Ralph Simms Testimony

EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

WESTERN DIVISION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) CASE NO: CR-07-01215(A)-SJO ) Plaintiff, ) CRIMINAL )

vs. ) Los Angeles, California ) KENYAN TERRANCE PAYNE, SR., ) Wednesday, November 26, 2008 ET AL., ) (8:35 a.m. to 12:03 p.m.)

) Defendants. )

JURY TRIAL

BEFORE THE HONORABLE S. JAMES OTERO, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Appearances: See next page Court Recorder: Margarita Lopez Deputy Clerk: Victor P. Cruz Law Clerks: Emily Churg Kerry Begley Transcribed by: Exceptional Reporting Services, Inc. 14493 S. Padre Island Drive Suite A-400 Corpus Christi, TX 78418-5940 361 949-2988 Proceedings recorded by electronic sound recording; transcript produced by transcription service.

Case 2:07-cr-01215-SJO Document 755 Filed 12/01/2008 Page 1 of 137

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APPEARANCES FOR: The Government: ROSALIND WANG, ESQ. KERRY C. O’NEILL, ESQ. WILLIAM A. CROWFOOT, ESQ. Assistant United States Attorney 312 North Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012 FBI: Agent James Smith Oscar Dillon: JOHN P. ROGERS, ESQ. MICHAEL MERESAK, ESQ. Attorney at Law 120 S. Central, Suite 130 St. Louis, MO 63105 Tracy Prince: ROBERT M. ROSS, ESQ. Klass, Helman, and Ross 16133 Ventura Blvd., Suite 1145 Encino, CA 91436 Roy Burris: DAVID KALYONIDES, ESQ. 624 South Grand Ave., Suite 2200 Los Angeles, CA 90017 Demond Lee: PETER CARL SWARTH, ESQ. 4804 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Suite 232 North Hollywood, CA 91607 Bernard Beard: JAMES PERNELL COOPER, III, ESQ. 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 750 Los Angeles, CA 90045


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INDEX WITNESS FOR THE DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS GOVERNMENT Ralph Simms By Ms. Wang -- 10 By Mr. Rogers -- 12 By Mr. Swarth -- 14 By Mr. Kaloyanides -- 17 Andrew Lindholm By Ms. Wang 19 -- By Mr. Swarth 29 -- Fernando Mata By Ms. Wang 37 -- By Mr. Swarth 46 -- Daniel Corral By Mr. Crowfoot 52 -- By Mr. Rogers 111 --

EXHIBITS GOVERNMENT’S EXHIBITS RECEIVED Number 88 39 Number 89 40 Numbers 90 and 91 41



