Who Walks Out, Alton or “Ace”?
Alton “Ace Capone” Coles is coming home.
One of the most notorious – and audacious – drug dealers in the Philadelphia underworld caught a break early this year when a federal judge ruled that his original sentence of life in prison was invalid. Based in part on the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, the judge ruled that resentencing was required. The act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, was designed to reduce the disparity in federal sentencing guidelines between convictions involving the sale and distribution of cocaine and convictions involving the sale and distribution of crack.
Coles was convicted in 2008 of heading a drug distribution network that authorities said dumped a ton of cocaine and a half ton of crack on the streets of Philadelphia from the mid-1990s through 2005.
Authorities charged that Coles, using a rap music recording company he headed called Take Down Records as a front, generated $25 million from the drug network.
Coles, arrested in 2005, has consistently denied the charges.
Authorities also linked at least two murders and several other acts of violence to the drug network. The case was based on a lengthy and detailed investigation by the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). But none of the acts of violence that were part of the probe were listed as criminal charges in the indictment of Coles. And that proved to be another factor in his favor at resentencing.
On Feb. 17, Judge Kai N. Scott, over the objection of federal prosecutors, resentenced Alton “Ace Capone” Coles to 25 years in prison. With more than 21 years already in and with an extensive record of “good time” during his incarceration, Coles was eligible for a quick release. (In fact, by the time this column is published, he may already be on the streets.)
Once the judge ruled, it wasn’t a matter of if, but when Coles would be set free. The more important question, however, is who comes home – the audacious drug kingpin who authorities said ran one of the most prolific cocaine and crack rings in the city’s history or the repentant and rehabilitated former barber from Darby, PA, who only wants a chance to make things right and put his life back together.
There is no immediate answer to that question. Time will tell. But the continuing story of Alton Coles – a saga that is as good as or better than any of the quick hit gangsta movies so popular on the cable networks – is a true story of the American underworld and the justice system designed to keep it in check.
Coles’ lawyer, Paul Hetznecker, argued in his appeal filings that his client has been an exemplary prisoner and “no longer poses a danger to the community.”
“The government argument that Mr. Coles should die in jail is contrary to criminal justice reform, societal norms and current law,” he wrote, adding that it “reeks of an almost obsessive and irrational quest for Alton Coles to die in prison.”
But federal prosectors, in a presentence filing, said a 25-year sentence would be a “miscarriage of justice” and said Coles was benefitting from a legalistic “windfall” that came with the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act two years after he had been convicted. Even under the new guidelines, they contended, Coles could be sentenced to life. They argued for a resentencing of 30 years or more.
Coles, they said, “led an armed and violent … gang that dumped a staggering amount” of cocaine and crack onto the streets of Philadelphia. He was, they said, “one of the largest drug traffickers ever prosecuted in this district.”
The two pictures of Alton Coles that emerged during the appeal process are a continuation of the Alton Coles/Ace Capone story.
Born in Darby, Coles, 48, grew up in a dysfunctional family setting, according to his own account, and was largely on his own by the time he was a teenager. He worked as a barber and drifted into the drug underworld, where he had at least two minor brushes with the law.
By the mid-1990s, he had emerged as a player in the rap music world of Philadelphia. His Take Down Records company had a stable of young rappers performing and recording for him.
Ironically – or audaciously – Coles and his artists often performed at stop the violence and anti-drug rallies sponsored by local radio stations. During these and other public events, Coles was photographed with some of the top officials in Philadelphia, including the mayor, district attorney and police commissioner.
Charismatic and highly entrepreneurial, Coles was a music industry impresario who appeared to be building an entertainment empire. His Friday night parties at the Palmer Social Club at 6th and Spring Garden Streets became one the “hot spots” in the city’s rap and hiphop world with crowds sometimes stretching down the street waiting to get in.
Coles, his bulky 240-pound frame lodged behind the steering wheel of his shiny blue Bentley, would often be seen driving around the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood where his record company was based. Dressed in vintage Philadelphia sports team jerseys or outerwear, he accessorized his wardrobe with lots of bling, including a necklace with a diamond-encrusted TD dangling across his chest.
Adopting the “Capone” nickname added to the image. There is no better-known underworld figure in America than Al Capone.
While the ATF was building its case against him, Coles moved easily in city political and social circles. Eventually, two of his associates would be charged with murders tied to the drug trade, but Coles was not implicated. His drug ring was also suspected of being part of what amounted to an underworld firefight in a Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood in which 54 shots were fired in less than two minutes. Again, Coles was not charged in connection with the shootout, which had residents ducking for cover inside their homes.
Nothing, however, captured the essence of Ace Capone better than a 31-minute video produced by Take Down Records entitled “New Jack City, the Next Generation.” In the video, Coles “stars” as a drug kingpin known as “Ace” who uses violence, fear and intimidation to take over a cocaine network in Southwest Philadelphia. Rap performers from Take Down Records provide the musical soundtrack for the video, which was filmed on the same Philadelphia streets where authorities said Coles’ drug network was, in fact, flooding the cocaine and crack market.
Art imitating life imitating art?
Coles clearly knew how to play the game while he was on the streets.
Cynics might argue that he did the same thing during his lengthy prison sentence. His appeal papers are replete with testimonials from prison officials about his life as a model inmate who took part in various rehabilitation and self-help programs and who often intervened to help avert violence among the inmate population.
During ten years at Big Sandy, the maximum-security prison in Kentucky, Coles worked as a barber, a “program facilitator” for other inmates and a director of a stop the violence program.
“Facing life in prison, he still engaged in programs to improve himself and others,” according to one prison report. Another noted that “at 48…Coles is a middle-aged man, an entirely different individual” than the man arrested more than 20 years ago.
Coles, in another appeals document, said if he is released, he wants to “advocate for and educate young men to help them make the right choices and never wind up in prison like me.”
The Fair Sentencing Act and his own stellar record as an inmate paved the way for his resentencing and release. The only question is whether the man who walks out of prison is Alton Coles or Ace Capone.
