MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge sentenced two women connected to a convicted Mobile drug trafficker to lengthy prison terms Thursday, while the trafficker’s own sentencing was postponed after he told the court he had hired an attorney to represent him.
Glennie Antonio “Little Man” McGee, 42, had represented himself for months, including during his three-week trial in January, when he was convicted in connection with a drug trafficking conspiracy. On Thursday, McGee told U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer that he expected attorney Christine Hernandez to represent him at his sentencing hearing. Moorer told McGee that Hernandez’s staff had informed the court she was representing him on appeal, not at sentencing, prompting the judge to reschedule McGee’s sentencing hearing for Friday.
With McGee looking on from the courtroom, Moorer proceeded to sentence two of his relatives who were convicted in connection with the case.
McGee’s wife, Echandza Dianca Maxie, was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the drug conspiracy. Prosecutors said trial evidence showed Maxie was responsible for distributing hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and fentanyl, and Moorer said he viewed her as someone who was, in some ways, co-equal to her husband at the top of the organization rather than a minor participant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Roller told the court that trial evidence showed Maxie was intimately involved in her husband’s drug enterprise and that she once directed a minor nephew to help hide a gun before law enforcement arrived with a search warrant. Roller also said Maxie continued to obstruct the case after her arrest, using an alias to communicate with co-conspirators about who was cooperating with investigators and who was “standing firm.”
Speaking before she was sentenced, Maxie told the judge she felt she had been mistreated by allegations made during the case. She said she and McGee have four children together and that she was not living with him at the time of his arrest. She said she first learned details of her husband’s drug distribution operation after seeing news coverage of the 2024 arrest of Tierra Tocorra Hill, an arrest that authorities have said also led to the discovery of a 3-year-old boy wearing a backpack full of drugs at a stash house near Henry Aaron Park.
In addition to the drug conspiracy conviction, Maxie previously pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government by filing fraudulent tax returns and false applications for Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds tied to COVID-19 relief programs. Moorer imposed an additional 20-year concurrent sentence in the fraud case, along with two years for aggravated identity theft. He also fined Maxie $1 million and ordered her to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution.
Maxie’s defense attorney, Yancey Burnett, had argued his client played a minor role in the drug enterprise, but Moorer rejected that argument. Burnett said after the hearing that Maxie plans to appeal her conviction.
Moorer also sentenced McGee’s sister-in-law, Edeszann Dailene Maxie, to a prison term longer than what prosecutors had recommended. Edeszann Maxie pleaded guilty in January to two counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after admitting she filed false tax returns claiming pandemic-related sick and family leave tax credits, and that she fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds. Prosecutors said she used TurboTax and falsely claimed the taxpayers involved were filing their own returns.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Kopf told the court that co-conspirators took advantage of vulnerable, elderly and disabled victims, including one person who told investigators he paid $10,000 for the defendants to prepare his tax return. Edeszann Maxie’s attorney, Michael Pylant, argued that not everyone named in the case was purely a victim, noting that one person named in the plea agreement is a convicted felon. Edeszann Maxie apologized to the court before she was sentenced.
Update: McGee Also Sentenced to Life in Prison
McGee’s own sentencing hearing resumed Friday, and according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama, he was sentenced to life in prison for leading the drug-trafficking organization, which distributed hundreds of pounds of cocaine and tens of thousands of fentanyl pills between 2017 and 2024. The organization sourced cocaine from cartel-connected suppliers in Texas and Mexico, while counterfeit “M30” fentanyl pills came from multiple states. The court ordered McGee to pay $10 million in fines.
Evidence presented during the January trial included wiretap recordings, surveillance videos, text messages and financial records. Investigators documented the defendants using illegal proceeds to travel internationally to France, Greece, the Maldives, Mexico, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
A critical aspect of the investigation revealed the organization’s exploitation of children. Agents recorded McGee instructing young children, including an eight-year-old, to remove cocaine-filled backpacks from a stash house. In another instance, a 15-year-old delivered cocaine to McGee. After McGee’s arrest, Maxie directed a teenager to dispose of firearms before law enforcement could seize them.
U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello said in a statement: “For nearly a decade, Glennie McGee and Echandza Maxie led a drug-trafficking empire” that involved children “despicably.”
The Homeland Security Task Force, comprising agents from multiple federal agencies, conducted the investigation. Multiple co-defendants in the case received sentences ranging from 48 months to 240 months.