SHERMAN, Texas — A federal judge sentenced Oklahoma City businesswoman Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin to 16 years in federal prison in a landmark case that marked the first time an aircraft trust company owner had been convicted of drug smuggling charges.
U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant said he “struggled” with the length of sentence to give Mercer-Erwin.
“It’s not an easy task… You basically lived two lives,” he told Mercer-Erwin as she stood before him.
Judge Mazzant said her character witnesses and lack of prior criminal history indicated she was a pillar of her community. Yet her other actions led jurors to find her guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and wire fraud.
“I’ve never had a case exactly like this,” the judge added.
Mercer-Erwin, 61, asked the judge to show “mercy and leniency.” She recounted how she recently had helped a fellow prisoner reconnect with her family.
She told Judge Mazzant that due to her age and inability to ever again work in the aircraft trust industry, she was “not a danger to anyone.”
“I believe there is still a lot I can offer the community,” she said. “I love this country and want to keep it safe.”
Prosecutors had requested a 25-year sentence, but Judge Mazzant said he could not go that high. Mercer-Erwin’s defense team had asked for three and a half years, but the judge said he could not go that low. Under federal guidelines, she could have received up to life in prison.
Eastern U.S. District Attorney Damien Diggs said the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence send a strong message.
“If you are a U.S. citizen, particularly a U.S. citizen who holds position of trust and you use that position of trust to violate the laws of the United States, then you will be held accountable,” Diggs said.
During the sentencing hearing Wednesday, prosecutor Heather Rattan said Mercer-Erwin violated trust in the banking system and aircraft industry while involved in crimes that went on for years.
She also said Mercer-Erwin showed little remorse and blamed others for her criminal problems. “She is smart and she is sophisticated,” Rattan said. “She refuses to take responsibility for anything.”
Supporters of Mercer-Erwin packed the courtroom, 18 months after the jury’s verdict. Many of them had testified on her behalf last week and had written letters of support. Several members of the jury also attended Wednesday’s sentencing.
The federal investigation and trial stemmed from a 2019 WFAA investigation into Mercer-Erwin’s company, Aircraft Guaranty Corp. WFAA found more than a thousand planes that had a registered address to two P.O. boxes in the tiny town of Onalaska, Texas -- which lacks an airport.
Under U.S. law, foreign nationals cannot get U.S. registration for their aircraft. However, the FAA allows foreign nationals to gain U.S. registration for their aircraft by transferring the title to a trust company.
By gaining U.S. registration, the planes of foreign owners obtain an N-number that allows them greater access and, arguably, less scrutiny within the U.S.
Mercer-Erwin admitted in a proffer statement in December 2020 that 10 of her planes had drug connections.
Two planes registered by Mercer-Erwin’s company were found in Central America in 2019 carrying a total of more than three tons of cocaine.
Mercer-Erwin’s sentencing hearing began last week. Defense attorneys repeatedly objected to the pre-sentencing report prepared by a federal probation officer. The judge denied most of the objections.
Her attorneys repeatedly argued that the four drug planes cited by federal prosecutors during the trial represented less than one percent of the planes registered by her company.
Besides the drug conspiracy counts, Mercer-Erwin was also convicted of money laundering and wire fraud in connection with a Ponzi scheme involving fake plane sales.
WFAA spoke with four of the jurors who sat on the jury.
The jurors said it became clear to them that Mercer-Erwin was a smart professional woman who chose to turn a blind eye to how the planes she registered were being used.
“She had a beach house. She had a Ranger Rover. She was very smart in what she knew to do, and the money was very nice,” the forewoman said. “We had some people that felt like, ‘Oh my goodness, she's a grandmother… and then we had other people who were like, ‘It walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. It's a duck.'"
The jurors said they were swayed by the prosecution’s evidence presented at trial that showed Mercer-Erwin was notified that one of her planes had been found with large quantities of drugs and then failed to notify law enforcement.
“If I had let my cousin borrow a plane or a whatever a car and I get a call that somebody's doing drugs. I mean, I would have immediately reported it to authorities and said what do I do?” said the jury forewoman.
The jurors also were impressed by the extraordinary parade of officials from Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras that testified in Mercer-Erwin’s case. The officials testified about how immediately after Mercer-Erwin’s indictment they saw a dramatic drop in drug flights in their countries, and they believed it was due to the indictment.
“How do you argue with these national officials who are fighting drugs within their own country?” the forewoman said.
During the trial, prosecutors also brought in two shackled prisoners -- a mid-level Sinaloa Cartel member and a pilot arrested for drug smuggling. That left an impression, too.
The former jurors said they also found the evidence – which included a “secret” ledger maintained by Mercer-Erwin and her alleged co-conspirator Federico Machado -- to be compelling. Prosecutors have tried to get Machado, who fled to Argentina, extradited to the United States.
The former jurors said they found the testimony by a forensic accountant impressive. The accountant told juror that more than $740 million flowed through Mercer-Erwin’s aircraft title company, with some of it involved in fraudulent plane sales.
“We pretty much agreed right from the start on the Ponzi scheme stuff,” said another juror. “That one was really easy.”
An accountant testified at the trial that Mercer-Erwin kept almost $5 million in escrow fees over four years and that another $75 million flowed to her alleged accomplice, Federico Machado, who remains a fugitive.
The jurors agreed that Mercer-Erwin did herself no favors when she took the stand. They said her testimony helped some jurors reach a guilty verdict on the drug charges.
“That didn’t serve her well,” the forewoman said.
But finding Mercer-Erwin guilty of drug smuggling wasn’t easy.
“I thought we were going to end up hung,” said one former juror. “It got very emotional.”
“There were a few people in tears,” a third former juror said.
The forewoman said they knew that they had to come to an agreement. So that’s why found her not guilty on one of the drug trafficking charges, as well as the export and registration counts.
“We were like we just can’t allow this,” the forewoman said. “We hope we got it right.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Mazzant said that one of the former jurors had written him a letter expressing “remorse” for having found her guilty on the drug counts.
During her sentencing hearings, Mercer-Erwin looked very different than the well-dressed woman in high heels taken away after their verdict. She was dressed in a prison jumpsuit and her hair had gone salt and pepper.
“She just looks beaten down,” one juror told WFAA.
Prosecutors had requested that Mercer-Erwin be ordered to pay restitution of $144 million from the Ponzi scheme. The defense argued that some, if not all, of the alleged victims in the Ponzi scheme were co-conspirators, and actually involved in it.
The judge agreed that it was odd that none of the alleged victims had come forward demanding restitution.
He said he would delay making any decision regarding restitution related to the Ponzi scheme.