THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040368
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
Six members of an interstate drug gang that dealt up to $500 million in crack cocaine and allegedly killed or maimed seven people along the East Coast were found guilty in federal court Wednesday of drug conspiracy charges.
All six, including kingpin Samuel B. Kelly, face a maximum of life in prison without parole when they are sentenced in July and August.
Two alleged members of the gang were acquitted. James Cousins, a customer who allegedly bought enough crack to make him a distributor, was released from custody after the verdict. Alfred Cleveland, whom prosecutors called the gang's boss in North and South Carolina, was not freed because he faces charges in Ohio.
``This is probably the largest drug case ever prosecuted in the Eastern District of Virginia,'' prosecutor Laura Tayman told the jury Friday in her closing arguments. ``The amount of drugs, the levels of violence, the levels of sophistication . . . It's an extremely important case for the United States.''
At times, the government's portrait of the gang seemed overwhelming. The trial lasted three weeks, and jurors deliberated 2 1/2 days. They waded through 70 jury instructions and the testimony of 56 government witnesses, only two of whom were not jailed gang members hoping for sentence reductions in exchange for testimony.
The witnesses included a three-time murderer, an admitted rapist and a drug courier charged with bank fraud after walking into a New York bank and trying to cash a bogus check for $1 million.
Prosecutors painted a picture of a cut-throat organization that dumped half-a-billion dollar's worth of cocaine into Hampton Roads and Richmond; a gang organized as a business, paying salaries to employees, opening retail outlets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington.
Police said the gang was probably the most sophisticated drug organization in terms of technology and corporate-style management ever prosecuted locally. Yet the gang was also a family affair, made of cousins, siblings, in-laws and childhood chums - many eventually testifying against each other to save themselves.
``We were like a family,'' testified Anthony ``Pretty'' Moore, one of the prosecution's main witnesses. ``We lived together, ate together, did everything together.''
On Dec. 2, 21 gang members were indicted, all charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. When the case went to trial, most had made plea agreements with the government, hoping to receive hefty sentence reductions.
That left eight defendants, including Kelly, manager of the Richmond branch and one of the gang's three leaders. Kelly's fellow ``partners,'' Robert B. Gillins and Paul Ebanks, testified for the government.
On Wednesday, Kelly was found guilty of running a continuing criminal enterprise and laundering money. He was found not guilty of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.
The remaining five defendants convicted Wednesday were minor players. Defense attorneys tried to show that the government's case against them was mainly guilt by association. They were:
John Austin Edwards, Cleveland's right-hand man in the Carolinas, who was implicated in a drug-related shooting in Ohio.
Jeffrey Maillard, who ran the Philadelphia branch.
Camille Ford, a courier.
Anthony Merrick, Kelly's courier and bodyguard in Richmond.
Morris Hayes, an admitted addict who sold drugs for Kelly.
According to court records and testimony, the gang's drug sales, violence and money-laundering occurred since 1989 in Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Richmond.
Police said gang members moved drugs from Miami and New York to Richmond, then to the Peninsula, where they virtually controlled the drug market. The gang also was linked to four murders since 1990 in Norfolk, Newport News, Philadelphia and Lorain, Ohio.
Profits were laundered through a pest-control business in Queens, N.Y., owned by Kelly's sister, prosecutors said. In the end, the sister testified against her brother.
The gang members loved technology. One gang car, a BMW, had a switch installed allowing the driver to shine an intense beam of light on the rear license plate, blinding drivers in pursuing cars. One car had an air bag where cash and drugs were stashed. A fleet of cars used to smuggle drugs and money was equipped with electronically controlled hidden compartments.
The business was started in the spring or early summer of 1989 when Gillins, Ebanks and another man traveled to the Peninsula from Queens to establish a distribution network, records show. By June, sales were conducted from a Days Inn near Hampton Coliseum.
By January 1994, the gang was selling at least 5 to 15 kilograms of cocaine a week. Police believe the gang distributed a wholesale total of $122.8 million in crack. That translated to nearly a half-billion dollars in retail sales, police said.
The trial was marked by odd twists. It had to be continued once when Edwards' first lawyer dropped out at the last minute. At one point, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith halted proceedings when she learned Gillins may have intimidated witnesses from his jail cell.
The government got one of its major breaks in January 1994 when a courier, William Lisby, surrendered to federal agents in Miami after learning that Gillins wanted him killed. In September, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He testified that he thought that the more people he got convicted, the more time he would get knocked off the 15 years.
``What is the government's case?'' said Robert Frank, Kelly's attorney. ``Smoke and mirrors. Where are the millions and millions of dollars that the conspiracy allegedly made? Where are the lifestyles?
``These witnesses all have plea and immunity agreements. If the government doesn't like what they say, then they don't get'' sentence reductions, Frank said. ``They all have a motive to lie.''
If anything, the lawyers argued, some of the defendants were dealers who engaged in smaller conspiracies, and not the huge one portrayed by the government. Smith instructed the jurors that they could not find the defendants guilty of the larger conspiracy if the evidence only showed they were guilty of smaller ones not linked to gang.
But prosecutors argued that under federal law, the defendants could be found guilty of the entire conspiracy if they engaged in even a single part of it.
The link was Gillins, they said; all the players were tied to him. Yet Gillins, the kingpin, could be sentenced to fewer years than the minor players because he testified against his former friends, relatives, and employees. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Kingpin Samuel B. Kelly...
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARREST DRUG KINGPIN CONVICTION TRIAL by CNB