Opinion ID: 773090
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 From early 1988 Albert Nelson (Nelson) operated a cocaine distribution conspiracy in the southeastern United States. See United States v. Nelson, No. 97- 4741 (4th Cir.1998) (Nelson II), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1197, 120 S.Ct. 1261, 146 L.Ed.2d 117 (2000); United States v. Nelson, No. 95-5706 (4th Cir.1996) (Nelson I). The Government obtained an indictment in October 1989 in Georgia against Nelson for conspiracy to distribute cocaine with intent to distribute. The charged conspiracy lasted from 1984 to 1989 and took place in Georgia, Florida, and elsewhere. Nelson pled guilty to this conspiracy charge in 1992 and was incarcerated for 58 months. See Nelson I. 3 In 1995 the Government indicted Nelson in South Carolina upon learning that Nelson had been involved in cocaine distribution in states not covered by the 1989 indictment. Throughout his trial and even after his conviction, Nelson claimed that the new indictment violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. See Nelson II. The trial court, upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, concluded that another prosecution was appropriate because of the multiple, independent conspiracies operated by Nelson in the different jurisdictions. See Nelson I. 4 In 1996, the Government charged another conspiracy against Nelson, Dickerson, Richard Williams (Williams), and two other defendants. The conspiracy charged covered late April 1988 to at least November 1991, but identified only one overarching conspiracy to distribute cocaine along the eastern seaboard. Testimony at trial, including that of the Government's key witness Williams, who had entered into a plea agreement, revealed the following additional information: 5 (1) Nelson was assisted in his criminal enterprise by Williams, who served as a courier in the cocaine distribution network. To facilitate Williams' deliveries, Nelson provided certain vehicles to Williams, in particular, a 1983 Cadillac Eldorado equipped with a secret compartment on the floorboard of the car. Beginning in late 1988, Williams delivered cocaine to Dickerson in Philadelphia. During one trip to Philadelphia in 1988, Dickerson accepted delivery of the cocaine at Williams' hotel. The arranged transaction took place after Dickerson arrived at the hotel, and the two men retrieved the cocaine from Williams' car in the hotel parking lot. Williams continued making cocaine deliveries to Dickerson regularly through the spring of 1990. 6 (2) After Nelson's March 1990 arrest following the October 1989 indictment, James Hanks assumed Nelson's responsibilities to manage the operations of the cocaine distribution conspiracy. Notwithstanding Nelson's arrest, Dickerson, Williams and Nelson financed the purchase of a house in Miami under the name Frank Dixon. Hanks then assisted Dickerson and Williams in paying the mortgage on the house, which served as Dickerson's residence during his visits to Miami. 7 (3) Williams was stopped by the police during one of his deliveries in Georgia in September 1991. Inside Williams' car they discovered a small amount of marijuana, just under $20,000 cash, and a telephone/address book belonging to Hanks. Responding to a call from a Georgia trooper about the Williams stop, DEA Special Agent Kenneth McLeod reviewed the items removed from Williams' car and photocopied Hanks' telephone book before returning it to Williams. 8 (4) Hanks died in October 1991, and his funeral was attended by Williams, Kirkland, and Dickerson. At some point during the funeral, the three men met to discuss the deliveries that remained to be made after Hanks' death. 9 (5) Although Mark Sears (Sears) had also worked as a courier for Nelson from 1987 to 1990, the Government introduced Sears to testify as to his relationship with Dickerson during the time period after the charged conspiracy had ended. After Hanks had taken over Nelson's operation, Sears operated his own cocaine distribution network. Sears supplied Dickerson with cocaine from mid-1993 to early 1994. In addition, Dickerson told Sears that the 1983 Cadillac Eldorado that had belonged to Nelson was now in Dickerson's possession. 10