Sixth former Alachua County Jail inmate sentenced for fraudulent voter registration

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Xavier Lavell Kevon Artis, 23, entered a plea of nolo contendere yesterday to willful voting by an unqualified elector and was sentenced to 13 months in state prison. The sentence will be served concurrently with his current 5-year sentence for a long list of charges including burglary, fraudulent use/possession of credit cards, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a controlled substance, and grand theft. His release date is in August 2024.

The maximum sentence for the charge is five years in prison.

Artis is the sixth to be sentenced of at least ten convicted felons who registered to vote in the summer of 2020 at the Alachua County Jail but were unqualified to vote for various reasons; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigation into the allegations found that Artis voted by mail in the 2020 General Election after pleading guilty to 14 felonies.

Dedrick Baldwin and Therris Conney were sentenced to 364 days in July, Daniel Roberts was sentenced in June to three years in state prison, and Arthur Lang was sentenced to 18 months in state prison a few days later, all on similar charges. Henry Shuler was sentenced to one year and seven days in August 2022.

Advertisement

Four defendants still have open cases:

  • Kelvin Bolton is out on bail and is awaiting trial;
  • John Boyd Rivers is out on bail and is scheduled for trial in April;
  • Leroy James Ross, Jr., is out on bail and is scheduled for trial in March;
  • Christopher T. Wiggins is in the Alachua County Jail awaiting trial.
11 Comments