Opinion ID: 479808
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Lexington Hotel

Text: 5 The Lexington Hotel laboratory was discovered virtually intact by law enforcement officials because of a manufacturing accident. After a guest at the Lexington complained of a foul odor, a hotel employee tried to enter a room whose registered occupant was one Gary Ackerson, but was denied access by the room's occupants. Further guest complaints and the fear of a possible explosion caused the hotel management to call the fire department, and firemen entering Ackerson's hastily vacated room discovered in the bathroom apparatus that resembled a chemical still. San Antonio police were notified, and Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Agent Lee Phillips obtained a warrant to search the room, executing the warrant on January 7. 6 From the chemicals and equipment present, Agent Phillips and a DEA chemist concluded that the hotel bathroom had been the site of a working methamphetamine laboratory. Other miscellaneous evidence was found, including a scrap of paper bearing the words Ralph # 95 Yellow cab and a telephone number--without area code--labeled home. Although agents would later discover that Ralph Barrios, the owner of the Piper's Run house, was a San Antonio taxi driver with the same telephone number, the DEA apparently did not discover Barrios' involvement or identity through the Lexington Hotel search. At trial, however, both Ackerson and Barrios--arrested along with Comstock in the Piper's Run search--testified that the laboratory in the Lexington Hotel had been established and operated by Comstock.