of people there to show support for Reddix, “even those Mr. Reddix let down.”

As a marshal led him out of the courtroom, Reddix turned to speak to his family, addressing them as “brothers.” The group waved and wished him well.

“We’ll be here for you,” one woman said.

The judge did not require Reddix to make restitution to the community, saying he doesn’t have the means to pay it.

Nine people indicted

He is one of nine people indicted in the latest case after more than 15 years of efforts to break up the drug operation. The indictment, based on an FBI investigation, alleged the drug ring also distributed cocaine.

Reddix was indicted on seven drug-dealing charges and pleaded guilty in February to one count of possession with intent to distribute meth. That charge involved the sale of 6.99 grams of pure meth, also known as crystal meth or ice, to an informant at Reddix’s home on May 23, 2016.

At his plea hearing, Reddix told the judge he quit school after the 9th grade to work on the family farm, which has boats, cows and fish ponds, and said the work kept him busy. He went to rehab for a narcotics addiction on a court order in 2009 and returned to the farm.

“Then I became accustomed to selling other stuff,” Reddix said in a digital recording of the hearing.

“I broke the law, you know what I’m saying? ... I seen the evidence. I know where I went wrong. I know what I did.”

U.S. Attorney John Meynardie, who prosecuted the case, recommended Reddix’s sentence be in the lower 25 percent of recommended federal guidelines.

Also indicted were Sharon Marie “Boss” Stallone, 37, a.k.a. Sharon Groves or Sharbear Boss; Darryl Lovett “Big Blood” Williams, 47; Michael Todd “Chicken” Ward, 52; Marcel Tremayne “Picayune Black” Graves, 42; Requita Shauntell Magee, 42; and Travas Lamar Martin, 31.

In January, Ward admitted he was the cocaine supplier for Reddix.

Drug dealing over nearly 20 years

The long-running federal case, with help from Jackson County narcotics agents, is said to involve the largest drug-ring in central Jackson County. Efforts to stop drug activity and other illegal activity on The Hill began as early as 2002.

Reddix, his twin brother Perry (now deceased) and Terry Dunning were prosecuted on federal drug charges in 2002, after Jackson County investigators documented one drug sale after another on The Hill.

Deputies had raided several homes on The Hill and reported finding $30,000 in stolen property, along with automatic weapons, videos of dog fights and a picture of a young child exposed to marijuana. They also reported drug trafficking.

A deputy assigned to the FBI Safe Streets Task Force testified one informant had said the Reddix twins had sold him 4 ounces of cocaine a week from late 1999 through June 2001.

During that investigation, evidence showed the Reddix brothers were dissatisfied with one of their drug suppliers and had said they planned to “rectify” the situation. Two days later, a Biloxi rapper was shot in Dunning’s mobile home on the Hill. The victim said the four men were present when he was shot, according to court testimony.

Reddix had already been arrested on charges including carrying a concealed weapon, aggravated assault and fleeing from law enforcement, Sun Herald archives show.

A federal judge later sentenced the three men. Reddix received a five-year prison term.

Reddix went to prison and got out in May 2009, but his probation was revoked four months later. He had failed to report to the probation office after getting out of prison, a judgment shows. Before his arrest, deputies were called to The Hill, where Reddix was accused of hitting his girlfriend twice in the face and “ruining” his father’s 82nd birthday party, a barbecue, records show.

Reddix went back to prison for 13 months.

In 2004, deputies responded to a mobile home on The Hill on a complaint that three people had pistol-whipped a man and riddled his car with 17 bullets. The victim told deputies he had gone to The Hill to visit someone when three men came inside, and two of them were armed with semi-automatic handguns. One of them put a gun to his head during a dispute over missing money — more than $1,000, reports show.

Deputies later arrested Reddix on The Hill in 2013 on a charge of possession of cocaine within 1,500 feet of a park. Sheriff Mike Ezell said drugs involved in the investigation included meth, prescription pills, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana. He also said the suspects were fencing stolen goods to trade for drugs.

Three men were arrested on aggravated assault charges; at least two of them are related to Terry Reddix.

Ongoing investigation led to a federal indictment in 2017 that charged Reddix and his eight co-defendants.

“His sentence was reflective of his prior criminal history and the extensive organization he ran from the Hill,” U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and FBI Special Agent Christopher Freeze said in a news release Friday.

This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 2:56 PM.