Opinion ID: 785776
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Kevin Miller's Transportation of Marijuana2

Text: 19
20 Kevin Miller testified that he met Gaskin in April 1999, when the two men were coincidentally traveling together by train from California to Chicago. Gaskin confided that he was in the marijuana business and that two of his couriers had recently been arrested in Illinois. Miller recommended Chicago lawyer Mustapha Muhammad and used Gaskin's cell phone to call Muhammad from the train. Gaskin's telephone records corroborated this call and also showed repeated calls at about the same time from the cell phone to defendant Castle. In Chicago, Gaskin and Miller met with Muhammad, after which Gaskin paid Miller $200 to visit Ruffin (which Miller did not do), before Gaskin boarded a train for Rochester. According to telephone records, Gaskin's first cell phone call upon arriving in Rochester was to Castle. 21
22 A few days later, when Miller arrived in Rochester, Gaskin offered to pay him $2,000 per trip to transport marijuana from San Diego. Miller testified that on his first trip, on April 29, 1999, he and Gaskin flew to Los Angeles where they picked up a Yukon truck and drove to San Diego. There, a supplier gave Gaskin two suitcases full of marijuana. Leaving the truck with the supplier, Gaskin and Miller returned to Rochester by train. At the Rochester station, Gaskin and Miller were met by a male in a black pickup truck — presumably Sammy — who retrieved the suitcases and drove away, leaving Gaskin and Miller to depart the station in Gaskin's sport utility vehicle. 23 Miller made a second trip to San Diego in May 1999. Once again, Gaskin flew with him to California, but while Miller transported the suitcases full of marijuana back to Rochester by train, Gaskin returned by air. Once again, the man in the pickup truck met Miller at the station and took the suitcases. 24
25 Miller's final trip for Gaskin began on June 8, 1999, in Phoenix. Gaskin had directed Miller to meet him in Phoenix because Gaskin was there finalizing arrangements for a separate marijuana shipment — subsequently transported by Theodore Shaw, see infra at Part I.C.1. Miller and Gaskin drove overnight from Phoenix to San Diego. There, at Gaskin's direction, Miller made travel reservations for Castle to fly to San Diego to bring Gaskin additional money to pay his California marijuana supplier. Miller testified that after Castle arrived in San Diego, he and Gaskin went out together, returning with a quantity of marijuana that they repackaged to fit inside a number of suitcases. As the three men were leaving the hotel with the suitcases, Gaskin introduced Miller to a woman named Julie, who he explained would also be acting as a courier. 26 Miller testified that he traveled by train with Julie and the suitcases full of marijuana as far as Emeryville, California. There, Miller left the train, caught a taxi to the San Francisco airport, and flew to Chicago. At trial, he explained these actions by saying he had personal things to attend to in Chicago. Trial Tr., Sept. 21, 2001, at 1570. A few days later, Miller went to the Chicago station to meet Julie's train, but neither she nor the suitcases were on board. When Miller reported these events to Gaskin, Gaskin accused him of stealing the marijuana and threatened to harm Miller's family. Miller threatened similar violent retaliation against Gaskin. Instead, Miller contacted Illinois law enforcement authorities and offered his cooperation against Gaskin. 27