New Orleans trumpeter to be sentenced in charity fraud

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A musician who became a symbol of New Orleans’ resilience after Hurricane Katrina faces up to five years in prison for fraud. Trumpet player Irvin Mayfield’s musical partner — pianist Ronald Markham — also could get five years in federal court Wednesday. Both men pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit fraud. Prosecutors say the two steered more than $1.3 million from the New Orleans Public Library Foundation to themselves. Mayfield was among musicians who took a high-profile role in promoting New Orleans after the levee failures and catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.