Opinion ID: 353818
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: O False Apothecaries$:

Text: 35 With the exception of Foster, all defendants were implicated in a number of illegal drug transactions throughout the period covered by the indictment. We list those transactions chronologically. 36 1. 1971-72: Elliott Barters in Black Beauties: Early in 1971, Joe Fuchs, then a pharmacist in Macon, wished to have a screened enclosure built around his porch. According to Fuchs, James Elliott suggested that Joe Breland could do the work at a low price. He and Breland went to Fuchs' house, where Elliott negotiated a deal, requesting payment in amphetamine pills, popularly known as black beauties. Fuchs agreed, and the work was completed over the period of a year, during which time Fuchs gave the pills to Elliott and Breland in installments of 400. 10 37 2. 1972-73: Amphetamine Sales: In early 1972, shortly after their counterfeit title transactions commenced, Robert Delph began selling amphetamines to car thief Jim Green. Green recalled approximately six occasions on which he purchased 1,000 pills from Delph for $150. Kenneth Boyd, also a member of the car theft ring, accompanied Green to Delph's house during the first transaction, and later became a steady customer. For a period of eight months beginning in the summer of 1972, Boyd bought somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 pills from Delph at two week intervals. Boyd also purchased amphetamines from defendant Taylor in similar quantities at one month intervals for about one year, beginning in the summer of 1972. According to Boyd, both Delph and Taylor on several occasions identified their source of pills as J. C. Hawkins. Knowing that the pills supplied to him were not pharmaceutical, Boyd was concerned about their source because uniformity of quality was an important factor in their resale value. During one conversation, Boyd pressed Delph for details about his source of pills. Delph, who had been drinking, eventually stated that he had a truck that he was running for J. C. and that they was partners in the deal or some kind of operation or setup. T. 1275-76. 38 3. Winter 1973: The Jamaican Conspiracy: In November 1972, J. C. approached his friend Harry Randall in Macon about purchasing marihuana and amphetamines in Jamaica. Randall at the time owned a car rental business in Kingston, Jamaica. He contacted his Kingston associate, Dillon Barnes. Barnes flew to Macon where he, J. C. and Randall, after protracted negotiations, reached an agreement as to their general plan: Barnes would return to Kingston to set up the purchase of 300 pounds of marihuana and 200 pounds of amphetamine powder, Randall would then fly down to make the purchase and arrange for transportation to the United States; J. C. would pay for and distribute the drugs. By coincidence, during this period, J. C. and James Gunnells were interested in purchasing a piece of property in Macon owned by the Tweedles, a couple who lived in Jamaica. When Randall finally flew to Jamaica in January, 1973, to purchase the drugs, J. C. asked him to contact the Tweedles to negotiate the sale of their Macon property. J. C. arranged for Randall's trip to be paid for by Gunnells, who knew nothing of the drug conspiracy. Randall travelled to Jamaica, set up the deal and wired home for $1,500, which was sent by Western Union but never received by Randall. The drug deal fell through when Randall learned that the pilot he had recruited to fly the illicit goods back to Macon was an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration. 39 4. Spring 1973: The Canadian Conspiracy: During the spring of 1973, Delph and Taylor met with James Green to discuss a plan to bring large quantities of amphetamine powder and MDA into the United States from Canada. Delph and Taylor stated that they planned to travel to Canada where they knew a chemist who could supply the drugs, and asked Green to assist them in selling whatever they were able to bring back. Soon thereafter, Delph and Taylor drove to Canada and returned with powdered amphetamine and MDA which they sold to Green for $125 per ounce and which Green resold to a single individual for $150 per ounce. 40 5. Fall 1973: The Mexican Conspiracy: In late October or early November, 1973, William Maxwell Martin, who was peripherally involved in the car theft ring, was introduced to Taylor by Billy Royce Jackson, a member of the ring. After Jackson arranged to purchase a counterfeit certificate of title from Taylor, Martin asked Taylor if he would be interested in buying several tons of marihuana. Taylor stated that marihuana required too much space in transportation and asked if Martin could obtain heroin or cocaine, noting that others with whom he was involved had just got through purchasing an airplane for $102,000 to bring heroin to this country. T. 1196. Martin and Jackson, already planning to go to Mexico in search of marihuana, agreed to look for heroin and cocaine for Taylor. The two never reached Mexico, however; they were arrested en route in Laredo, Texas, on Dyer Act charges of transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines. After his arrest, Martin agreed to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Agency. From his hotel room in Laredo and in the presence of DEA agents, Martin called Taylor and stated that he was out of jail and in Mexico and that he could put a deal together as discussed. According to Martin, Taylor said that he was hoping that we could, that he wanted to do some checking, and for me to get back with him later. T. 1195. Martin, however, was unable to contact Taylor again. The single telephone call from Martin's hotel room went unrecorded due to a malfunction in the DEA's recording equipment. 41 6. 