4

Los Angeles, California; Wednesday, November 26, 2008;8:35 a.m. 1

Call to Order 2

THE CLERK: Please come to order. This Court is 3

again in session. 4

THE COURT: Okay. Please have a seat. We’re back on 5

the record on United States versus Payne. All Counsel are 6

present with the Defendants. 7

Mr. Simms is back in the witness chair. The 8

Government has rested with Mr. Simms yesterday. What’s the 9

request? 10

MS. WANG: Oh, I’m sorry, your Honor. I didn’t 11

realize that I had rested. I assumed that we were going into 12

redirect and the only reason we had cut off was because it was 13

time to cut off. 14

THE COURT: Well, we had redirected. 15

MS. WANG: I mean re-redirected. 16

THE COURT: How many re’s do you -- are you 17

requesting? 18

MS. WANG: I’m not requesting any, your Honor. I 19

just -- 20

THE COURT: Well, what do you need to cover? 21

MS. WANG: I just wanted to go into some of the -- 22

THE COURT: Well, what’s the offer of proof? 23

MS. WANG: Well, it’d just be -- 24

THE COURT: As to why the Court should allow you to 25



5

reopen? 1

MS. WANG: The only issue is that I think the Defense 2

is left with the impression that Mr. Simms has lied throughout 3

his proffer -- 4

THE COURT: I think that’s the impression that the 5

Court has. 6

MS. WANG: But I think that -- 7

THE COURT: And I think that’s a reasonable 8

impression. 9

MS. WANG: And I think Government will want to 10

clarify that with Mr. Simms. 11

THE COURT: Well, what parts are you going to 12

clarify? 13

MS. WANG: Well, I think the -- I think what the 14

witness would say is that he lied through his first proffer but 15

did not subsequently lie after that. 16

(Pause) 17

THE COURT: Every time Mr. Simms is asked a question 18

he seems to tell a different story. For example, with Exhibit 19

268 the 11 page conversation regarding Mr. Burris, he’s 20

testified on direct and redirect regarding the -- his 21

understanding of certain portions of the conversations, on 22

cross-examination he testified that he doesn’t really remember 23

what the conversation was really about and there -- the 24

question is whether he’s referring to the entire conversation 25



6

or only portions of it. He says Mr. Burris was never involved, 1

never bought, never sold, never assisted, never helped -- does 2

the Government have more than this? 3

MS. WANG: Really it was just to clarify the -- those 4

-- that situation with the proffers. 5

THE COURT: No, but in reference to Mr. Burris, for 6

example. 7

This witness has said Mr. Burris was never involved 8

in drug sales, drug purchases, never assisted, never aided, 9

never abetted, never profited. Does the Government have 10

another witness that it intends to call to -- regarding Mr. 11

Burris? 12

MS. WANG: Well, just in regards to the witness, Mr. 13

Simms, your Honor. He has said that Mr. Burris was going to be 14

paid from the marijuana transaction. And he has testified 15

that, in these several calls, Mr. Burris was giving him updates 16

as to how the marijuana was selling in St. Louis. 17

So the Government not’s -- 18

THE COURT: They had conversations about drugs that 19

may be the case. But it’s not clear to the Court that Mr. 20

Burris was involved at all in drug sales. 21

MS. WANG: But your Honor, in order for Defendant 22

Burris to be guilty of conspiracy, he doesn’t have to have been 23

actively selling the drugs or transporting the drugs. But the 24

fact that he’s in St. Louis and he’s giving status updates and 25



7

he expects that he’ll be paid out of the drug sales -- 1

THE COURT: Paid for what? 2

MS. WANG: I’m sorry? 3

THE COURT: What was he getting paid for? What’s the 4

Government’s theory? He was getting paid for what? Doing 5

what? 6

MS. WANG: Well, for the introduction to the source. 7

THE COURT: Pardon? 8

MS. WANG: The introduction to the source of supply. 9

And -- 10

THE COURT: And that’s what this witness is going to 11

testify to? 12

MS. WANG: Well, I think he’s already testified that. 13

THE COURT: Well, look. I don’t know what this 14

witness has said involving Mr. Burris. And I would hope that 15

the Government has a stronger case that what I’ve heard so far. 16

(Pause) 17

THE COURT: I don’t know how many times you can say 18

that Mr. Burris was not involved. 19

MR. KALOYANIDES: And your Honor, if I may just 20

clarify. Mr. Simms testified he was going to give money from 21

the sale, not that Mr. Burris was getting money for doing 22

anything. 23

THE COURT: Exactly. 24

MR. KALOYANIDES: That was his testimony. 25



8

THE COURT: And I -- the question -- the question is 1

what he getting money for? 2

My question is to the Government. What is he getting 3

money for? What’s Mr. -- what’s your theory for the case? 4

What is Mr. Burris getting money for? 5

MS. WANG: Well, I mean he’s out there in St. Louis 6

and he’s giving status reports to Simms as to how the marijuana 7

is selling and -- 8

THE COURT: I don’t interpret what this witness has 9

said as providing status reports. Now, I don’t know how many 10

times he can say that Mr. Burris was not involved in this -- in 11

these drug transactions. 12

MS. WANG: Well, but the evidence does show that Mr. 13

Burris was involved. 14

THE COURT: No, it does not. Not so far. 15

MS. WANG: And Defendant Burris is also on the phone 16

calls. 17

THE COURT: At best, if you could draw -- if you 18

could draw two reasonable interpretations from the evidence so 19

far, one which points to guilt and one which points to 20

innocence. Assuming best case scenario for the Government, one 21

which points to guilt and one which points to innocence. The 22

jury must adopt the interpretation that points to innocence. 23

That’s the definition of reasonable doubt. 24

So, look -- look, you can proceed with your case, but 25



9

I would -- I’m waiting for more than what the Government has 1

offered. If this is the best that the Government has involving 2

Mr. Burris then you may have a problem with your case. 3

So I’ll let you reopen because I think the Government 4

should be given additional opportunity to prove its case. So 5

let’s bring the jury in and you can reopen. 6

(Pause) 7

(Jurors enter the courtroom) 8

THE COURT: We have our jury coming into the court 9

with the alternates. Welcome everyone. 10

All Defendants are present with Counsel. We continue 11

with the Government’s case-in-chief. 12

Would you please have a seat, Mr. Simms? 13

(Witness takes the stand) 14

THE CLERK: Good morning, sir. 15

THE WITNESS: Good morning. 16

THE CLERK: Once again you are reminded you are still 17

under oath. For the record please state your name and then 18

spell your last name. 19

THE WITNESS: Ralph E. Simms, S-I-M-M-S. 20

THE CLERK: Thank you, sir. 21

THE WITNESS: Thank you. 22

THE COURT: The Government is pursuing a re re-direct 23

of Mr. Simms because the Government has additional questions. 24

Go ahead. 25


Simms - Further Redirect by Ms. Wang


10

MS. WANG: Thank you. 1

FURTHER REDIRECT EXAMINATION 2

BY MS. WANG: 3

Q Mr. Simms, you had talked about lying through your first 4

proffer with the Government on -- in March of 2008. Subsequent 5

to that do you recall meeting with the Government in April, 6

2008? 7

A Yes. 8

Q And did you lie through that proffer as well? 9

A May I read it just to be sure? May I read it? 10

Q Yes, it’s Defense Exhibit 307. 11

(Pause; Witness reads Defense Exhibit 307) 12

A No, I didn’t lie through this one. 13

Q And do you recall meeting with agents in St. Louis and 14

Atlanta? 15

A Yes. 16

Q And did you lie to the agents in St. Louis and Atlanta 17

during your meetings with them? 18

A No. 19

Q When you were conducting these meetings -- or when you in 20

these meetings, who was directing the questioning? Did the 21

agents ask you specific questions or did they just ask you to 22

tell them whatever you knew about the case? 23

A They asked me to tell whatever I knew about the case. 24

Q Did they ask you about specific people or did they just 25


Simms - Further Redirect by Ms. Wang


11

leave it open-ended? 1

MR. ROGERS: Objection. Leading. 2

THE COURT: Overruled. 3

THE WITNESS: Could you repeat the question again? 4

BY MS. WANG: 5

Q Did they ask you to talk about specific people or did they 6

just leave it open-ended as to what you wanted to talk about? 7

A It was -- just left it open-ended. 8

Q All right, so they -- the agents didn’t give you a topic 9

that they wanted you to talk -- 10

MR. ROGERS: Objection. This is leading and 11

suggestive, your Honor. 12


THE WITNESS: No. 14

BY MS. WANG: 15

Q All right. You mentioned earlier that Defendant Burris 16

expected to be paid for the marijuana transaction in fall of 17

2007. Why were you going to pay Defendant Burris? 18

A Is that the guy that I had got the marijuana from -- you 19

know I met him through Burris, so it was just because I met him 20

through Burris. That way, you know, me and Lewis had talked, 21

we’s like well, since we met him through him and that’s -- 22

we’re just going to pay him. Cause of that. 23

MS. WANG: I have nothing further, your Honor. 24

THE COURT: That’s it? 25


Simms - Further Recross by Mr. Rogers


12

MS. WANG: That’s it, your Honor. 1

THE COURT: Go ahead, Mr. Rogers. 2

MR. ROGERS: Thank you, your Honor. 3

FURTHER RECROSS EXAMINATION 4

BY MR. ROGERS: 5

Q John Rogers on behalf of Mr. Dillon. 6

Mr. Simms, do you understand the term “lie by 7

omission”? 8

A Yes. 9

Q That means when you don’t tell the whole truth and then 10

you purposely don’t say something. Correct? 11

A Correct. 12

Q And that can be deceptive true -- also. Is that correct, 13

sir? 14

A Correct. 15

Q All right. And just a moment ago Ms. Wang asked you a 16

number of questions concerning your proffer on -- in April of 17

2008. You remember that, sir? 18

A Yes. 19

Q And in nowhere -- and you said, through her questioning, 20

that the agents didn’t hit you with a bunch of point-blank 21

questions. Correct, sir? 22

A Correct. 23

Q What they said was they wanted to know whatever you knew. 24

Right? 25


Simms - Further Recross by Mr. Rogers


13

A Right. 1

Q And that wasn’t -- that allowed you to tell them what you 2

knew. True? 3

A True. 4

Q And so -- you know, a couple days ago you made some 5

general comments that you had been dealing with Mr. Dillon in 6

2005 in the narcotics business. You remember that? 7

A Correct. 8

Q You didn’t give a bunch of specifics, you just said in 9

2005. Right? 10

A Correct. 11

Q That information was not conveyed at any point in time 12

when you had an opportunity to speak with those agents in April 13

2008. Was it, sir? 14

A Correct. 15

Q Right. And so you omitted that information according to 16

what you’re saying today. Correct? 17

A Correct. 18

Q And that’s deceptive, if you’re to believe what your story 19

was two days ago. Right? 20

A No. You think I could have got everything in in one 21

meeting? I don’t think so. 22

MR. ROGERS: Nothing further. 23

THE COURT: Any additional questions? 24

MR. KALOYANIDES: Yes, your Honor. 25


Simms - Further Recross by Mr. Swarth


14

MR. SWARTH: Excuse me, we’re out of order. I’m 1

going to have some questions, but I don’t want -- 2

MR. KALOYANIDES: Oh, I’m sorry, your Honor. 3

MR. SWARTH: -- to step on Mr. Kaloyanides. 4

THE COURT: No, let’s pursue the same order. 5

MR. KALOYANIDES: I’m sorry, your Honor. 6

MR. SWARTH: Oh, I’m sorry, sir. 7

THE COURT: Mr. Swarth. 8

MR. SWARTH: You want to go? Okay. 9


BY MR. SWARTH: 11

Q I want to follow up very briefly on that last line of 12

questioning. 13

You agree that to omit is also to lie? If you admit 14

the truth -- omit the truth. Correct? 15

A Correct. 16

Q Now you say you were being honest with the agents after 17

that first interview in November. Correct? 18

A Correct. 19

Q And you met with them in March? 20

A What I said -- may I ask the question again? 21

Q What -- now -- let me ask my question. Okay? 22

You said that you were -- you told them whatever you 23

could think of, any lie you could think of, when you were 24

having your post-arrest interview. Is that correct? 25




15

A Yes. 1

Q Okay. But we did establish yesterday that the information 2

regarding Tweety was accurate in that interview. Correct? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Okay. Now you also had an interview in March of 2008. 5

