ATHENS – A North Carolina man with a violent criminal history has been convicted by a federal jury on charges related to armed heroin trafficking in the Athens community.
Nathaniel Hilliard III, 37, of Raleigh, N.C., was found guilty of one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, three counts of distribution of heroin and one count of failure to appear following a three-day trial that began on Feb. 7 before U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal. Hilliard faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of distribution of heroin and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for both possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and failure to appear.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, local and federal agents were investigating armed drug trafficking in the Athens community in May 2016. Hilliard sold an FBI confidential informant a .38 special revolver and several small quantities of heroin between May 23-25, 2016, at the Rolling Ridge Apartments in Athens.
All of the buys were audio and video recorded, and one occurred in the presence of what appeared to be a preschool-aged child. Hilliard has prior convictions for conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon and assault by strangulation out of North Carolina.
While on pretrial release, Hilliard was living in North Carolina and being supervised by a U.S. Probation Officer in the Western District of North Carolina. On April 7, 2022, Hilliard’s P.O. advised him to make sure he appeared in court for his pretrial conference in Athens on April 13, 2022, but Hilliard was uncooperative and did not show up to a requested meeting with his P.O. the next day.
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