Opinion ID: 1122547
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant's methamphetamine manufacturing activity, and his relationship to the victims

Text: Greg Rambo's surviving spouse, Susan Rambo (who was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony), provided important testimony regarding the principal elements of the prosecution's case. She described defendant's methamphetamine manufacturing activity, which began during the summer of 1984 in a small trailer located behind the Shandon residence that she shared with her husband, Greg Rambo. The trailer was located unobtrusively amidst dog kennels and old, discarded automobiles. The rural, unassuming setting was well suited to the covert operation of a methamphetamine laboratory. Defendant had met the Rambos through a mutual acquaintance, Larry Tom Whittington. The participants in the drug operation maintained well-defined roles. Susan Rambo served as a lookout. Defendant was the cook, the person who mixed the chemicals to prepare the methamphetamine (a product that also was referred to by certain witnesses as speed or crank.) Larry Tom Whittington financed the trailer laboratory, provided necessary supplies, and sold the finished product. Greg Rambo cleaned up after the cook and also served as a lookout. According to Susan Rambo, Whittington paid her husband, in cash and with methamphetamine, for the use of the trailer. According to numerous witnesses, defendant frequently freebased (i.e., smoked) cocaine. His profit in manufacturing methamphetamine consisted chiefly of a ready supply of cocaine from Larry Tom Whittington. According to Susan Rambo, Whittington would supply the cocaine for [defendant], deduct what they owed him for the cook ... and gave [defendant] money when he needed it. Susan Rambo testified that defendant prepared his first batch of methamphetamine in the trailer laboratory in August 1984, and prepared four to six subsequent batches that year. Each batch required two to three days to prepare, during which time, according to her, defendant stayed awake, smoking his cocaine pipe. She said defendant freebased cocaine frequently, regardless whether he was manufacturing methamphetamine, and rarely was without cocaine for more than four or five days, when Larry Tom Whittington would replenish defendant's supply. Larry Tom Whittington, testifying on cross-examination, substantially confirmed Susan Rambo's account of defendant's work habits and cocaine usage, stating that defendant stayed awake throughout each multi-day cook, and that defendant consumed a couple of ounces [of cocaine] a week, at least, an expense that, according to Whittington's estimate, cost defendant approximately $4,000 each week. Harlyn Codd testified (on cross-examination) that defendant could put away an ounce of coke freebasing a day if he had it with him. [3] Linda Rich, a friend of Maureen Bautista, testified that in the year preceding Bautista's murder, Bautista and defendant had a stormy relationship, punctuated with numerous arguments. She recalled one such quarrel, in April or May of 1984, in which she went to the door of the Bautistas' apartment (which was open, although the screen door was closed), heard the sound of dishes breaking, and observed that a telephone had been pulled out. On cross-examination, Rich acknowledged that defendant had been kind to Telesforo and had purchased gifts for him, but also that defendant freebased cocaine in the boy's presence. At the end of August or the beginning of September of 1984, the Bautistas joined defendant, Larry Tom Whittington, and Harlyn Codd on a fishing trip at Lake Isabella. Codd overheard an argument between Maureen Bautista and defendant, in which defendant threatened to kill Maureen because she planned to snitch (on the drug operation participants) to Eddie Nash whom, according to Susan Rambo, defendant considered to be his enemy. [4] Susan Rambo testified that Codd had told her Nash was Telesforo's father; also, that Nash once had paid defendant to fulfill a contract but that defendant had failed to perform and, as a result, Nash was looking for defendant.