After four full days of testimony in federal District Court this week, prosecutors rested their case Thursday against twice-convicted drug trafficker Gelean Mark and V.I. Police Sgt. Jerome Blyden, who could face life in prison if convicted of all the federal racketeering charges and the attempted murder charge now stacked against them.
Defense attorney Mark Hodge also concluded Gelean Mark’s defense late Thursday, leaving Blyden attorney Treston Moore to call two or three witnesses Friday morning before the case goes to the jury for deliberation.
Prosecutors say Mark and Blyden conspired to run what the government indictment calls “The Enterprise,” a criminal racket based on St. Thomas that engaged in local and international cocaine distribution, dog fighting and gambling, and that used violence to protect the members and their interests.
Mark ran the organization while Blyden provided the muscle, prosecutors said.
Earlier this week, Trevor Nicholas Friday pointed to Mark and Blyden as the men who he said tried to kill him in 2004. And three convicted drug dealers detailed Blyden and Mark’s alleged part in illegal dog fights and in smuggling Colombian cocaine from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the U.S. mainland.
Thursday the story returned to the local drug scene on St. Thomas as prosecutors let jurors listen to numerous audio tapes of drug transactions and conversations between Mark and other members of The Enterprise about local dog fighting and about drug deals in Savan.
The plot behind the phone calls started with testimony given Wednesday, when federal agents testified that they rigged a paid informant named Theodore Phillips with a body wire and hidden camera to buy drugs in Savan numerous times in 2004 and 2005.
After gradually raising the financial stakes of his cash “buys,” Phillips eventually got a phone number for the supplier of the Savan dealer, which prompted federal agents to obtain warrants for extended taps on three local phones. The phones included those belonging to Alan Dinzey, identified as a street dealer in Savan; Vernon Fagan, identified as Dinzey’s immediate source of drugs; and Mark, who prosecutors said was the local link for an international drug ring and who ran local cocaine and crack distribution on St. Thomas.
Jurors got a fascinating, if not prolonged, peek into the nuts and bolts of the drug world Thursday as they heard several chronic buyers call Dinzey, who was posted near the Red Ball market in Savan, using street terms such as “soft” or “hard” to ask for various combinations and quantities of crack or powder cocaine.
When the voyeurism included Mark, he was usually speaking with Fagan or Glenson Isaac, a convicted drug dealer and dog fighter who testified Wednesday, about what sounded like drug shipments. Several of the conversations detailed Mark’s participation in running and gambling on local dog fights. And in at least one call, Mark and Bob Hodge — named by convicted drug dealers Wednesday as a fellow trafficker responsible for picking up cocaine air-dropped near Tortola and delivering it to Mark on St. Thomas — discussed a close call while being observed and tailed by the DEA.
The tapes made no references to Blyden, however, who was all but left out of Thursday’s testimony.
Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Mark Joseph testified that he participated in a warranted search of Mark’s Bonne Esperant home in September, 2005, where agents found no drugs or drug paraphernalia, but found a police scanner and a high-tech surveillance system.
“Did you find any drugs,” attorney Hodge asked.
“No,” Agent Joseph said.
“Did you find any wads of cash?” Hodge asked.
“No,” Joseph said.
The testimony ended, and the prosecution abruptly closed its case at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, leaving many loose ends, so much so that Moore asked Chief Judge Curtis Gomez to exclude several of the racketeering charges, arguing that the government’s evidence may have proven several crimes, but no “structure” that could be construed as a racket or “Enterprise.”
“There is no direct link, no pattern, between the dog fighting and drug importation or distribution,” Moore said.
Gomez denied the motion but did agree to exclude two counts of money laundering and bank fraud against Blyden.
The defense attorneys also reminded Judge Gomez that all five bullets that various expert witnesses testified had struck Friday’s body or his bullet proof vest had come from Mark’s registered handgun, which he turned into police the next day after saying that he shot an unknown man who he thought was going to rob him as he left his Smith Bay pet store.
Promising to stick by the claim of self-defense, the attorneys asked how Blyden could be charged with attempted murder if all the rounds came from Mark’s gun.
With his remaining time Friday, Moore recalled witness Damien Daniel to the stand. Daniel had testified earlier this week for the prosecution that on the night of May 24, 2004, he heard shots fired while he was inside the Hi Ho market in Smith Bay and, when he emerged, said he saw Blyden with both hands on a handgun standing over the bullet-riddled body of Trevor Friday.
During his original testimony, Daniel denied ever being paid by the DEA. Upon his recall by Moore on Thursday, however, Daniel said he was on the DEA payroll for years as an informant. There was no indication that perjury charges would be brought against Daniel for the change of story.
U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist objected to the testimony because he said it sought to impeach the witness, but Gomez let it stand. It is sure to come up again in Moore’s closing statements.
Final testimony is set to begin at 9 a.m. Friday.
