Facing no less than 15 years, and the very real possibility of a life sentence, 56-year-old John Melvin Walker was sentenced yesterday to 22 years in federal prison stemming from a guilty verdict on charges of tax evasion and drug trafficking.
On April 1st of this year, Walker plead guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute marijuana and maintain a “drug-involved premises”, along with a 2nd count of tax evasion. Walker, who had two prior felony drug-related convictions in the State courts, was the owner of nine lucrative medical marijuana dispensaries strewn across Los Angeles and Orange Counties – a largely cash-and-carry business network that Walker admits bagged him over $25 million in his six years in operation.