1973: Miscellaneous Drug Transactions: In addition to the major drug deals, successful and unsuccessful, of 1973, the evidence disclosed several minor, isolated drug transactions that year. In the spring of 1973, Joe Breland purchased a bottle of speed from J. C. at one of Foster's construction sites. At about the same time, J. C. invited Joe Fuchs to his house to rummage through his stash of illegally obtained prescription drugs. Fuchs noted that most of the drugs were normal prescription type medication with no street value and thus of no interest to him. J. C. explained that Scooter Herring had recently been through those drugs and had picked out what he wanted, so that only a few controlled drugs were left. 11 Fuchs found four to six bottles of Ritalin, a Schedule II controlled substance, which he bought from J. C. for $250. Additionally, Billy Royce Jackson recalled that sometime in 1973 he was given about 25 amphetamine pills by Delph. 42 7. 1974: MDA: Early in 1974, J. C. approached Larry Estes and offered to sell him MDA, explaining that he had two pounds on hand and needed some money. Estes promised to check at a local nightclub to see if he could find a buyer. Within a week, Estes called J. C. and stated that he had found someone interested in purchasing MDA. At J. C.'s suggestion, Estes went to Recea's motorcycle shop in Macon and told Recea that he could sell one ounce of MDA for $350. Recea told Estes to walk down the road for a while and that when he returned, the MDA would be under the front seat of a particular car parked outside the shop. After picking up the MDA in this manner, Estes returned to his apartment, where his potential buyer sampled the product and paid $350 for the tiny plastic bag of grayish-brown powder. Estes then delivered the money to Recea. Over the next two weeks, Estes made two more sales for Recea using the same procedure. On April 27, 1974, Macon police raided the apartment of Recea's estranged wife, Patricia Thomas, and seized approximately 364 grams of 245 trimethoxyamphetamine, a controlled substance similar to MDA. Although keys to the apartment were possessed by Recea Hawkins, Ricky Strozier and Patricia Thomas, the latter two denied any knowledge of the seized drugs. 12 43 8. 1976: Marihuana: In May, 1976, J. C. met with Bob Day, a pilot and an old friend. With Day's consent, the meeting was surreptitiously recorded by agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and relevant portions of the tape were admitted into evidence at the trial. At one point in this conversation, J. C. admitted to Day that three to five weeks earlier, we got 200 pounds of goddamn, jam-up good marihuana. Soon thereafter, J. C.'s narrative statement continued, J. C. and his unnamed compatriots purchased but returned another 200 pounds which were not as good. They then purchased 300 pounds of marihuana, which they sold within two weeks although it too was of low quality. T. 2210. 44 9. 1976: The Hawkins-Day Conspiracy: In April, 1976, J. C. met with Day and Kevin Sapp at Day's home in Dawson, Georgia, to discuss two criminal schemes, one of which involved a marihuana deal J. C. claimed to be working on in New Mexico. At the meeting, J. C. offered Day $10 per pound to fly a minimum of 500 pounds of marihuana from New Mexico to Georgia. The next month, Day, wired for sound, visited J. C. in Macon to discuss their plans. J. C. raised the possibility of importing a large quantity of marihuana from Colombia, South America, by ship because the quality right now in Mexico is lousy. If Day knew of a ship that was available, J. C. stated, he had someone willing to invest over a million dollars. As for airplanes, I done blowed three or four years' salary in the last three or four years fucking with them airplanes. Almost everyone that's come from down there has got caught, has got jumped. When Day described a shrimp boat for sale, J. C. replied that such a boat is not big enough to haul what I'm talking about, 50,000 pounds. J. Epilogue: The Bravo Plot: 45 Months after he knew that a federal grand jury was hot on his trail, J. C. continued to devise criminal money-making schemes, as his tape recorded conversation with Bob Day reveals. In addition to marihuana deals, J. C. planned to burglarize the Triangle Chemical Company in Macon and steal approximately 2,000 five gallon cans of Bravo, a fungicide used to dust crops during the summer months. In April, 1976, J. C. solicited the help of Day and Kevin Sapp in this endeavor, the details of which were discussed the following month in the taped conversation between J. C. and Day. J. C. stated that he already had the trucks necessary to carry the 60 pound chemical drums a tractor-trailer and two six-wheelers. He then outlined a plan to assure that the eventual buyer would be unaware of J. C.'s and Kevin Sapp's involvement and that Sapp, apparently an employee of Triangle, would be unaware of the identity of the buyer. 46 J. C.'s modus operandi, as reflected in this arrangement, was based on the mistaken notion that a person could not be convicted on the basis of only one co-conspirator's testimony. 13 J. C. thus assumed and often advised others that he would be sheltered from liability if he could deal with only one other person at each phase of a particular transaction. His explanation to Day is illustrative: 47 HAWKINS: They won't never be more than two people together on your end of it. So you and the guy you deal, you and me. 48 DAY: I'd just rather deal with you . . . 49 HAWKINS: You go deal with your man by yourself and you tell him what you want him to know. 50 DAY: That's right. You just don't tell Calvin (sic) that I was nowhere around or nothing. 51 HAWKINS: Naw, but he'll know in his own mind that you DAY: I think he will too, but 52 HAWKINS: That don't mean nothing. Even in court if he said you was, that's nothing. Your word's as good as his. T. 2234. 53 As for his own liability, J. C. told Day that the buyer can pay you direct and you can pay me, and you'll never see anybody else. That's my word against yours . . . That don't even bother me . . . One on one ain't worth a shit. 14 T. 2226.