Correct? 6

A Correct. 7

Q You had an interview in April of 2008? Correct? 8

A Correct. 9

Q Is that correct? 10

A Correct. 11

Q And you had an interview in August of 2008. Correct? 12

A Correct. 13

Q And in none of those -- none of those interviews did you 14

ever mention the name Demond Lee? Correct? 15

A Well, for the -- 16

Q Is that correct? 17

A That’s correct. 18

Q Okay. And you did just testify that you were -- you were 19

offering to the Government that was not asking you pointed 20

questions everything you knew. Correct? 21

A Correct. 22

Q Okay. The last thing I want to ask you is I just want to 23

see if I can identify your relationship with Mr. Lee. Am I 24

correct, did you tell me that your mother and Mr. Lee’s 25




16

grandmother were sisters? 1

A Yes. 2

Q And during -- we established yesterday that you went -- 3

when you went to prison on your murder conviction Mr. Lee was 4

still a little boy. Correct? 5

A Correct. 6

Q Is it true, however, that on visiting days the family 7

would bring him along with other members of the family up to 8

visit you? 9

A Correct. 10

Q And so he saw you as he was growing up. Correct? 11

A Correct. 12

Q And so then -- there was not a total separation, though 13

you were away from society essentially for almost 18 years, 14

there was still an opportunity to have some closeness, some 15

relationship with Mr. Lee and other members of your family. 16

Correct? 17

A Correct. 18

Q And when he would come to Los Angeles on his business as a 19

trucker, he would stay with you. Correct? 20

A Correct. 21

Q Okay. I thank you. 22

MR. SWARTH: I have no further questions. Thank you, 23

your Honor. 24

THE COURT: Anyone else? Mr. Kaloyanides? 25


Simms - Further Recross by Mr. Kaloyanides


17

MR. KALOYANIDES: Thank you, your Honor. 1


BY MR. KALOYANIDES: 3

Q Good morning, Mr. Simms. 4

A Good morning, sir. 5

Q This morning Ms. Wang asked you a question and she phrased 6

it that Mr. Burris expected to be paid from the marijuana deal 7

you were doing with Mr. Lewis. 8

You didn’t testify that Mr. Burris expected to be 9

paid, did you? 10

A No. What I said was -- you know, after we met the guy, 11

Ryan Dean (phonetic) that gave us the weed, the marijuana, was 12

-- that me and Lewis talked about it and then we told them -- 13

you know, we felt that we was going to pay them because we met 14

the guy through him. 15

Q Right. And yesterday you also testified, and correct me 16

if I’m wrong, that Mr. Burris did not introduce you to Mr. Dean 17

so that you could get marijuana. Right? 18

A Right. 19

Q You met him because he’s a friend of Mr. Burris’s. Right? 20

A Right. 21

Q You also testified, and again, correct me if I’m wrong, 22

that Mr. Burris went to St. Louis for vacation. Right? 23

A Yes. 24

Q He was not going there to give you updates on Mr. Lewis’s 25


Simms - Further Recross by Mr. Kaloyanides


18

drug transactions. Right? 1

A Right. 2

Q He was not going there to be your status report man. 3

Right? 4

A Right. 5

Q He was not there to monitor the sales. Right? 6

A Right. 7

Q You called him up because you hadn’t heard from Mr. Lewis. 8

Right? 9

A Yes. 10

Q And you knew that Mr. Burris, your best friend, would tell 11

you the straight story about what he may have known. Right? 12

A Right. 13

Q And you were not paying him for that. Were you? 14

A No. 15

Q Thank you. 16

MR. KALOYANIDES: Nothing further, your Honor. 17

THE COURT: Anyone else? May be witness be excused? 18

MS. WANG: Yes, your Honor. Thank you. 19

THE COURT: Thank you, sir, for your testimony. 20

(Witness is excused from the stand) 21

THE COURT: Next witness. 22

MS. WANG: Your Honor, the Government calls Andy 23

Lindholm. 24

THE CLERK: Good morning, sir. 25


Lindholm - Direct by Ms. Wang


19

MR. LINDHOLM: Good morning. 1

THE CLERK: Sir, would you please stop and raise your 2

right hand to be sworn? 3

ANDREW LINDHOLM, GOVERNMENT’S WITNESS, SWORN 4

THE CLERK: Thank you, sir. Please be seated. 5

THE COURT: We just lost a light. 6

THE CLERK: Sir, for the record, would you please 7

state your name and spell your last name? 8

THE WITNESS: Charles Andrew Lindholm, L-I-N-D-H-O-L-9

M. 10

THE CLERK: Thank you. 11

THE COURT: Your witness. 12

MS. WANG: Thank you. 13

DIRECT EXAMINATION 14

BY MS. WANG: 15

Q Mr. Lindholm, what is your job title? 16

A I’m a sergeant with the California Highway Patrol. 17

Q And how long have you been with the highway patrol? 18

A Twenty-five years. 19

Q And what are your job responsibilities there? 20

A I am the supervisor of the special enforcement unit which 21

is the inland division’s canine team stationed out of the 22

Rancho Cucamonga area. 23

Q And of the 25 years of -- you’ve been with the CHP how 24

many of it dealt with drug trafficking? 25




20

A Drug trafficking specifically, I started in about 1992 1

when I was selected as the canine handler for the San 2

Bernardino area CHP office. 3

Before that, working graveyards here in the central 4

Los Angeles area I had been involved in several DUI stops or 5

other types of stops that ended up developing into possession 6

for sales as well as personal possession arrests. 7

Q Are you familiar with secret compartments? 8

A Yes, I am. 9

Q What is a secret compartment? 10

A Compartment is a location that has been modified in some 11

way in a vehicle to enable the driver of that vehicle to hide 12

drugs, weapons, or the money from the sale of drugs. 13

Q And are secret compartments legal? 14

A No, they are not. 15

Q I’m sorry. 16

A They are not. 17

Q Illegal or -- legal or illegal? 18

A They are illegal. 19

Q And under what provisions are they illegal? 20

A Under the Health and Safety Code, 11366.8(a), a felony, 21

states basically that anytime a compartment in a vehicle has 22

been modified in any way to allow the hiding or the secretion 23

of drugs or the products from drug sales, weapons, that they 24

would be guilty of a felony. 25




21

Q How many secret compartments have you seen in your career? 1

A It’s impossible to say. Personal -- personally arrests 2

that I’ve made have been in excess of a hundred. However, as a 3

canine handler -- I’m also bilingual in Spanish, so on many 4

cases when a partner officer would get a find that had a secret 5

compartment, I would be called out to the scene to assist in 6

translation or to run my dog. So I would observe that 7

compartment even though it wasn’t specifically my arrest. 8

So I would estimate possibly up to a thousand 9

different types of compartments that I’ve been involved in. To 10

see several times that many in classes that I’ve taken or 11

conferences that I’ve attended where they’ve shown photographs 12

of common concealment and new types of compartments that I’ve 13

actually seen, not in person, but through training and 14

photograph. And sometimes even they would remove that 15

compartment and bring it to the conference, such as a seat 16

compartment or a battery compartment inside an auto battery and 17

they would have that battery present there for us to look at. 18

So I’ve seen all of those as well. 19

Q Have you testified as an expert in secret compartments? 20

A Yes, I have. 21

Q How many times? 22

A I would estimate between 20 and 25 times. 23

Q Are there certain common characteristics of secret 24

compartments in vehicles? 25




22

A Yes. 1

Q What are those? 2

A Many times when a compartment is constructed we are 3

actually looking for or smelling for the presence of those 4

building materials that they would use to construct that 5

compartment. Sometimes a compartment could be inside a fender 6

well where they had to acttally cut an access panel in that 7

fender well in order access the compartment. 8

In order to close that back up to make it appear as 9

though no compartment is there, they’ll use Bondo, spray over 10

it with fresh paint or undercoating. All of those chemical 11

odors are indicators that someone has been in there and created 12

that compartment. 13

Also carpeting, where it shouldn’t be, carpeting 14

glued down in an area where actually the factories or 15

manufacturers of vehicles don’t glue their carpet down. So if 16

we encounter, say, a floor where you try to lift the carpet and 17

look underneath it and that carpet is secured by some kind of 18

glue, then I automatically know that this has been an 19

aftermarket modification because the factories don’t glue their 20

carpets down to the floor. 21

Q All right. Did you participate in the -- in this 22

investigation on August 10th, 2007? 23

A Yes, I did. 24

Q And what did you do in this investigation? 25




23

A Actually on this investigation I backed up one of my 1

canine handlers, Officer Mike Blane, as he had made a stop 2

northbound on the 15 Freeway in the vicinity of the 395. 3

Q And where -- what city were you in, approximately? 4

A It’s actually an unincorporated area of San Bernardino 5

County, just south of Hesperia, the city of Hesperia. 6

Q And what did Mike Blane pull over? 7

A He pulled over a bob-tailed big rig. That’s a tractor 8

with no trailer. Just the three-axled truck tractor with the 9

fifth wheel exposed and no trailer being pulled behind it. 10

Q Do you mean like a cab without an end? 11

A Yes. 12

Q Did you see who was the occupant of that -- I guess, the 13

bob-tail, as you call it? 14

A I actually saw the subject out of the vehicle that Officer 15

Mike Blane was talking to at the time I pulled up because I 16

pulled up a few minutes after the actual stop was made. 17

Q And can you describe that occupant? 18

A I recall that he was a black male, thin. 19

Q Do you recognize that person in the courtroom today? 20

A No, not without guessing, I don’t. 21

Q And what did you do after you had pulled in behind Mike 22

Blane? 23

A I placed the subject in the backseat of my patrol car, 24

it’s a caged car where he could be secured, and so that we 25




24

could search the vehicle in safety. 1

Q And then did you search the vehicle? 2

A Yes. 3

Q And did you find anything significant inside the vehicle? 4

A Yes, we did. As soon as you entered the cab area through 5

the open door there was a strong smell of new wood or fresh 6

lumber. At that point we began searching the interior of the 7

vehicle, saw that there was a gap between the back wall of the 8

sleeper berth area, the very rear of the living space inside 9

that tractor, and the interior wall behind the bed of the 10

sleeper berth. 11

At that point we removed the two closet or 12

compartment, storage compartment areas, plastic shelving 13

basically, in the upper corners of the sleeper berth area. We 14

removed screws holding the back wall in place and were able to 15

pull it forward enough to look down inside that area and saw 16

that there was a constructed compartment. 17

Q Would you have considered that a secret compartment? 18

A Yes. 19

Q Could you take a look, please, there are some manila 20

folders in front of you, Government Exhibits 73 through 81. 21

I’m sorry, 73 through 82. And just look up when you’re done.22

You recognize this? 23

A Yes, I do. 24

Q What are those? 25




25

A Those are photographs of the interior sleeper berth area 1

of that compartment. 2

MS. WANG: Your Honor, I’d like to publish what’s 3

been previously admitted into evidence and that’s -- 4

THE COURT: Yes, please. 5

MS. WANG: All right. Publishing Exhibit to the 6

Court. 7

BY MS. WANG: 8

Q And do you see what’s up there on the screen? 9

A Yes, I do. 10

Q Can you explain what that is? 11

A If you are standing between the driver and the passenger 12

seats facing towards the rear of the truck inside the cab, that 13

is the rear sleeper berth wall of that tractor. 14

Q And the box to the left, what is that? 15

A That is that shelving or storage compartment that I said 16

we had to remove in order to access the compartment. 17

MS. WANG: Your Honor -- 18

THE WITNESS: And there’s a duplicate one of those on 19

the opposite side. 20

MS. WANG: Your Honor, I’m publishing Exhibit 76. 21

BY MS. WANG: 22

Q And what is Exhibit 76? 23

A This is that back wall removed exposing the construction 24

of that compartment creating the void. The manufacturer -- 25




26

when that vehicle was manufactured that wall was within an inch 1

of that back wall where you see the number 38, that wood built 2

that compartment out in order to allow that space that you see 3

there now. 4

Q What were approximately the dimensions of this 5

compartment? 6

A Well, the wood that you see there appear to be two by 7

four, perhaps. So, that’s approximately an eight inch gap from 8

the floor of that sleeper berth all the way up six feet high up 9

to the roof, approximately, of the interior of that cab. As 10

you can see it takes that entire back wall, which is 11

approximately eight feet wide, six feet high and at least four 12

inches deep -- or six to eight inches deep with the two two by 13

fours. 14

Q Have you seen cabs that contain secret compartments 15

before? 16

A Yes, I have. 17

Q And based on your experience would you say that this 18

compartment was a common or uncommon type of secret 19

compartment? 20

A Fairly common. 21

Q And did it look like it was finished? 22

A Yes. 23

Q Based on your experience what was that compartment 24

designed to hold? 25




27

MR. SWARTH: Objection. Foundation. 1


MR. SWARTH: And speculation. 3

THE WITNESS: Well it can hold anything that fit in 4

that location. What it would easily accommodate is double-5

stacked kilos of cocaine. You could also put in any manner of 6

containers with that width. 7

Now a kilo being solid you could stack more as 8

opposed to say a plastic container or a loose bag of something 9

that could get pinched and broken open. But a kilo container 10

there, I would say that compartment could probably hold 11

anywhere from 75 to 100 kilos of cocaine in that compartment. 12

Q How long did it take you to -- oh, after you opened the 13

secret compartment did you then close it up? 14

A Yes, we did. 15

Q And did it require any special equipment to open? 16

A A Makita screw gun is what we used. Several -- between 20 17

and 50 screws were required to take off those outer shelving 18

compartments that you saw the picture of, as well as the screws 19

holding the plywood in place to the back wall there and to that 20

wood. So, basically it was the screw gun and also a pry bar to 21

pull that wood free from the back in order to look down into 22

the compartment. 23

And when we opened it we did not activate -- if you 24

see that metal latch coming out that actually hooks into what 25




28

is commonly used in a trunk of a vehicle, a trunk latch. There 1

were two trunk latches holding that compartment closed, we did 2

not pop those latches. We actually removed the whole wall and 3

peeled the wall forward to look down into the compartment 4

without actually activating those latches. 5

Q So -- 6

A So to put it back together we just replaced all of the 7

screws that we had removed and pushed it back into position. 8

Q All right. So you did not open it, you believe the way it 9

was designed to open? 10


Q And why did you close up the secret compartment 12

afterwards? 13

A We contacted the requesting officer who asked us to make 14

that stop, Officer Mike -- 15

Q And who was -- go ahead. 16

A -- Officer Mike Blane, contacted him and told him what we 17

had found. That we could arrest him for the felony possession 18

