President Biden Commutes Sentences of 2 Meth Dealers from Odessa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Biden has granted pardons for three individuals and commuted the sentences of 75 others for non-violent drug crimes including two men from Odessa.

Biden said, “Today, I am pardoning three people who have demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation and are striving every day to give back and contributed to their communities.

Mark Richard Burton and Aaron Ponce, both from Odessa, had sentences for dealing methamphetamine.

Burton was sentenced on March 16, 2016, to nearly an 11-year long sentence with 5-years of supervised release. His sentence will ends April 26, 2023 with the reminder under home confinement. Burton’s 5-year supervised release will remain.

Ponce, sentenced on July 11, 2013, will now end this year on August 24, 2022 with ten years supervised release.

The three individuals who received pardons are 86-year-old Abraham Bolden, 51-year-old Betty Jo Bogans, and 52-year-old Dexter Eugene Jackson.

Bolden was a Secret Service agent in 1964 and convicted of trying to sell his Secret Service file. Bogans was sentenced in 1998 for possession and intent to distribute crack cocaine. She attempted to transport the drug for her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s associate who were not arrested. Bogans had no previous record.

In 2002, Dexter Eugene Jackson was convicted when he allowed marijuana to be smuggled through his place of business. Jackson accepted total responsibility and has been released.