Opinion ID: 776966
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The October 1998 Incident (Count One)

Text: 10 On the morning of October 5, 1998, Investigators Tullis and Brown from the Atlanta Police Department Gang Unit went to Lakewood Village Apartments in an undercover capacity. The investigators drove into the apartment complex in an undercover vehicle, and were approached by several males who offered to sell them marijuana and crack cocaine. One of the individuals who was present but did not participate in the sale was Clifford Timmons. 11 The officers also agreed to purchase a handgun later that day from two men, Shorty and Black. While attempting to purchase the gun, a situation developed between the undercover officers and the gun sellers. At this point, Timmons approached and diffused the situation by taking the handgun from the individuals and removing the clip and all the bullets from the gun. He then gave the clip to the officers, received the money and gave them the gun. Shortly after completing this gun sale, Timmons offered to sell the undercover officers another handgun with a laser sight for $300. The officers and Timmons agreed to do future business and Timmons gave the officers his beeper number and code. 12 On October 23, 1998, during a subsequent recorded telephone conversation, Timmons again offered to sell the undercover officers a handgun with a laser sight for $300. The portion of the transcript of the October 23, 1998 sale of the gun reads: 13 Officer R. Tullis: You got something? 14 Clifford Timmons: Yeah I got something. 15 Tullis: Hey, uh, you got that, uh, laser? 16 Timmons: Yeah I still got it. 17 Tullis: You still got it? 18 Timmons: Yeah. 19 Tullis: You wanna get rid of it today? 20 Timmons: Yeah I'll get rid of it today. 21 R4-29 at 1. 22 Timmons claims that he did not explicitly discuss the sale of drugs on October 5, 1998. The Government points out, however, that Timmons was not surprised when the undercover officers asked about getting two slabs ($200 worth of drugs) during their phone conversation of October 23, 1998. The relevant portion of the transcript from that conversation reads: 23 Officer R. Tullis: Okay, what about, uh, that breakdown we, we discussed? 24 Clifford Timmons: The breakdown? 25 Tullis: Yeah. 26 Timmons: Yeah I got that too. 27 Tullis: Uh, cause uh myself and my partner we got like two ... 28 Timmons: Uh-uh. 29 Tullis: ... that the wanna, we wanna try to get like uh two, you can't give us two slabs? 30 Timmons: Yeah I can get for you. 31 R4-28 at 2. 32 The sale as negotiated was completed later that day after Officer Tullis met Timmons in the quad area of Lakewood Apartments. Timmons approached the car and handed the investigator a shoe box containing a Lorcin pistol and 2.3 grams of crack cocaine. The officers handed Timmons the $300 for the pistol and then $200 for the crack cocaine. The officers drove off after completing the sale.