of the compartment, but he requested us to just close it up and 19

let the subject go. 20

Q And who was the requesting official? 21

A I have no idea. 22

Q Did you tell the driver of the vehicle what you had found? 23

A No, we did not. 24

Q Or what did you do with the driver of that vehicle after 25


Lindholm - Cross by Mr. Swarth


29

you found that? 1

A We told him that we were sorry that it took so long for us 2

to search his vehicle, but that there was something going on 3

with the walls of his tractor and we couldn’t find anything 4

wrong, but he needed to be careful and that he was free to go. 5

MS. WANG: I have nothing further at this time, your 6

Honor. 7

THE COURT: Any cross? 8

MR. ROGERS: Not for Mr. Dillon, your Honor. 9

MR. COOPER: Not for Mr. Beard, your Honor. 10

MR. KALOYANIDES: No, thank you, your Honor. 11

MR. ROSS: Nothing for Mr. Prince, your Honor. 12

MR. SWARTH: I have a couple of questions. 13

THE COURT: Mr. Swarth. 14

CROSS EXAMINATION 15

BY MR. SWARTH: 16

Q Good morning, sir. 17

A Good morning. 18

Q My name’s Peter Swarth and I represent one of the 19

Defendants’ in this case, his name is Demond Lee. 20

Sir, am I correct that -- do you recall what the 21

grounds were stated for this traffic stop? 22

A Yes. I believe he was speeding was the reason that 23

Officer Blane pulled him over. 24

Q Okay. Are you sure it was speeding or perhaps it was a 25




30

claim that Mr. Lee had failed to stop at a scale? 1

MS. WANG: Objection. Foundation. 2


THE WITNESS: I’m not sure. Actually I approached 4

after the stop was made. I only recall what Officer Blane told 5

me. 6

BY MR. SWARTH: 7

Q Isn’t it true that whatever the stated grounds for the 8

stop was, this was a prearranged stop? Wasn’t it? 9

A We had previous information that if we saw this vehicle to 10

make a stop on it, yes. 11

Q Okay. And so a pretext was arranged in order to make the 12

stop in order to get inside the vehicle. Isn’t that correct? 13

A No pretext. An actual violation was observed which -- 14

Q Well -- 15

A -- allowed us to make a legal stop, whether we had known 16

that before or not. However, the focus of the vehicle -- 17

Q Well, hang on a second, hang on -- 18

A Go ahead. 19

THE COURT: Let him finish his response. 20

THE WITNESS: The -- 21

MR. SWARTH: He’s not answering my question. 22

THE COURT: Let him finish his response. 23

MR. SWARTH: Thank you, your Honor. 24

THE WITNESS: The focus on the vehicle was based on 25




31

the request from an allied agency. 1

BY MR. SWARTH: 2

Q Was the gentleman issued a speeding ticket? 3

A Not that I recall. 4

Q Okay. Now, the officer that made the stop. Was he a 5

canine officer? 6

A Yes, he was. 7

Q Did he have a canine companion that day? 8

A He did. 9

Q And was that canine used in entering the vehicle? 10

A No, it was not. 11

Q So the canine didn’t come out of the officer’s vehicle? 12


Q Would it surprise you if there’s different information? 14

MS. WANG: Objection. Foundation, speculation. 15

THE COURT: Well, that -- it’s -- whether he’s 16

surprised or not it’s irrelevant. It assumes facts. 17

Sustained. 18

MR. SWARTH: Thank you, your Honor. 19

BY MR. SWARTH: 20

Q Did you participate in the search of this vehicle 21

yourself? 22

A Yes, I did. 23

Q Did you go inside? 24

A Yes, I did. 25




32

Q And did you personally view what you’ve testified to 1

today? 2

A Yes, I did. 3

Q Okay. Did you see any evidence of narcotics? 4

A No. We found no narcotics in the vehicle. 5

Q No residue. 6

A No. 7

Q Correct? No paraphernalia? 8

A No. 9

Q No packaged money? 10

A No. 11

Q Right? It was just empty, it was -- it’s a compartment 12

that you suspect is useable for transporting drugs, but there 13

is no evidence of it being used for transporting drugs. 14

Agreed? 15


Q Was there a particular reason why the canine officer was 17

used to make the stop? 18

A The particular reason is that we are familiar with 19

narcotics investigations and that we were the number that 20

requesting agencies would call. 21

Q Okay. So I mean -- 22

A And half -- 23

Q -- in other words it was a specific request for a canine 24

unit? 25




33

A For the canine unit -- 1

Q When this stop was going to be made? 2

A Yes. But I also have several non-canine handlers that are 3

part of my team and the request could have just as easily been 4

handed to them. 5

Q But it didn’t, it was handed to the one with the dog? 6

A Correct. 7

Q Okay. How much advance notice did you have on this call? 8

A I don’t recall. Enough time for us to catch up to the 9

vehicle and make the stop. 10

Q Okay. Did -- other than speeding and other than the 11

request from U.S. Government agents to make the stop and 12

search, there were no grounds for you to enter into that 13

vehicle, were there? There was no basis for a search inside 14

that vehicle, was there? 15

A So your question is, if we hadn’t observed a violation and 16

we hadn’t received a -- 17

Q Well, let’s -- 18

A -- request from the agency we wouldn’t have stopped the 19

vehicle? 20

Q So in other words you don’t understand my question. Let 21

me ask it again. Okay. That would be my fault. Let me try 22

and get it better. 23

Speeding, in your experience, does not in -- a 24

speeding ticket, all on its own, or a speeding violation, since 25




34

we have no ticket in this case. Is it your experience that 1

that entitles an officer to search the inside of a vehicle? 2

A No. 3

Q You require something more? 4

A Correct. 5

Q Generally, you require a warrant. Right? 6

MS. WANG: Objection. Relevance. 7

THE COURT: It’s going to be sustained on 403. These 8

are legal determinations for the Court to determine. 9

BY MR. SWARTH: 10

Q Other than the speeding and the request by U.S. Government 11

officers, there was no other independent grounds for you to 12

make entry into that vehicle. Correct? 13

A Once the stop was made, yes, there was. However, there 14

has to be probable cause or reasonable suspicion in order to 15

initiate that contact which would be the speeding or the 16

driving by the scales without stopping. 17

Q When you say “once the stop was made” there was cause. 18

Did the driver do something? 19

A It was actually having knowledge of what is normal 20

operating procedures for a truck driver and the circumstances 21

that this particular person gave as to his activities over the 22

previous few days. 23

For truck drivers, for instance, they’re required to 24

maintain a log book which explains how many hours they’ve been 25




35

driving, how many hours they’ve been off in order to insure 1

that someone driving an 80,000 pound vehicle isn’t going to 2

fall asleep behind the wheel and crash into a bunch of traffic. 3

So there are certain laws that we investigate on a 4

big rig stop different than a regular passenger vehicle stop 5

and there were certain things involved in this stop that were 6

not consistent with the industry of truck driving, but that are 7

consistent with drug trafficking. 8

Q So you’re saying, in other words, you’re saying he didn’t 9

have his logs up to date. 10

A No, not necessarily. It is that a truck driver makes 11

money when he’s driving -- carrying a load. He had driven this 12

vehicle -- 13

Q Hang on a second. If I may stop you? 14

A Sure. 15

Q Are you a truck driver? 16

A No. 17

Q Have you been a truck driver? 18

A Never. 19

Q And yet you’re going to speak to me now as to what truck 20

drivers think is important? 21

A That’s correct. Not what truck drivers think are 22

important, but the industry norms. 23

Q And you’re not a member of the trucking industry? 24

A No. 25




36

Q And you’ve never been a member of the trucking industry? 1

A No. 2

Q Then I think I’ll take a pass. Thanks very much. 3

(Laughter) 4

MR. SWARTH: No further questions. 5

THE COURT: Any redirect? 6

MS. WANG: Nothing further, your Honor, thank you. 7

THE COURT: May the witness be excused? Thank you. 8

THE WITNESS: Certainly, your Honor. 9

THE COURT: Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.10

(Witness is excused from the stand) 11


MS. WANG: Your Honor, the Government calls Fernando 13

Mata. 14

THE CLERK: Sir, would you please stop and raise your 15

right hand and be sworn? 16

FERNANDO MATA, GOVERNMENT’S WITNESS, SWORN 17

THE CLERK: Thank you. Sir, please be seated. 18

Sir, for the record, would you please state your name 19

and then spell your last name. 20

THE WITNESS: Fernando Mata, M-A-T-A. 21



MS. WANG: Thank you, your Honor. 24

// 25


Mata - Direct by Ms. Wang


37


BY MS. WANG: 2

Q What is your job title? 3

A I’m a police detective for the city of Redondo Beach. 4

Q And how long have you been with the city of Redondo Beach 5

Police Department? 6

A Twenty-five years. 7

Q And what is your current assignment? 8

A I’m assigned to LA impact, the quarantine group temp. 9

Q And can you explain what that is? 10

A That’s a covert operation informant network intelligent 11

unit. 12

Q What was your assignment in July and August of 2007? 13

A I was assigned to LA impact, group 1, primarily a 14

surveillance team. 15

Q And did you do something in this investigation on July 16

7th, 2007? 17

A Yes, I did. 18

Q What did you do on that day? 19

A I was asked by Special Jim Smith if I would monitor the 20

activity at 748 East 27th Street in the city of Los Angeles. 21

Q And approximately what time did you get to -- or 748 East 22

27th Street? 23

A I arrived at the location at approximately 06:30 hours. 24

Q And what did you see there? 25




38

A I observed a Nissan Pathfinder parked in the driveway of 1

748 East 27th Street and in the back driveway there was a 2

tractor with Illinois plates on it, blue/silver in color. 3

Q I’m sorry, with what plates on it? 4

A Illinois plates. 5

Q Okay. Where was the tractor parked in relation to the 6

residence? 7

A To the rear of the residence in an alley. 8

Q Could you take a look, please, there’s folders in front of 9

you, at Government’s Exhibit 88? 10

A Eight, eight? 11

Q Eight, eight. 12

MR. SPEAKER: Pardon me, what number are we looking 13

at? 14

MR. SPEAKER: Eight, eight. Thank you. 15

BY MS. WANG: 16

Q Do you recognize that? 17

A Yes, I do. 18

Q What is it? 19

A That is the residence at 748 East 27th Street. 20

Q And is that a photograph? 21

A Yes, it is. 22

Q Have there been any additions made to that photograph? I 23

mean, markings made to that photograph? 24

A Yes, I -- the streets have been labeled and the house -- 25




39

Q And -- 1

A -- the house is depicted on the photograph here. 2

Q Including the markings, is that a fair and accurate 3

representation of the area that you were surveilling on July 4

7th? 5

A Yes, ma’am. 6

MS. WANG: Your Honor, the Government moves to admit 7

Exhibit 88 and permission to publish? 8

THE COURT: Received. 9

(Government’s Exhibit Number 88 was received in evidence) 10

BY MS. WANG: 11

Q And could you explain on Exhibit 88 where the residence is 12

that you were watching? 13

A It is the -- the residence that I was watching -- the 14

front door faces 27th Street and the alley is off of Stanford 15

Avenue. 16

Q Is it marked on that photograph? 17

A Yes, it is. 18

Q How is it marked? 19

A Stanford Avenue is marked with capital letters there and 20

27th Street is marked just directly in front of the house. 21

Q All right. 22

A And 748 is on the roof. 23

Q And could you point out on that photo where you saw the 24

tractor parked? 25




40

A In the alley backed into the driveway there where the 1

wrought iron fence is. 2

Q Does that alleyway run parallel to East 27th Street? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Could you take a look, please, at Exhibits 90 and 91. I’m 5

sorry, 89, 90, and 91. Do -- 6

A I have 89 in front of me. 7

Q What’s 89? Do you recognize it? 8

A Yeah, that’s the -- excuse me, that’s the residence at 748 9

East 27th Street and the Nissan Pathfinder backed into the 10

driveway. 11

MS. WANG: Your Honor, the Government -- 12

BY MS. WANG: 13

Q Is that a fair and accurate depiction of the residence as 14

you saw it on 7-27? 15

A Yes. 16

Q On 7-7-07? 17

A Yes. 18


Exhibit 89 and permission to publish. 20

THE COURT: I’m assuming no objection. It’s 21

received. 22

(Government’s Exhibit Number 89 was received in evidence) 23

BY MS. WANG: 24

Q And which residence was it that you were watching on 25




41

Exhibit 89? 1

A The residence I was watching is -- the residence there 2

with the Pathfinder backed in the driveway which is 748 East 3

27th. 4

Q And relative to this picture, where was the tractor 5

parked? 6

A To the rear of this residence. 7

Q And what about Exhibits 90 and 91? 8

A Ninety is -- it’s showing the tractor parked in the alley 9

off of Stanford Street. 10

Q And 91? 11

A Ninety-one is showing the same picture. Just a little 12

closer. 13

Q Are those photos a fair and accurate depiction of the 14

truck as you saw it parked? 15


90 and 91 into evidence and permission to publish. 17

THE COURT: No objection being entered, they’re 18

received. 19

(Government’s Exhibits Numbers 90 and 91 were received in 20

evidence) 21

BY MS. WANG: 22

Q I’m publishing 90. Did that truck -- or that tractor 23

leave at any point during your surveillance? 24

A On this date? 25




42

Q On that date. 1

A No. 2

Q Did you see anyone leaving the residence that you were 3

watching on that date? 4

A Yes, I did. 5

Q Who did you see? 6

A I saw a malE Hispanic, exit the residence. A female 7

Hispanic exit the residence and a young child. And they loaded 8

up into the Nissan Pathfinder and they drove from there to a 9

Bank of America on Figueroa Street. 10

Q Are you able to recognize the male Hispanic by sight? 11

A Yes. 12

Q And could you take a look, please, at Exhibit 178, which 13

has previously been moved into evidence? 14

A I’m looking, it could be misplaced. It’s jumping from 15

one -- 16

THE CLERK: What exhibit? 17

THE WITNESS: One seventy-eight, sir. It’s not -- 18

THE COURT: Maybe you could publish it on the ELMO. 19

MS. WANG: I’ll publish on the ELMO. It’s been 20

previously admitted. 21

THE COURT: It’s been previously received, yes. 22

MS. WANG: Okay. 23

BY MS. WANG: 24

Q All right. I’m publishing 178. Could you look on your 25




43

screen? 1

A Yes. 2

Q Do you recognize that? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Who is that? 5

A That’s the subject known to me as Adam. 6

Q And was that the person you saw on that day? 7

A Yes. 8

Q Did you also do something in this investigation on August 9

10, 2007? 10

A Yes. 11

Q What did you do on that day? 12

A I had received information from Special Agent Jim Smith 13

that a subject known to me as D-boy was en route on the 10 14

Freeway, probably heading to the area of -- 15

MR. SWARTH: Objection. Hearsay. I move to strike 16

it. 17

THE COURT: It’ll be sustained. Ask your next 18

question and then if the -- if Counsel would like it -- a 19

limiting instruction you can so request. 20

MS. WANG: Yes, your Honor. 21

BY MS. WANG: 22

Q What did you actually do on that day? 23

A I observed a tractor -- I observed a tractor on the 10 24

Freeway at Milliken at the Ontario Truck Stop traveling 25




44

eastbound on the 10 Freeway. 1

Q And was that the same truck that you saw parked at the 2

residence on July 7th, 2007? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Could you take a look, please, at Exhibit 70? Actually, 5

