Member of Dorchester gang gets three years for drug dealing

The US Attorney's office reports a federal judge has sentenced David A Wood, 32, to three years in prison and three years probation for being caught selling crack and fentanyl to a buyer who was working for the FBI in the fall of 2019.

Wood had pleaded guilty in November to two counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, one count of distribution and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.

Both Wood's lawyer and the prosecutor agree this is the last chance Woods will have to avoid more trouble - and a seriously long sentence given a record that includes previous time in federal prison for illegal gun possession. That sentence got him extra time in prison for violating conditions of his parole after he was released, including being found in possession of six bags of heroin.

Once he is released from his present sentence, Wood will have to stay away from an area that stretches from Four Corners to Franklin Park roughly between Columbia Road and Erie Street - the turf of the Morse Street Gang, of which he was a member.

In their sentencing memoranda to the judge, attorneys on both sides agreed that three years would be enough time to both punish Wood and give him that last chance to turn around his life, which both sides said got off to a bad start with parents who frequently battled physically and a mother who punished him physically, once so severely he needed to be hospitalized. He was paced in foster care when he was 14 and started getting into trouble with the law.

"The present case results in a disappointing return to Federal Court," his attorney, Cara McNamara, wrote, adding, however:

The conduct involves selling small amounts of drugs to an informant, which is certainly not an insignificant crime, but is a marked change from a case involving violence or possession of a weapon. Mr. Wood understands that he is at a turning point. He is 32 years old. He is tired of being in and out of custody. The last year of time in custody during the pandemic has caused a shift in Mr. Wood’s mindset.

She wrote that while in custody at a federal lockup in Rhode Island, he held down a prison job and took classes to help him better deal with life.