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Pureto Rico-native Jann Jousten Aponte-Rivera, 27, was sentenced on Wednesday to 50 years in prison for the drug-related murder of 42-year-old Frederick resident Shantay Myisha Butler, who was killed in retaliation for drug debts, officials say.
According to prosecutors, Aponte-Rivera was part of a large-scale drug trafficking organization based in San Juan that was sending kilogram quantities to the US, including in the Washington, DC region.
In total, investigators identified more than 50 parcels of cocaine shipped by the organization from Puerto Rico to the area with a wholesale street value of at least $2 million.
"The drug trafficking organization’s members, including Aponte-Rivera, traveled from San Juan to the Washington, DC area to collect drug proceeds, and then surreptitiously traveled on commercial airliners with the proceeds," officials said.
Prosecutors say that the leader of a drug trafficking organization in the region accrued several thousands of dollars in debt to the Puerto Rico-based operation and had been ordered to pay for several kilograms of cocaine which did not arrive in the Washington, D.C.-area.
On Oct. 14, 2020, Aponte-Rivera lured the leader of the local drug trafficking organization and Butler to a desolate part of Toa Baja in Puerto Rico.
When the leader of the DC drug trafficking organization arrived with Butler in a car, Aponte-Rivera ambushed them, pulling out a gun and firing on the vehicle.
The leader of the DC-area drug trafficking ring was shot five times, remained in a coma for several weeks, but survived.
His girlfriend, Butler, died from her wounds. Aponte-Rivera was arrested in Pennsylvania on April 15, 2021.
Aponte-Rivera was convicted by a jury in November 8 last year to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine; continuing criminal enterprise – causing the intentional death of Butler; and causing the death of Butler through the use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug-trafficking offense
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