I’ll just publish Exhibit 70. 6

MS. WANG: It’s been previously admitted, your Honor. 7

BY MS. WANG: 8

Q Could you look on the screen? 9

A Yes, ma’am. 10

Q Do you recognize that exhibit? 11

A That is the tractor. Yes. 12

Q And you said you saw it on the 10 Freeway? 13

A It was traveling eastbound on the 10 Freeway, off of 14

Milliken, just north of the truck stop. 15

Q And what did you do when you saw that truck? 16

A I engaged in a surveillance of that vehicle. 17

Q Could you see who was driving that truck? 18

A Yes, I could. 19

Q Where were you at the time that you could see who was 20

driving that truck? 21

A I was coming up to -- in the number one traffic lane, 22

eastbound on the 10 Freeway at about Milliken when I observed 23

the tractor in the number 4 traffic lane. I was at a dead stop 24

in traffic and as I looked over to my right, through my window, 25




45

I could see a male African American driving that vehicle and I 1

had previously seen him on previous surveillance and he was 2

known to me as D-boy or -- 3

Q All right. I’ll just stop you there. 4

MR. SWARTH: Again, objection. Move to strike. 5

Hearsay. 6

THE COURT: Motion granted. 7

MS. WANG: All right, so -- 8

MR. SWARTH: I will ask for an instruction, your 9

Honor. 10

THE COURT: The jury’s ordered to disregard it. 11

BY MS. WANG: 12

Q Could you describe the driver of the vehicle? 13

A Yes. He was a male African-American -- 14

Q All right. 15

A -- he had short hair, he was fairly tall, he was thin and 16

from previous -- 17

Q All right. I’ll just stop you there. Do you see the 18

driver in the courtroom today? 19

A Yes, I do. 20

Q Could you describe what he’s wearing and where he is? 21

A He’s sitting in the second row in the back there with 22

about a number 1 haircut with a plaid shirt. 23

THE COURT: Well, I’m not sure -- 24

THE WITNESS: I can’t see over there -- 25


Mata - Cross by Mr. Swarth


46

THE COURT: -- a number 1 haircut is very short. 1

THE WITNESS: Very short, very short, haircut. 2

(Laughter) 3

THE WITNESS: Sorry. Those are all just -- right 4

there with the Defense Counsel scratching his head right now. 5

THE COURT: Okay. Indicating the Defendant. 6

MS. WANG: Thank you, your Honor. Nothing further at 7

this time. 8

MR. ROGERS: No thank you on behalf of Mr. Dillon, 9

your Honor. 10

THE COURT: Any questions? 11

MR. COOPER: No questions on behalf of Mr. Beard. 12

THE COURT: Mr. Swarth, any questions? 13

MR. SWARTH: Oh, okay, I’m -- I was just waiting for 14

Mr. Ross. 15

THE COURT: Mr. Ross? No? 16

MR. ROSS: Nothing, your Honor. 17

CROSS EXAMINATION 18

BY MR. SWARTH: 19

Q Good morning, sir. My name’s Peter Swarth. 20

A Good morning, sir. 21

Q And I represent Defendant -- the -- one of the Defendants’ 22

in this case, his name is Demond Lee. 23

On July 7th, when you first started your 24

surveillance, is that when you initiated your surveillance? 25




47

A On that particular date, yes. 1

Q Okay. On that particular location? 2

A That day, yes. 3

Q Well, is that the day that you initiated your surveillance 4

of that location? 5

A I had other surveillances prior to that there. 6

Q Of that location? 7

A Yes, sir. 8

Q Okay. Was the truck present at that location on any 9

previous occasions? 10

A I believe so. 11

Q When? 12

A I can’t recall right now without looking at the complete 13

report. 14

Q Did you see the truck arrive at the location? 15

A No. 16

Q Did you see who drove the truck to that location? 17

A No. 18

Q Do you know offhand when the truck arrived at that 19

location? 20

A Without referring to the report I can’t answer that, sir. 21

Q In other words you don’t have an independent recollection? 22

A That is correct. 23

Q Right. Otherwise, you’ve been able -- you feel you’ve 24

been able to testify today without referring to a report. 25




48

Correct? 1

A Yes, sir. 2

Q Now, you say you saw the driver of the vehicle on August 3

10th on the 10 Freeway. Correct? 4


Q And that you had an opportunity to look from -- by the 6

way, when you made the observations that you spoke about about 7

seeing the driver in the vehicle next to you -- am I correct, 8

that it was next to you? 9

A Two lanes over. 10

Q Two lanes over. Were you -- and the -- I think you had 11

the truck in the number 4 lane. Correct? 12


Q And for those who might not be initiated the number 4 lane 14

is actually the one closest to the exit lane. Correct? 15


Q And the number 1 lane is the high speed lane? 17

A Yes, sir. 18

Q Okay. So this truck was over in the slow lane? 19


Q And at the time that you saw the vehicle it was at a stop? 21

A I was at a stop in traffic. 22

Q You were at a stop. Was the truck at a stop? 23

A No, sir. 24

Q So you made your observations. You saw this person and 25




49

based on this view you were able to make an identification. 1

The vehicle was moving past you and you were stopped in traffic 2

two lanes over. Correct? 3

A Correct. 4

Q And am I correct in assuming that you did not simply stop 5

on a freeway with traffic whizzing by you on all the other 6

lanes? 7

A No. It was -- 8

Q Traffic was stopped in all the -- 9

A Yes, sir. 10

Q -- except the number 4 lane which was moving. 11

A Number 4 -- he was merging onto the number 4 lane, yes. 12

Q Okay. And for how long did you surveil this vehicle from 13

that point? 14

A I surveilled that vehicle until I could have California 15

Highway Patrol initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle. 16

Q Can you give me distance or time? 17

A Probably 30 minutes. 18

Q Okay. And are you saying you observed for 30 minutes and 19

then you asked CHP to initiate the stop or is it 30 minutes 20

until the stop? 21

A Thirty minutes until the stop. 22

Q Okay. And you were on the 10 or the 15, what highway were 23

you following this vehicle on? 24

A Traveling the 10 East to the 15th -- the 15 North. 25




50

Q And what were traffic conditions that day? 1

A It was tight for a while there until we got onto the 15 2

Freeway. 3

Q Okay. Did it open up on the 15? 4

A It wasn’t bumper to bumper and you weren’t flowing at 60 5

or 70 miles an hour. It probably was about 30 miles an hour, 6

35 miles an hour. 7

Q Okay. All the way up on the 15? 8

A Yes, sir. 9

Q So it was about 30 or 35 until we had the traffic stop? 10

A Correct. 11

Q Is 30 miles an hour speeding on the California freeways? 12

A No, sir. 13

Q Okay. Thank you. 14

MS. WANG: Objection, relevance. 15

MR. SWARTH: I have no further questions. 16

THE COURT: Sustained. Sustained. 17

MR. SWARTH: I’m sorry? 18

THE COURT: The objection was sustained. 19

MR. SWARTH: Then let me -- I’m sorry. If I may 20

then, let me -- I didn’t anticipate the Court’s ruling, so let 21

me try and ask a different question, a different way, if I may. 22

BY MR. SWARTH: 23

Q Did you -- in calling the CHP, to make a stop. That was 24

your intention. Correct? Calling CHP and have them stop this 25




51

vehicle. Correct? 1

A Yes, sir. 2

Q Let me try it -- some foundation. Before you became a 3

detective, you’re with the Los Angeles Police Department? 4

A Redondo Beach Police Department. 5

Q Redondo, I’m sorry, my mistake. Before you became a 6

detective you were a patrol officer? 7

A Yes, sir. 8

Q You handled traffic offenses? 9

A Spent six years in the traffic bureau. 10

Q You’re familiar with what speeding means? What it -- 11

A Yes, sir. 12

Q The truck wasn’t speeding, was it? 13

MS. WANG: Objection, relevance. 14

THE COURT: It’s sustained, it’s sustained on 403, in 15

relevance. 16

MR. SWARTH: Thank you. No further. 17

THE COURT: Any -- anyone else? 18

MR. KALOYANIDES: No, thank you, your Honor. 19

THE COURT: Redirect? 20

MS. WANG: No, thank you, your Honor. 21

THE COURT: Thank you sir, for your testimony. 22

THE WITNESS: Thank you, sir. 23

(The witness is excused from the stand) 24



Corral - Direct by Mr. Crowfoot


52

MR. CROWFOOT: Your Honor, the United States calls 1

Daniel Corral. 2

THE COURT: Hold on. Is Mr. Corral here? 3

MR. CROWFOOT: Yes, your Honor, he’s here. 4

THE COURT: Okay. 5

MR. CROWFOOT: The agent went to get him. 6

THE CLERK: Sir, please come forward. Sir, would you 7

please stop and raise your right hand this morning? 8

DANIEL CORRAL, GOVERNMENT WITNESS, SWORN 9

THE CLERK: Thank you, sir. Please be seated. 10

Sir, for the record would you please state your name 11

and then spell your last name? 12

THE WITNESS: Daniel Corral. Corral, C-O-R-R-A-L. 13



MR. CROWFOOT: Thank you, your Honor. 16


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 18

Q Good morning, Mr. Corral. Would you tell the jury please, 19

how old you are? 20

A I just turned 34. 21

Q Where were you born? 22

A Culver City, California. 23

Q Where did you grow up? 24

A Culver City. 25




53

Q How far did you get in school? 1

A Tenth grade. 2

Q What happened after 10th grade? 3

A After 10th grade I just -- 4

MR. ROGERS: Objection, relevance. 5


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 7

Q Did you drop out of school? 8

A Yes. 9

Q Are you married, Mr. Corral? 10

A Yes. 11

Q And what is your wife’s name? 12

A Yvonne Vasquez. 13

Q Mr. Corral, were you arrested on the Indictment in this 14

case? 15

A Yes, I was. 16

Q And when did that occur? 17

A Excuse me, I wasn’t arrested. But when the Indictment 18

came out I surrendered to the authorities in February. 19

Q Of this year? 20

A Yes. 21

Q And did you plead guilty in this case? 22

A Yes. 23

Q What crime did you plead guilty to? 24

A Conspiracy to distribute cocaine. 25




54

Q Did you plead guilty as part of a written agreement with 1

the Government? 2

A Yes. 3

Q Does that plea agreement require that you provide 4

cooperation? 5

A Yes. 6

Q Are you currently under indictment in any other case? 7

A Yes, I am. 8

Q What are you charged with in that case? 9

A The same, conspiracy to -- 10

Q And is that a Federal case? 11

A Yes, it is. 12

Q And where was that Indictment lodged? 13

A Detroit, Michigan. 14

Q Have you pleaded guilty in that case? 15

A No, I haven’t. 16

Q Have you been offered a plea agreement in that case? 17


Q Are you hoping to be offered a plea agreement in that 19

case? 20

A Yes. 21

Q What United States Attorneys’ office are you dealing with 22

in that case? 23

A Detroit, Michigan. 24

Q That’s good enough. 25




55

A Yeah. 1

Q Mr. Corral, other than your guilty plea in this case, do 2

you have any prior felony convictions of any kind? 3

A No, I don’t. 4

Q Do you have any prior convictions of any kind related to 5

drug trafficking? 6

A No, I don’t. 7

Q Were you involved in drug trafficking prior to the -- 8

prior to the crime that you’re charged with on this case? 9

A Yes, I was. 10

Q When did you first become involved with selling drugs? 11

A Nineteen, ninety-nine. 12

Q How old were you about then? 13

A Nineteen, ninety-nine. 14

Q Well, 10 years ago roughly. 15

A Twenty, twenty-five, twenty-six. 16

Q When you first got started selling drugs, what drugs were 17

you selling? 18

A Marijuana. 19

Q Did you, at any time, become involved in selling any other 20

kinds of drugs? 21

A Yes, I did. I started since selling cocaine, right around 22

2002. 23

Q How did you become involved in selling cocaine? 24

A The customers had -- I had some friends that brought it 25




56

all to the table back in 2002. Ruben Salazar and John Paul 1

Gramatigo (phonetic). 2

Q When you say “they brought it all to the table,” what does 3

that mean? 4

A Well, they brought some customers, customers in. 5

Q And did you have a source of supply of cocaine to be able 6

to deal with them? 7

A Yes, I did. Here in Los Angeles. 8

Q Okay. Who was that? 9

A At that time I had -- it was a gentleman called Chi Chi. 10

Q Now between 2002 and 2006, what quantity of drugs, on 11

average, of cocaine on average, were you selling each month as 12

a result of the cocaine dealing that you just said you got 13

involved in? 14

A Hundreds. 15

Q Hundreds of what? 16

A Of kilos of cocaine. 17

Q And between 2002 and 2006 who were your principal 18

customers for that cocaine? 19

A A man named Terry, a man named Meat, John Paul Gramatigo, 20

Ruben Salazar and Wayne Joyner. 21

Q Do you know where those customers were located? 22

A They were based -- they were out in East Coast area. 23

Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, everywhere. 24

Q Do you know whether any of those customers were buying 25




57

drugs for distribution in the LA area? 1

A Yes, they were. 2

Q In addition to being the middle man in those cocaine 3

deals, did you have any kind of street distribution 4

organization of your own? 5

A Yes. 6

Q How many people did -- well, did you have any people who 7

