Newell sentenced, again,
in Comcast conspiracy case
By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
March 27, 2004
C.D. "Bubba" Newell was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 57 months for his part in a conspiracy to defraud Comcast of millions of dollars in the mid-1990s.
The sentencing comes after his second trial, on the same charges, in December 2003. The first trial took place in April 2001.
The U.S. Attorney's 21-count indictment alleged that David Van Colvin and four co-conspirators stole more than $2 million from Comcast in a money-laundering scheme between January 1994 and August 1996.
Colvin, who was the regional manager of Comcast-Primestar during that time, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify at the trial of his co-defendants.
Of those four people, two were convicted. The jury found Newell, a former vice president of Trustmark National Bank, guilty of all counts against him. Those charges included conspiracy to commit wire/mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money-laundering, 12 counts of money-laundering and three counts of tax evasion.
Newell was sentenced to 57 months in a federal penitentiary in January 2002, but was allowed to remain free pending appeal. He retained a new attorney, who claimed Newell's conviction should be overturned because his attorney represented two defendants in the Comcast trial which was a conflict of interest.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in December 2002 and granted Newell a new trial.
Newell's second trial on the same charges happened about a year later, in mid-December 2003, and the jury took about two hours to re-convict him on all counts.
It is not surprising that Newell received exactly the same sentence after his second trial. Federal sentencing is based on a mathematical formula. The court plugs in the values and computes the sentence, and it is rare for a judge to deviate from those guidelines.
