Opinion ID: 353818
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Stolen Swift Meat and Dairy Products:

Text: 24 On October 19, 1973, a tractor-trailer load of swinging beef, pork, veal, and lamb, and boxes of butter and cheese was shipped from Nashville, Tennessee, aboard a Thompkins Motor Lines refrigerated trailer. The shipment was driven to a terminal in Decatur, Georgia, where it was parked temporarily. At some point over the next two days, the tractor and trailer were stolen by Milton Burnett and Bill Rainey. On October 24, the abandoned tractor was discovered near Forest Park, Georgia; the loaded trailer had been sold to J. C. in Macon. 25 The first problem confronting J. C. was where to store the large quantity of meat and dairy products that he had illicitly acquired. The stolen goods probably would have been kept at three nursing homes owned by Foster had it not been for a fortuitous series of events the month before. In September, 1973, Foster learned that the Georgia Bank was about to foreclose on his nursing homes in Sparta, Lumber City, and La Grange. To avoid losing the homes, Foster went into business with James Gunnells, who loaned him approximately $60,000. Foster, in turn, leased the homes to Gunnells, effective October 1, 1973. Consequently, before Foster could use the nursing homes for his own purposes, he had to secure Gunnells' permission. 26 On October 24, 1973, Foster and J. C. spoke to Gunnells in Foster's office. J. C. stated that he had a semi-truckload of swinging beef parked at a truck stop on Gray Highway and that he needed a place to store it. A deal that J. C. and Foster had on the meat had fallen through, and now they wanted Gunnells to release his leases on the nursing homes so that Foster could have access to their refrigeration units. Gunnells refused. J. C. told Gunnells that he was a goddamn fool and that, if he did not cooperate, he would lose $8,500 that he had loaned to Foster over the past two days. 6 Foster called Gunnells silly and explained that he could trust J. C. completely. At this point Foster related how he had paid J. C. and Recea Hawkins $4,500 to burn the Sparta nursing home in 1970. Finally, pressed by J. C. to come up with a place to put the meat, Gunnells suggested that they move the trailer to the farm of his friend, Howard Wooden. 27 That night, J. C. drove the tractor-trailer to Wooden's farm off Interstate Highway 75 near Perry, Georgia, south of Macon. There, J. C., Wooden, Gunnells, and Larry Estes tried unsuccessfully to back the trailer into Wooden's barn. At about 2:30 a. m. the next day, October 25, the four men drove the van to an open field adjoining I-75 farther south, and left it there for the night. After daybreak, J. C. and Estes drove the van back to Wooden's farm. With Wooden and Gunnells, they unloaded the stolen meat and dairy products into an old ice cream truck and a U-Haul van rented by J. C. that day in Macon. 28 On October 26, Estes drove the U-Haul van to a grocery store in Jeffersonville, Georgia, which was owned by Foster and had been closed for about one year. There he met Foster and Larry Hudson, a mechanic employed as Gunnells' general flunky. After Hudson, at Foster's request, turned on the store's old freezers, the three men began unloading the U-Haul van. At that point, a state patrol or local police car pulled up outside the store. Foster spoke to the officer, who soon left. Foster then told Estes and Hudson that he did not want the meat and cheese at his store, so they reloaded the van and drove to J. C.'s house in Macon, where they were able to fit some of the goods into an old chest-type freezer on J. C.'s back porch. The next day Foster told Gunnells that a law enforcement officer had caught him with the meat but that he, Foster, had out-talked him. T. 290. The remainder of the stolen meat, butter, and cheese was sold to the owner of a supermarket in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Paul Moose, Jr., at the request of Leon Averett. 7 29