you paid to help you with your drug dealing? 8

A Yes, I did, two of them. Two men. 9

Q And were those the guys who were distributing on the 10

street? 11

A Yes. 12

Q How did you communicate with your -- well, the people that 13

work for you and the people that were your customers and your 14

suppliers? 15

A How’d I communicate with them? 16

Q Yes. 17

A Through cell phones. 18

Q Did you have more than one phone? 19

A Yes, I did. 20

Q How many phones did you normally have? 21

A I would carry at least five on me. 22

Q And why -- 23

A Five cell phones on me. 24

Q I’m sorry. And why did you have so many phones? 25




58

A Well, cell phones for different customers. And, you know, 1

different -- different people. 2

Q And why did you have different cell phones for different 3

customers? 4

A To -- well, to avoid, you know, being in detect by the 5

law. 6

Q How did you think the law might detect you? 7

A Well, wire taps. Just trying avoid wire taps. 8

Q Did you subscribe to the cell phones under your own name? 9

A No, I wouldn’t. 10

Q How would you get those though? 11

A I would put them under fake names. 12

Q And did you ever use prepaid cell phones? 13

A Yes, I did. 14

Q How long did you normally keep your phones? 15

A I would keep them -- I would change up every two to three 16

weeks. 17

Q Now, do you know a person by the name of Ralph Simms? 18

A Absolutely. 19

Q When did you first meet him? 20

A Late 2006. 21

Q And who introduced you to Ralph Simms? 22

A Wayne Joyner. 23

Q Who was Wayne Joyner? 24

A He was a customer. 25




59

Q Did you know Simms by any name other than Ralph Simms? 1

A Sure, Paco. 2

Q When did you learn that his name actually was Ralph Simms? 3

A After the Indictments came out. 4

Q Did Simms call you by your real name? 5

A No, he wouldn’t. 6

Q What was the name he called you by? 7

A Hugo and Nice. 8

Q Okay. Where did your first meeting with Ralph Simms take 9

place? 10

A Late ’06 at the Marriott Hotel. 11

Q At the Marriott Hotel. Do you recall which Marriott 12

Hotel? 13

A By the LAX. 14

Q And do you recall who was present at the meeting other 15

than Simms? 16

A Sure. Wayne Joyner, Ruben Salazar, and a couple other 17

people from St. Louis. 18

Q What was the purpose of your meeting with Simms? 19

A The purpose was to talk about drugs, kilos of cocaine, 20

yeah. 21

Q Did you and Simms arrange any drug sales after that 22

meeting? 23

A Yes, we did. 24

Q When was that -- when did that happen? 25




60

A Sometime right after that. 1

Q That would be in what year? 2

A Two thousand and six -- like late, you know, 2006. 3

Q Okay. So right after the meeting? 4

A Right around October area, right around there. 5

Q Well, all right. Turning your attention now to your first 6

transaction with Mr. Simms in late 2006. What did you sell 7

him? 8

A Kilos of cocaine was the first deal. 9

Q Do you recall how many kilos of cocaine were involved in 10

that deal? 11

A I can’t give you a actual amount, but it was between 15 to 12

20 kilos. 13

Q In that particular case, do you recall who supplied you 14

with the cocaine? 15

A Wilbur. 16

Q And now you had mentioned before that you had been getting 17

your cocaine from somebody by the name of Chi Chi? 18

A Yes. 19

Q How did Wilbur get into the picture? 20

A Wilbur became one of my suppliers sometime in 2005, 2004, 21

2005. 22

Q And what happened to Chi Chi? 23

A He -- Chi Chi was still around, but there was a lot of 24

money owed to him. 25




61

Q I see. And did you have any other suppliers in addition 1

to Wilbur? 2

A Yes, I did. 3

Q Who was that? 4

A Yvonne Vasquez, Wilbur -- 5

Q Now, is Yvonne Vasquez the same Yvonne Vasquez to whom you 6

are married? 7

A Yes, it is. 8

Q When did you meet Yvonne Vasquez? 9

A Nineteen, ninety-eight. 10

Q When did you marry Yvonne Vasquez? 11

A Two thousand and five, March, of 2005. 12

Q Between 1998 and 2005 were you involved -- well, was 13

Yvonne Vasquez involved in supplying cocaine or drugs to 14

anybody during that period? 15

A Yes, she was. 16

Q Did you work with her on drug trafficking during that 17

period between 1998 and 2005? 18

A Not until right around like 2000 -- like 2 or 3, I 19

believe. Right around there. 20

Q In 2002 or 3 that was when you developed those customers 21

that you mentioned who wanted cocaine? 22

A Yes. 23

Q Turning now back to your first transaction with Mr. Simms. 24

Did you have to pay your supplier, Wilbur, in advance for the 25




62

cocaine that you provided Mr. Simms? 1

A Sometimes I would. 2

Q But in that particular case, do you recall? 3

A On the first deal? 4

Q Yes. 5

A I can’t remember. 6

Q When -- did Simms pay you in advance for the cocaine that 7

you supplied to him? 8

A No. 9

Q In that first deal? Did Simms ever pay you for the 10

cocaine from that first deal? 11

A Yes, he did. 12

Q How much later did he pay you? 13

A Maybe about a week -- a week after that, after we gave it 14

to him. 15

Q Did he personally pay you? 16

A Yes, he did. 17

Q Now, do you know what the term “fronting the drugs” means? 18

A Yes. It means you don’t got to put the cash up and a 19

front will take a day, two, three or four days and then you 20

will get your money back. 21

Q Now was it your normal practice to front drugs to somebody 22

in a first deal? As you did to Mr. Simms? 23

A Yes. 24

Q That -- why is that? 25




63

A Well, because the -- there -- the history was already 1

there. 2

Q What do you mean by that? 3

A With Wayne Joyner, with Mr. Wayne -- the history was 4

already there. 5

Q What history would -- what do you mean exactly? 6

A Well, the history would be distributing hundreds of kilos 7

of cocaine with Wayne Joyner. 8

Q You’re referring to your history with Wayne Joyner? 9

A Yes, my history, yes. 10

Q Now, did Wayne Joyner say anything about Mr. Simms that 11

caused you to front drugs to Mr. Simms? 12

A Well he had mentioned that he’s -- you know, -- this guy’s 13

good. This guy’s good for it. 14

Q Now did Simms tell you what he was going to do with the 15

cocaine that he bought from you? 16

MR. ROGERS: Objection. Hearsay. 17

THE WITNESS: Excuse me? 18

THE COURT: Objection’s overruled. 19

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 20

Q Did Mr. Simms tell you what he was going to do with the 21

cocaine that he bought from you? 22

A Oh, yes. He was going to send it to his people in St. 23

Louis. 24

Q Did he, at that time, tell you who those people were? 25




64

A Yes. 1

Q And who were they? 2

A Tito, Muscles, another guy named Cuzzo. He had a number 3

of customers out there. 4

Q In St. Louis? 5

A Yes. 6

Q Now, were you supposed to -- were you supposed to take the 7

cocaine to St. Louis yourself? In your arrangement with Mr. 8

Simms? 9

A On the first deal? 10

Q Yes. 11

A No, no. 12

Q Well, how -- what -- did you and Simms make arrangements 13

for the delivery of that cocaine to St Louis? 14

A Yes, we did. 15

Q And what were those arrangements that you made? 16

A Well, the -- an individual by the name of Little D 17

transported that cocaine -- 18

Q Now, we’re talking about the -- 19

A -- to St. Louis. 20

Q -- first transaction? 21

A Yes. This is the first one. 22

Q And who was Little D? 23

MR. ROGERS: Objection. No foundation. 24





65

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 1

Q Did you know this person, Little D? 2

A Yes. I had met him through Simms. 3

Q And who is that -- do you know that person’s real name? 4

A No, I don’t. He’s the transporter guy, he ships the 5

drugs. He’s a shipper. 6

Q Now at any point, does that person Little D also go by the 7

name of Tweety? 8

A No. 9

Q Who is Tweety? 10

A Tweety’s another guy that works for Wilbur and Yvonne 11

Vasquez. 12

Q And -- 13

A He’s -- yeah. 14

Q -- who -- I’m sorry. To go -- so was this Tweety one of 15

your guys? I mean, not Tweety, Little D. Is that somebody 16

who worked for you? 17

A No, he worked for Simms. 18

Q I see. 19

A Uh-huh. 20

Q And Tweety worked for? 21

A Tweety worked for Yvonne Vasquez and Wilber. 22

Q Did Tweety ever also -- well, I’ll come back to that. 23

Now, do you recall the interview you had with Special Agent 24

Smith and Ms. Wang, prosecutor Wang, and Special Agent Wagner 25




66

in February of this year? 1

A Yes, I do. 2

Q What was that meeting for? 3

A It was a proffer meeting. 4

Q And do you remember telling them a different story about 5

what you sold Simms in your first transaction with Simms? 6

A Yes. 7

Q What did you tell them you sold Simms in that first 8

transaction? 9

A Eight ounces of marijuana. 10

Q Was that the truth? 11

A No. It was a lie. 12

Q And was there a reason why you lied to the agents and the 13

prosecutor in that first meeting about what you sold? 14

A I have never experienced nothing like that. I was 15

concerned and you know, scared. 16

Q Now after your first cocaine transaction with Mr. Simms, 17

did you supply Simms with any more drugs? 18

A Yes, I did. 19

Q Where -- did you continue to supply him with cocaine? 20

A I continued to supply him with kilos of cocaine. Yes, I 21

did. 22

Q Do you recall how many completed transactions you had with 23

Mr. Simms in which you supplied him with cocaine? And by that 24

I mean where you delivered the cocaine and you actually got 25




67

paid for it? 1

A Right around six -- six deals. 2

Q Did you supply him exclusively with cocaine or did any of 3

those deals involve anything else? 4

A Cocaine. 5

Q Did you supply him the same amount of cocaine each time? 6

A No. It varied. 7

Q And what was the range that it varied from and to? 8

A From 20 to 35, 45 to as high as 80. 9

Q Did -- 10

A Kilos of cocaine. 11

Q Thank you. Did -- you mentioned that in your first 12

transaction Simms told you who it was in St. Louis that he was 13

sending this stuff to. Did he tell you during subsequent 14

deals, deals after your first one, that he was continuing to 15

sell or to supply that cocaine to those same people? 16

MR. SWARTH: Objection, hearsay. 17


THE WITNESS: Yes. 19

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 20

Q Now, you mentioned that in that first transaction somebody 21

by the name of Little D took the cocaine. In those other six 22

deals or so that you had with Mr. Simms, who transported the 23

coke? Did you make arrangements, did you discuss with Simms 24

each time how the drugs, how the cocaine was going to get to 25




68

St. Louis? 1

A Yes, yes. 2

Q And you did not take the cocaine to St. Louis yourself 3

personally. Correct? 4


Q Who took that cocaine to St. Louis in those subsequent -- 6

in those transactions after the first one? 7



MR. ROGERS: And foundation. I -- that’s all right. 10

THE COURT: Go ahead. 11

MR. ROGERS: I object as to which deals he’s speaking 12

of. 13

THE COURT: Of vague? 14

MR. ROGERS: Vagueness. 15

THE COURT: Sustained. 16

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 17

Q You said there were six deals. Does that include the 18

first or there were six in addition to the first? 19

A Six on top of the first. 20

Q Okay. Let’s look at the second deal. Do you recall who 21

-- what arrangements were made to take the cocaine to St. Louis 22

in that second deal? 23

A By a man named D-boy transported it. 24

Q And do you know D-boy’s real name? 25




69

A At the time I didn’t, but now I do. After the Indictment, 1

it’s of Demond Lee. 2

MR. SWARTH: Objection. Move to strike. 3

MR. KALOYANIDES: Objection, lacks foundation. Move 4

to strike. 5

THE COURT: The motion would be granted. The jury’s 6

ordered to disregard it. Lacks foundation. 7

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 8

Q Mr. Corral, did you ever have occasion to actually meet 9

this person named D-boy? 10

A Yeah, I had met him once. I met him through Simms. 11

Q And where did you meet him? 12

A Here in Los Angeles at Simms location. 13

Q Do you recall the -- what was going on at the time you met 14

him? 15

MR. SWARTH: Objection. Vague, what was going on? 16

THE COURT: Do you understand the question? 17

THE WITNESS: No, I don’t. 18

THE COURT: Rephrase it. 19

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 20

Q Why did Simms introduce you to D-boy? 21

MR. KALOYANIDES: Objection. Lack of foundation, 22

calls for speculation. 23

MR. SWARTH: Objection. It’s mine. 24





70

THE WITNESS: Well, he told me D-boy was the 1

transporter. He’s the guy that drives the trucks and he -- at 2

the time he was working for a truck company and he was the guy 3

transporting the drugs back and forth. From LA to St. Louis. 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q In -- do you recall whether anybody other than D-boy 6

