Opinion ID: 691307
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Evidence Admitted

Text: 14 The evidence at issue involved a methamphetamine deal arranged jointly by Campbell and Khalifeh Abujudeh. A former co-conspirator of Campbell's, Abujudeh was, during the period of the methamphetamine transaction, acting as a government informant subsequent to his arrest. In this role, he was instructed to arrange a drug transaction with Campbell, to make recordings of his dealings with Campbell, and to arrange that the final sale be made to a government agent. Accordingly, when Campbell indicated he was associated with a meth lab and asked if Abujudeh ha[d] anybody that might be interested in buying it, Tr. at 3688-89, Abujudeh told Campbell that he would, indeed, be able to sell some methamphetamine if Campbell acquired it. 15 In several phone calls over the next month, Abujudeh prodded Campbell to come to San Clemente and complete this deal, telling Campbell he was broke and needed money for his attorney. Tr. at 3693 (tape of conversation in which Abujudeh says, You know what's up. Gotta get paid, Soup [Campbell], gotta get paid. So what's the status, man?); Tr. at 4425 (Abujudeh recalls at several different times, either myself or Mr. Campbell brought up the ongoing story about my attorney and the fact that we were both broke at the time, and this is part of the reason that Mr. Campbell was doing the whole thing with the ephedrine and speed is he also needed money). Subsequently, Campbell put[ ] together an ephedrine deal with a guy by the name of Nathan Everhardt, who was in Florida. Tr. at 3822. Campbell and Abujudeh jointly wired money to Everhardt via Western Union, Tr. at 3812, and [a]bout that time it was decided that [Everhardt] would send three boxes of ephedrine to Dennis Mitchell's house. Paul sent Dennis home to go receive the ephedrine, Tr. at 3822. 16 This purchase of the ephedrine was the first step in a two-step process. After Mitchell returned with the ephedrine, the two men needed to complete the second step--exchanging the ephedrine, a precursor to methamphetamine, for actual methamphetamine. Tr. at 3906. Both Abujudeh and Campbell negotiated with their own sources to consummate this second step. Campbell's source fell through and the exchange was ultimately made with Abujudeh's source, Mike Lancelotti. 1 When less ephedrine than expected arrived, Campbell renegotiated the ephedrine-methamphetamine swap with Lancelotti. Tr. at 3907-09. Under the final deal, Campbell agreed to give Lancelotti the ephedrine in exchange for $5000 and one pound of methamphetamine. See id. 17 Mitchell then drove the ephedrine to Sacramento and made the exchange with Lancelotti. Tr. at 3910. He returned to San Clemente with the money and methamphetamine, which he gave to Campbell. Tr. at 3964. Abujudeh and Campbell then arranged to send Mitchell to sell the methamphetamine to Abujudeh's buyer, the undercover officer. See id. Mitchell returned with $10,000, which he gave to Campbell, who, in turn, gave $5,500 to Abujudeh. Tr. at 3980. 18