Opinion ID: 1424
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Facts of the Underlying Conspiracy

Text: This conspiracy involved a fake shipment of drugs traveling from Texas to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Barnes, the mastermind of the conspiracy and the person who recruited Taylor, first learned of the fake shipment from Kurt Hunter. Hunter and Barnes had been providing each other with drugs on a regular basis for several months prior to April of 2006. However, Barnes was unaware that Hunter was working as a confidential informant for the government. On April 17, 2006, Hunter and Barnes met to develop a plan to steal a local dealer's stash of drugs. At that meeting, Hunter mentioned the fictional shipment of drugs that became the core of this conspiracy. Barnes became interested in stealing this fictional shipment rather than going forward with the original plan. On April 23, 2006, Hunter introduced Barnes and Alexander, Barnes's brother, to Agent Wayne Lessner, the undercover agent working with Hunter. Barnes and Alexander believed that Hunter and Agent Lessner were couriers for the drug shipment from Texas. Barnes met with Hunter and Agent Lessner once more that month to discuss the logistics of the heist. Agent Lessner recorded both meetings. During the first meeting with Agent Lessner, Barnes indicated that he had recruited several people to participate in the heist. Barnes told Hunter and Agent Lessner that one of the people he had recruited was a friend named MacMel. Several witnesses at trial testified that Taylor commonly went by the nicknames Mac, Mel, and MacMel. During these two meetings, Hunter and Agent Lessner intentionally never indicated the exact quantity of drugs that would be involved in the shipment because drug couriers would not normally know that information. Although Hunter and Agent Lessner never named an exact amount of drugs, the audiotapes of the meetings capture Barnes making various assumptions about the quantity of drugs involved, ranging from twenty-to-eighty kilograms. After the second meeting, Hunter and Agent Lessner stayed in contact with Barnes, updating him on the progress of the fictional drug shipment. Once it was determined that the heist would occur on May 5, 2006, the government, through Agent Lessner and Hunter, arranged for Barnes and his co-conspirators to stay in two hotel rooms under video surveillance at the Knights Inn in Fort Wayne, Indiana for the nights of May 3 and May 4, 2006. Between April 17, 2006, when he first learned of the fictional shipment, and May 3, 2006, when he traveled to Fort Wayne, Barnes compiled his team to carry out the heist. At trial, Hightower testified that Barnes recruited him to the conspiracy in April of 2006. Hightower testified that Barnes told him that the plan was to rob fifty kilograms of cocaine from a stash house in Fort Wayne with Taylor and two individuals recruited by Taylor. Brown and Armstead, two of the other co-conspirators, testified that Taylor recruited them in April of 2006. Armstead also testified that prior to going to Fort Wayne, he understood this to be a lifetime deal involving about forty kilograms of cocaine. On May 3, 2006, Barnes and Hightower traveled from Gary, Indiana to Fort Wayne to meet with Agent Lessner. At trial, there was conflicting testimony about what happened when they were leaving Gary. Barnes testified that they went directly to Fort Wayne. Hightower testified that they stopped at Taylor's house on their way out of Gary. According to Hightower, who claims to have stayed in the car while Barnes went into Taylor's house, Taylor came out of the house, got a bag out of his car, and gave the bag to Barnes. Barnes then gave the bag to Hightower. Inside the bag, Hightower saw a Keltec automatic rifle and a bulletproof vest. Hightower took an AK-47 from the car and put it into the bag. The next day, Taylor, Brown, and Armstead traveled from Gary to Fort Wayne. Brown testified that they discussed the plan to steal the load of drugs on the drive. When they arrived in Fort Wayne, they saw Barnes in his car at an intersection and followed him to the Knights Inn. After meeting Barnes at the Knights Inn, Taylor, Brown, and Armstead went to visit Taylor's uncle at the nearby Applebee's. Several hours later, Taylor, Brown, and Armstead returned to the Knights Inn and joined a meeting with Agent Lessner, Hightower, Alexander, and Barnes in one of the hotel rooms. The government introduced a videotape of this meeting at trial. During the meeting, Agent Lessner discussed the logistics of the shipment and how they would carry out the heist, but stopped short of mentioning the specific amount of drugs that would be involved. In response to a question from Alexander, Agent Lessner did tell the group that the drugs would be in the fuel tank and described the fuel tank as the size of the dresser in the room. The meeting lasted thirty minutes. The videotape shows Taylor sitting on the bed and participating in the meeting on three occasions: he commented on the type of truck that would be involved; he informed Barnes that Youngstown was in Ohio; and he described a person who would be involved in the heist and how he would be armed. On the morning of May 5, 2006, Agent Lessner called Barnes to tell him everything was ready. Barnes took the bag with the bulletproof vests and guns. Barnes and Hightower rode with Agent Lessner to the storage facility to pick up the van that they were planning to use in the heist. Taylor drove behind Agent Lessner's car with Armstead and Brown. Once they arrived at the storage facility, the group was arrested. The arresting officers found a .40-caliber handgun and three additional loaded magazines on Taylor.