transported any of those other loads to St. Louis? 7

A Yes. 8

MR. ROGERS: Objection. Foundation. 9


THE WITNESS: Tweety. 11

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 12

Q And Tweety? 13

A Yeah, a guy named Tweety. 14

Q In each of those subsequent deals, the deals after the 15

first one, did you continue to front the drugs? The cocaine to 16

Mr. Simms? 17

A Yes. 18

Q In those deals did you get paid for that cocaine? 19

A Yes. 20

Q How did you get -- who paid you? 21

A Simms. 22

Q How long would it generally take him to pay you? 23

A The turn around would be from a week to two weeks at the 24

latest. 25




71

Q Did Simms ever explain to you in connection with those 1

transactions where he was getting the money from? 2



THE WITNESS: It -- cause -- his people in St. Louis. 5

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 6

Q Did he tell you how the money was going to arrive in Los 7

Angeles? 8

A Through D-boy and the big truck. The trailer. 9

Q Were you ever present when D-boy arrived with the money? 10

A On one occasion I do remember. 11

Q How did you know that that occurred? 12

A Cause I personally picked up the money myself. 13

Q Was D-boy present when you picked up the money? 14

A Yes, he was. 15

MR. SWARTH: I’m going to object then to -- and 16

strike that entire line of questioning, your Honor. The 17

initial question was “Were you present when the money arrived?” 18

And that’s -- 19

THE COURT: What’s the ground? 20

MR. SWARTH: Relevance, hearsay, foundation. 21

THE COURT: Overruled on each. 22

MR. SWARTH: Thank you. 23

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 24

Q Now you said you have learned the real name of this person 25




72

that you were introduced to as D-boy. Do you know what that 1

real name is? 2

A Yes, I do. 3

Q What is that name? 4

A Demond Lee. 5

MR. KALOYANIDES: Objection. Calls for hearsay. 6

Move to strike. Lacks foundation. 7

MR. SPEAKER: Join. 8

THE COURT: The objections are overruled. Motion is 9

denied. 10

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 11

Q When did you learn -- how did you learn that real name? 12

A Well, when the Indictments came out. 13

MR. KALOYANIDES: Objection. Same objection, lacks 14

foundation. Move to strike, your Honor. 15

THE COURT: Motion denied. Objection’s overruled. 16

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 17

Q Do you see that person, Demond Lee, that D-boy, here in 18

this courtroom today? 19

THE COURT: You can stand up if you wish. 20

THE WITNESS: Yeah. The gentleman standing right 21

over there. 22

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 23

Q Could you describe him a little bit more specifically, 24

they’re -- 25




73

A A brown collared shirt, right over there. 1

THE COURT: Additional. 2

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 3

Q Would you describe the shirt more specifically? 4

A A checkered shirt, the brown shirt straight -- right over 5

there. 6

THE COURT: Indicating the Defendant. 7


THE COURT: Mr. Lee. 9

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 10

Q Now, Mr. Corral, you have said that you have supplied 11

cocaine to Mr. Simms for his customers in St. Louis. Did you 12

ever give Mr. Simms any cash for him to buy cocaine from 13

somebody other than you? 14

A Yes. 15

Q When did that happen? 16

A Late January, sometime in February. 17

Q Of what year? 18

A ’07. 19

Q Do you remember how much cash you gave him? 20

A Ninety-five k. 21

Q And where did you get that cash? 22

A Some cash I had buried. 23

Q You had it buried? 24

A Yeah, I had it buried. 25




74

Q And why did you give Simms cash to get cocaine from 1

somewhere else? 2

A Cause the money looked awful and other suppliers wouldn’t 3

take it, so Simms tells me he had someone that would. 4

Q What types of -- how did the money look exactly? 5

A It looked awful, it looked like -- you know, faded money. 6

It looked like rats bit it, it just looked terrible. 7

Q What type of bills were these, were this money? 8

A Hundreds and fifties. 9

Q Was the -- how was the -- was the cash wrapped in any way? 10

A Well, it was in a -- it was $5,000 stacks. 11

Q Why didn’t you just use that money to buy cocaine from 12

your own suppliers? 13

A I tried, but they wouldn’t take it. 14

Q Did Simms tell you what he did with the money? 15

A Yeah, he purchased six or seven kilos of cocaine from 16

someone else. 17

Q Did he ever repay you the $95,000? 18

A Yes, he did. 19

Q How much money did he give you? 20

A Right over a 100,000. 21

Q What did that money look like? 22

A Clean money. 23

MR. CROWFOOT: I’m going to publish, your Honor, 24

Exhibits 10, Government Exhibits 10, 11 and 12, which were 25




75

previously admitted into evidence, so that -- 1

THE COURT: Go ahead, please. 2

MR. CROWFOOT: -- Mr. Corral can see them. 3

Thank you. 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q Now, Mr. Corral, this is -- Exhibit 10 is now on display 6

on the screen. Are you able to see that on the screen in front 7

of you or on one of the big ones? 8

A I can see it right in front of me. 9

Q And what is -- what is it you’re looking at? Do you 10

recognize that? 11

A The money I gave Simms. 12

Q This is -- 13

MR. CROWFOOT: I’m publishing Exhibit 11. 14

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 15

Q Can you see that on your screen? 16

A Yes. 17

Q Are we looking at the same -- the same money? 18

A I believe so, yes. 19

Q Does -- is that frayed? Is that what you mean by the rats 20

chewed on it? 21

A Yeah, faded money -- just looks like it’s ripped apart. 22

That’s the money I gave him. 23

Q Same? This I’m publishing now, Exhibit 12. 24

A Yes. This is it. 25




76

Q Mr. Corral, did you ever meet Oscar Dillon? 1

A Yes. 2

Q When did you meet that person? 3

A Late January, sometime in February, I met him in Carson on 4

Turmont (phonetic) Street. 5

Q And -- on Carson at Turmont Street -- I was going to ask 6

you where did you meet him. 7

What is the significance of -- what is -- what is 8

that location on Turmont Street in Carson that you met him at? 9

A It was a home, one of Simms’s homes. 10

Q Had you been to that home before? 11

A Yes, I have. 12

Q Who arranged for your meeting with Mr. Dillon? 13

A Simms. 14

Q Was he present at the meeting? 15

A Yes. 16

Q Do you recall whether anybody else was present? 17

A Simms, Muscles, and there was a woman and another guy that 18

I don’t know of. 19

Q Now you’ve mentioned that Simms and Muscles -- I’m going 20

to come back to this question in a moment. 21

A Uh-huh. 22

Q Matter of fact I’m going to come back to the question now. 23

When you were introduced to Mr. Dillon, were you introduced to 24

him as Oscar Dillon or were you introduced to him by some other 25




77

name? 1

MR. ROGERS: Objection. Leading. 2

THE COURT: That’s -- it’s overruled. 3

THE WITNESS: I was introduced to him to Muscles. 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q Were you given any other name for him? 6

A No, I wasn’t. 7

Q Did you have any subsequent dealings with that person, 8

Muscles? 9

A Yes. 10

Q Were you -- did you ever learn any other names or 11

nicknames for him? 12

A Yes. 13

MR. ROGERS: Objection. No foundation. 14


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 16

Q What were those names? 17

A Chest, Brother, yeah. 18

Q Now, going back to that meeting, your first -- your 19

meeting with -- did you subsequently learn the true name of 20

Muscles or Chest? 21

A Yes, I did. 22

Q And when did you learn that? 23

A When the Indictments came out. 24

MR. ROGERS: I object. This is an improper -- an 25




78

Indictment is not personal knowledge, your Honor. It’s -- 1

THE COURT: What’s the ground? 2

MR. ROGERS: It’s hearsay and there’s no foundation 3

for the identification based on an Indictment. 4


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 6

Q Do you see Mr. Dillon in court here today? 7

A Yes. 8

Q Could you point him out, please? 9

A He’s just sitting right over there. With the blue shirt 10

and tie. 11

Q I actually didn’t hear your answer. What did you say? 12

Which shirt? 13

A He’s sitting over there with the blue -- blue shirt and a 14

tie. 15

Q In the first row or -- 16

A Straight back. 17

Q -- the second row? 18

A Second row. 19

THE COURT: Indicating Mr. Dillon. 20


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 22

Q Now, in the -- what was the purpose of your meeting with 23

Mr. Dillon in early 2007? 24

A We discussed kilos of cocaine. 25




79

Q And just -- you discussed kilos of cocaine for what 1

purpose? 2

A We -- well, for him to have kilos of cocaine in his 3

hometown of St. Louis. 4

Q And who was going to supply those kilos of cocaine? 5

A I was. 6

Q After that first meeting or after that meeting did you 7

ever supply Dillon with cocaine? 8

A Yes, I did. 9

Q When you supplied Dillon with cocaine was Simms involved 10

in that process? 11

A Yes. 12

Q What was his role? Simms’s role? 13

A Simms’s role was to help transport the -- pretty much to 14

have everything arranged. 15

Q Do you recall when the first time was that you supplied 16

Dillon with cocaine? Was it -- 17

MR. ROGERS: Object to foundation. 18

THE WITNESS: I want to say March. 19

MR. ROGERS: I object. There’s been no foundation 20

known that this -- he has any first-hand knowledge of that. 21

THE COURT: The objection’s overruled. 22

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 23

Q Excuse me, just repeat your answer, if you would. 24

A March, right around March, I believe. 25




80

Q Of which year? 1

A ’07. 2

Q And how much cocaine did you supply? 3

A Thirty-five kilos of cocaine. 4

Q Did you deliver that to Dillon? 5

A Not myself, yeah, but it did get to St. Louis. 6

Q Who did you deliver it too? 7

MR. KALOYANIDES: Objection. Lacks foundation. Move 8

to strike. 9

MR. ROGERS: Join. 10

THE COURT: The response “it did get to St. Louis” is 11

struck. The jury’s ordered to disregard it. 12

You can ask your question. 13

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 14

Q Who did you deliver that cocaine too? 15

A To Simms. 16

Q Did Simms tell you or confirm to you who that cocaine was 17

going too? 18

A Yes. 19

Q Do you recall what price you were charging for that 20

cocaine? 21

A Sixteen, five. 22

Q What does that mean? 23

A Sixteen thousand, five hundred. Per kilo. 24

Q Do you recall how big that transaction was for? How many 25




81

kilos were involved? 1

A Thirty-five. 2

Q Did you get paid for that cocaine? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Was that before or after you delivered the cocaine to 5

