ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 TAG: 9703260038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE THE ROANOKE TIMES
A lawyer said she needs to be protected because the DEA informant is a convicted killer.
A federal magistrate ordered Javier Cruz to stay away from his co-defendants, after one of them reported that the drug informant threatened to kill her after her arrest.
Wendy Gilchrist's attorney, Paul Beers, told U.S. Magistrate Glen Conrad on Tuesday that Cruz threatened to kill her in 1991 if she talked with authorities. Gilchrist, who is alleged to have driven cocaine shipments for Cruz, was indicted along with him and others in May 1991 on cocaine distribution charges.
Cruz went on to become an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was credited with helping the DEA launder $47 million for the Cali drug cartel during a money-laundering investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott told Conrad he had not heard about the death threat. At Conrad's request, DEA Senior Special Agent Don Lincoln interviewed Gilchrist about the allegation after her arraignment Tuesday morning.
Mott said later that Cruz's comment to Gilchrist apparently was made while they were in custody in Miami. Both were arrested in Florida in April 1991 in connection with the DEA's investigation of Cruz's cocaine business.
Conrad entered an order Tuesday afternoon requiring that Cruz "have absolutely no contact in any form" with Gilchrist, other co-defendants or potential government witnesses without supervision by an attorney or a court officer. That had not been a condition of his release when he made bond in 1992, and Mott called it "standard language for pre-trial supervision."
Beers pointed out that Cruz is a convicted killer. Cruz shot 25-year-old Mark Garrett in the back of the head during an argument in 1987 outside of Charlotte, N.C. He was allowed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter after becoming an informant. The DEA had sought to get the charge dismissed outright since Cruz was considered an important informant, according to the North Carolina prosecutor.
"He's got quite a record, and he's made a threat to kill my client," Beers said.
Cruz has been free on $100,000 unsecured bond since 1992 and has not been subject to supervision from federal probation officers, as is normally the case for defendants on bond.
"There wasn't pre-trial supervision because he was travelling to Colombia," Mott told Conrad.
Cruz is facing life imprisonment on drug smuggling charges, but was allowed to return to his native Colombia for several years to assist the DEA in its money-laundering sting. He was relocated out of Roanoke County last November after The Roanoke Times revealed that he was an informant.
Cruz ran a cocaine smuggling operation out of his used-car lot on Melrose Avenue Northwest in 1990 and '91. Gilchrist and several others are alleged to have been drivers who picked up and delivered cocaine for him across the country.
The case against Gilchrist and the other co-defendants has been on hold for six years, as Cruz worked for the DEA. The undercover sting is over, and the defendants are being brought to court. Cruz's ex-wife and two other co-defendants are scheduled to be arraigned today. Gilchrist pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy at her arraignment Tuesday.
Cruz is scheduled to be arraigned April 4. His attorney, Bill Cleaveland, did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
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