Opinion ID: 2967649
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Count 22: The Chop Shop Count

Text: On the chop shop count, the jury was presented with ample evidence of Tri-City’s involvement through Najjar. Tri-City’s premises were the same as Clinton Auto Sales’ and they shared employees. There was testimony from George Perdue that he visited Tri-City numerous times in 1998 and it was full of cars and parts . . . a lot of high dollar parts and cars . . . so much stuff lying around. Further, there was testimony establishing that Tri-City’s premises were used for the storage, stripping, and rebuilding of stolen cars. For example, Roger Baylor testified that he and Najjar picked up the front clip from a red sports car and transported it back to Tri-City. Wright’s search of Perdue’s uncovered the front clip from a stolen red Acura NSX, which was being installed on a yellow Acura NSX salvage vehicle. After the search of Perdue’s, Najjar arranged for Baylor to move stolen parts from the red NSX stored at Tri-City and his home to Lee’s. A conversation between Jimmy Lee and Najjar recorded in November 1998 detailed Najjar’s plan to buy an additional red Acura NSX, cut it up, remove its VIN, and create backdated receipts to cover for the government’s discovery of the stolen parts. Najjar intended to forward these receipts to his attorney who would then forward them on to the government. This conversation took place at TriCity Auto Outlet. From this evidence, and that contained in the volu24 UNITED STATES v. NAJJAR minous record, the jury could easily have found Tri-City guilty of running a chop shop.