Opinion ID: 223154
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Co-Conspirator Niegel Smith’s Testimony

Text: The government next called Niegel Smith to testify. Smith admitted that he was convicted of several crimes arising from this August 25, 2009 incident. Smith described the roles of each co-conspirator. The Twin Oil employee would give information on what the courier looked like, the courier’s routes, and how much money the courier would be carrying. Richitelli would perform surveillance. Wainwright would drive. Smith would take the courier’s money and vehicle. Smith had information about the courier from both his own observations and from Richitelli. The co-conspirators expected to steal anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000. They expected the robbery take to be larger because school was in session. Richitelli provided Smith with a piece of paper from Twin Oil listing all of the courier’s stops. The Pembroke station was the final stop on the courier’s route (the University station was the second-to-last stop). Smith testified that a Twin Oil employee—a dispatcher—helped plan the robbery because the employee was indebted to Richitelli and his brother “for money and other things.” 12 Richitelli, who conducted surveillance, was to call Smith and Wainwright on their cell phones when the courier departed his second-to-last stop (the University station). On August 25, 2009, Richitelli watched the second-to-last Sunoco station from the Chevron station diagonally across the intersection of Taft Street and University Drive. Smith knew this because he and Wainwright drove past Richitelli that morning. When they drove past Richitelli, Smith saw the courier pumping gas at the second-to-last station. As Smith and Wainwright headed from the second-to-last station (the University station) back to the vicinity of the final station (the Pembroke station), Wainwright received a call from Richitelli to let him know the courier had arrived at the second-to-last station. Smith and Wainwright then proceeded to a neighborhood in the general vicinity of the Pembroke station to await a phone call from Richitelli telling them that the courier was en route. Smith believed the neighborhood they stopped in was in the vicinity of 72nd Avenue. While Wainwright and Smith awaited the call from Richitelli, they parked illegally on the sidewalk and rolled a marijuana cigarette, but were never able to smoke it. They were roughly a five-minute drive from the Pembroke station, which they could not see from where they parked. 13 Smith, Wainwright, and Richitelli had formed three different plans for the robbery. After describing the three plans, Smith stated that he and his coconspirators decided to choose their plan based on developments the day of the robbery. The robbery was not necessarily going to take place on August 25, 2009, and could have been aborted depending on what was happening around the last gas station (the Pembroke station) that morning. Because of information provided by Richitelli, Smith knew that the courier drove his route every Tuesday and Friday. Smith showed the court where he and his co-conspirators planned to take the courier’s car to empty it of the stolen money. Smith described the surveillance he and his co-conspirators performed on August 21, 2009. That morning, Wainwright and Smith scouted the area around the last gas station on Cherico’s route (the Pembroke station), while Richitelli watched the second-to-last gas station (the University station). The trio communicated via cell phone. Smith believed Richitelli had planned the robbery since November 2008, but he was not brought in to participate until mid-August 2009. Smith did not wear the gloves Detective Soubasis saw for a paint job. He wore two sets of clothing to the robbery so that he could discard one and “change [his] description.” 14 Smith obtained “through Jay Richitelli” the .40 caliber Beretta pistol he planned to use during the robbery. Wainwright put the gun into the Volkswagen the morning of the robbery. Smith admitted, however, that when he was arrested, he told the officers Richitelli put the gun in the car. The morning of August 25, Wainwright told Smith the gun was in the car. Between 7:00 and 7:15 a.m., Smith and Wainwright left Richitelli’s house and were behind schedule due to Wainwright’s tardiness. Smith and Richitelli each called Wainwright’s phone between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. to make sure he was awake. Smith and Wainwright had planned to use a different car that morning, but abandoned that plan because the other car was not in running order. While Smith and Wainwright were parked illegally in the area where Detective Soubasis observed them, they received a phone call from Richitelli alerting them that the courier was on his way to the Pembroke station (the last pick-up station). At that time, Smith put the gloves on his hands to prepare for the robbery. Smith put his hands down twice after Soubasis directed him to keep them in the air, once to take off and hide his gloves, and once to answer a phone call from Richitelli. When Soubasis questioned him, Smith initially stated that he and Wainwright were in the area to perform a paint job. Smith lied so that he would not contradict Wainwright’s story. 15 After Detective Soubasis questioned Wainwright, Soubasis told Smith that Wainwright said he and Smith were in the area to rob a drug dealer, a story Smith then adopted as his own. Smith told the arresting officers that he could take them to the drug dealer’s house, but then told them the truth about the planned Sunoco robbery. Smith told the truth because, despite his desire not to contradict Wainwright, he did not want to waste the officers’ time by having them look for a drug dealer’s house that did not exist. Smith described his and his coconspirators’ plan to “rob [the courier] of his money and take his car and leave the area.” After Smith was arrested and taken to the Pembroke Pines police station, he agreed to aid the investigation by placing a recorded call to Richitelli. Richitelli was arrested based on this call. Smith confirmed that both Wainwright and Richitelli were aware of, and involved in, the attempted armed robbery of the courier on August 25, 2009. Smith admitted that he was convicted of numerous prior felonies. Smith was testifying in hopes of helping himself and getting a sentence reduction, but was not promised a particular sentence in exchange for his testimony. On cross-examination, Smith testified that (1) Richitelli, not Wainwright, had been planning the robbery since November 2008, and (2) Richitelli had the 16 Twin Oil contact and provided the courier’s route information. In his post-arrest statement, Smith indicated that (1) Richitelli put the gun in the car the morning of the robbery and (2) Smith was there to “case” the robbery, but that he would do the robbery that day if conditions permitted. On redirect examination, Smith reconfirmed that he had planned to commit the robbery on August 25, 2009 if conditions permitted.