Opinion ID: 709030
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gerald Hopkins

Text: 30 Jerry Lewis called Gerald Hopkins my little hitman, Tr. vol. 28 at 218, and the evidence supports Lewis's conclusion. Earl Parnell testified that both he and Hopkins were involved in the 1985 murder of a deputy sheriff. The deputy, Antar Tiari, was attempting to evict Jerry Lewis and the MSTA from its rented space in St. Louis, the same space from which the JLO conducted operations. Hopkins and Jerry Lewis, dressed in army fatigues, met with Parnell and Noble Bennett to plan the murder at Bennett's brother's auto shop. Lewis, Hopkins, Parnell, and Bennett returned to the auto shop after the murder, and Parnell testified that Hopkins said, I shot that [expletive omitted]. Every time I hit him, he just jumped around and danced like this. Tr. vol. 28 at 218. 31 Rudy Weaver testified that Hopkins participated in the planning of the 1987 killing of Harold Count Johnson, a rival drug dealer, and Ronnie Thomas testified that Hopkins helped to plan the 1988 killing of Ronald Anderson. Hopkins also generally was present at the JLO's information-sharing meetings. 32 Ronnie Thomas also testified that Hopkins participated in the JLO's March 28, 1988 surveillance of Billy Patton, a rival drug dealer who was eventually killed. Andrea Patton, Billy Patton's niece, was rendered a quadriplegic when the car she was driving was riddled with bullets. She had left her uncle's apartment in the car, and both Thomas and Michael Lewis testified that JLO members shot at the car in the mistaken belief that Billy Patton was inside. Lewis testified that Hopkins fired the shots. 33 The evidence of Hopkins's involvement in the JLO's drug trade is also extensive. Michael Lewis explained that the feud between the JLO and Billy Patton's organization stemmed from Hopkins's dealing of Lewis-supplied cocaine in the same area in which Patton was distributing cocaine. Hopkins apparently was undercutting Patton's prices. When Rudy Weaver returned to drug dealing in St. Louis, Hopkins and Jerry Lewis met with him at a Ponderosa restaurant and agreed to supply him with cocaine. Weaver later picked up cocaine from Hopkins at a convenience store managed by Hopkins. Additionally, the jury found that the government had proven, through the testimony of law enforcement officers and others, that Hopkins had possessed cocaine with the intent to distribute on June 28, 1987, and May 3, 1988. The jury also found that he had possessed cocaine on February 28, 1988, and April 25, 1988. The record supports the jury's findings on all of these charges. Thus Hopkins's argument that the government failed to prove that he had knowledge of the JLO's activities is specious.