Simms? 6

A After. 7

Q In your first -- in your meeting with Dillon, did you get 8

his telephone number? 9

A No, I didn’t. 10

Q So how did you communicate with him? 11

A I didn’t start communicating with him till maybe a couple 12

months after that. 13

Q Well after that first transaction with Mr. Dillon did you 14

supply him with any more cocaine? 15

A Yes, I did. 16

Q Did you deliver it directly? 17

A Yes. 18

Q To Mr. Dillon? 19

A Yes. 20

Q Well, let me back up on that question. 21

Did you personally transport that cocaine to St. 22

Louis? 23

A Not me personally. 24

Q Who transported that cocaine to St. Louis? 25




82

A Tweety did. 1

Q Tweety did. 2

A Yeah. 3

Q Now you said you -- how many transactions -- how many 4

times did you supply cocaine to Mr. Dillon? 5

A Right around four times, four to five times. 6

Q At some point you said you got Mr. Dillon’s telephone 7

number? 8

A Yes. 9

Q Who gave you that? 10

THE COURT: Okay. Why don’t we take the morning 11

recess. Please -- let’s make it a 20 minute recess. Please 12

return at 25 to the hour. During your absence do not discuss 13

the case amongst yourself or with any other person. 14

Sir, please wait until the jury exits. 15

(Jurors exit the courtroom) 16

(Court in recess from 10:17 a.m. to 10:38 a.m.) 17

(Jurors entered the courtroom at 10:38 a.m.) 18

THE CLERK: Thank you, everyone. Please be seated. 19

THE COURT: Did you share it with Counsel? 20

THE CLERK: I did not. 21

THE COURT: Okay. Let me have you share it. I have 22

a note from one of the jurors. I’m going to share it with 23

Counsel so Counsel can see it. 24

THE CLERK: Would you just pass it around when -- 25




83

(Attorneys read juror note) 1

THE COURT: You may proceed. 2


DIRECT EXAMINATION (RESUMED) 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q Mr. Corral, before the break, you mentioned that after 6

your first transaction with Mr. Dillon, you supplied him with 7

cocaine on several additional occasions and you mentioned how 8

many times that was and how much cocaine you supplied but what 9

I did not ask you and I’ll ask you now is over what period of 10

time after that first day, how long did you -- how long did 11

that supply relationship continue? 12

A Well, from -- say, right around six months, six, seven 13

months between February and, like, July. 14

Q Of ’07? 15

A Of ’07, correct. 16

Q And in each case, you did agree with Mr. Simms on the 17

transportation arrangements for that cocaine to get to 18

St. Louis, correct? 19

A Correct. 20

Q And forgive me if I’ve ask you this already but there were 21

a number of objections and I don’t remember. Was the cocaine 22

that you subsequently delivered to Mr. Dillon or to Simms for 23

delivery to Dillon -- was it transported to St. Louis in each 24

case by the same person, to your knowledge? 25




84

MR. SWARTH: Objection, calls for speculation. 1


THE WITNESS: There was two people that transported 3

it. 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q And who were those two people? 6

A D-Boy and Tweety. 7

Q Considering that you mentioned that you had done four to 8

five additional deliveries for Mr. Dillon, do you know how many 9

of those were delivered by Tweety and how many were delivered 10

by Demond Lee? 11

MR. SWARTH: Objection, compound. 12

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 13

Q Well, do you remember how many of those were delivered by 14

Demond Lee? 15

A At least three. 16

Q Were you paid for each one of those transactions? 17

A Yes. 18

Q Did Simms tell you in each case the arrangements for 19

bringing the money back to Los Angeles? 20

A Yes. 21

Q Did the same person -- who brought the money back to 22

Los Angeles in each of those cases? 23

A D-Boy did. 24

MR. SWARTH: Objection, no foundation. 25




85


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 2

Q Now, you mentioned that at some point, you did actually 3

get Mr. Dillon’s telephone number, correct? 4

A Correct. 5

Q How did you get that telephone number? 6

A Through Simms. 7

Q Did you ever then after that have occasion to speak with 8

Mr. Dillon on the telephone? 9

A Yes. 10

Q And what did you talk -- how many times did you speak with 11

Defendant Dillon over the telephone? 12

A I would say roughly -- 13

MR. ROGERS: Objection, speculation. 14


THE WITNESS: Roughly between five or ten times. 16

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 17

Q Did you engage in any -- what was the subject matter of 18

those telephone conversations that you had with Mr. Dillon? 19

A To discuss the business. 20

Q The business being what? 21

A Cocaine. 22

Q So when you say you were discussing the business, were you 23

discussing -- do you mean that you were discussing those 24

transactions, those supplies, those five supplies that -- or 25




86

whatever number it was after you got his telephone number with 1

Mr. Dillon? 2

A Yes. 3

Q Now, I’m going to turn your attention to a specific event 4

in March of 2007. Do you recall meeting with Ralph Simms on 5

March 27, 2007? 6

A Yes. 7

Q Do you recall where you met him? 8

A Chili’s. 9

Q And what is Chili’s? 10

A Chili’s Restaurant. 11

Q And where is that restaurant located? 12

A Carson. 13

Q What was the purpose of that meeting? 14

A To discuss kilograms of cocaine. 15

Q Do you recall who was present at that meeting? 16

A Simms, Tito, some guy named Big Rob and some girls were 17

there, too, but I can’t remember. 18

Q Any other males there? 19

A There was some other guy from St. Louis there. I can’t -- 20

D-Sod or D-Hod, something like that. 21

Q When you said that the meeting was to discuss kilos of 22

cocaine, can you be more specific? Do you recall whether there 23

was a particular transaction you were discussing that day? 24

A Yes. Yeah, I do remember D-Boy was there also. We were 25




87

talking about kilos of cocaine. 1

Q And were you making -- was the purpose of the meeting to 2

make arrangements or was it a general discussion? 3

A It was for arrangements for D-Boy to pull out of L.A. 4

within a couple days with kilos of cocaine. 5

Q And who were those kilos of cocaine going to? 6

A Muscles. 7

Q Meaning Defendant Dillon? 8

A Yes. 9

Q After the meeting at Chili’s, did you meet again that same 10

day with Simms? 11

A Yes, we did. 12

Q Where did you meet? 13

A At his house right around the corner. 14

Q Right around the corner from what? 15

A From Chili’s, I’m sorry. 16

Q Who was present at his house? 17

A D-Boy, Tito, Simms and Rob -- a guy named Rob. 18

Q Was there any cocaine at Simms’ house? 19

A Yes, there was. 20

Q How much cocaine was there? 21

A Thirty-five kilos of cocaine. 22

Q Do you know how the cocaine got there? 23

A I delivered it to -- I delivered it there to the house on 24

Turmont (phonetic). 25




88

Q That’s the house where you were meeting that day? 1

A Yes, yes. 2

Q Did you deliver it that day? 3

A No. 4

Q When did you deliver it? 5

A A week before that. 6

Q Was anything done with the cocaine that day on March 27th 7

when you went there after the Chili’s Restaurant? 8

MR. ROGERS: Objection, foundation. 9


THE WITNESS: Yes. We wrapped them. 11

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 12

Q When you say, “We wrapped them” -- 13

A Yeah. We had to rewrap the cocaine. 14

Q Who is “we”? 15

A Me, D-Boy, Tito and Simms. 16

THE COURT: Clarify who he means by D-Boy. 17

MR. CROWFOOT: Yes. I apologize, your Honor. 18

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 19

Q D-Boy was who? 20

A Demond Lee. 21

Q You said that you were wrapping the cocaine? 22

A Yes. 23

Q So what condition was the cocaine in before you were 24

wrapping it? 25




89

A It smelled awful. So we had to rewrap it. We had to 1

rewrap so that when he left, you know, it just wouldn’t smell 2

so bad. 3

Q When who left? 4

A D-Boy, back to St. Louis. 5

Q And when you say, “D-Boy,” if we’re talking about Demond 6

Lee -- 7

A Yes, we are. 8

Q -- would you just say “Lee”? 9

A Oh, okay. 10

Q Okay. Did -- do you know what happened to that cocaine? 11

Did anybody tell you? 12

A What happened to it? It got delivered to St. Louis. 13

Q Who told you that? 14

A Simms. 15

Q Did you see that cocaine leave the house that day? 16


Q In -- turning now your attention to June or July of 2007, 18

did anyone ever speak to you about installing a secret 19

compartment in a truck? 20

A Simms did. 21

Q What did Simms tell you about this truck? 22

A Well, he told me -- 23

MR. SWARTH: Objection, hearsay. 24





90

THE WITNESS: Well, he mentioned to me that there was 1

a stash of kilos of cocaine and that was going to get done to 2

the truck and that was going to fit a hundred kilos of cocaine 3

and -- yeah. 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q Did he -- did Simms tell you how much that construction 6

was going to cost? 7

A Ten thousand. 8

Q Did he ask you to pay for it? 9

A Yes. 10

Q Did you? 11

A Yes. 12

Q Did you pay for the whole amount? 13

A I don’t remember if I paid for the whole amount but I did 14

give him some money. 15

Q Were you expecting to get paid back for that? 16

A No. 17

Q Why did you put up the money? 18

A Just to -- I put it up so the stash can get done and for 19

security reasons. 20

Q When you say, “for security” -- 21

A Yeah. 22

Q -- how would this stash benefit you? 23

A Well, for the -- you know, for the kilos to be well 24

stashed in the truck. 25




91

Q Did you -- did Simms tell you what truck this stash was 1

going to be installed in? 2

MR. SWARTH: Objection, calls for hearsay. 3


THE WITNESS: Yes, he did. 5

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 6

Q Whose truck -- or what truck did he say? 7

A Demond Lee’s truck. 8

Q Did you ever actually see the stash? 9


Q Did you ever actually see the truck? 11


Q Do you know if the truck with the secret compartment was 13

ever actually used to ship cocaine to St. Louis, the cocaine 14

that you supplied to Dillon or to other people in St. Louis? 15

A That actual truck, no. 16

Q And do you know why not? 17

A No, I don’t. 18

Q Turning your attention to July of 2007, did you agree to 19

supply anyone with a hundred kilos of cocaine? 20

A Yes, I did. 21

Q Who did you agree to supply a hundred kilos of cocaine to? 22

A Muscles in St. Louis. 23

Q With whom did you discuss the arrangements for that supply 24

of cocaine? 25




92

A With Simms and Yvonne Vasquez. 1

Q Did you ever speak with Defendant Dillon directly about 2

that hundred-kilo deal? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Did you do that in person or by telephone? 5

A Oh, telephone. 6

THE COURT: And when you refer to the participants, 7

please identify them by their last name, if you know it, and 8

not by their monikers or AKAs, please. 9

THE WITNESS: Okay. Sure. 10


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 12

Q When you say you discussed it with Yvonne Vasquez, what 13

was her role in that transaction? 14

A To transport it to St. Louis through Tweety. 15

Q Now, at -- had you at any point before that transaction 16

ever supplied as big an amount as a hundred kilos to anybody in 17

St. Louis? 18

A No. 19

Q In this case you said Tweety was supposed to take the 20

load? 21

A Yes. 22

Q Do you know why the load was not sent with -- Tweety was 23

somebody you say worked for Ms. Vasquez? 24

A Yes. 25




93

Q Do you know why the load was not sent with Defendant Lee? 1

A Because at the time, his truck was being installed. That 2

was one of the reasons, yeah. 3

Q Did the hundred kilos get delivered to St. Louis, to your 4

knowledge? 5

A They were supposed to but it turned out to be a -- 6

Q Well, what -- let me just -- I’ll -- so the answer is 7

“No”? 8

A Uh-huh, correct. 9

Q Why were the hundred kilos not delivered in St. Louis? 10

A They weren’t delivered because it was phony. It was a 11

phony run by Yvonne Vasquez. 12

Q When you say that, what do you mean by “It was a phony run 13

by Yvonne Vasquez”? 14

A Well, she had made it look like she was delivering the 15

cocaine to St. Louis, a hundred kilos of cocaine with her 16

transporter Tweety and she -- it turned out to be a big lie. 17

Q Well, let me ask you this. At the time, did you know all 18

of this that you’re telling us today? 19

A At the time -- 20

Q Did you know that it was a big lie? 21

A No. 22

Q Were you expecting a hundred kilos to be delivered? 23

A Yes, I was. 24

Q And when those hundred kilos were not delivered, what were 25




94

you told -- well, who told you that they were not delivered? 1

A Yvonne Vasquez told me. 2

Q Did she give you a reason? 3

A She had made up this story. 4

Q Well, what was the reason she gave you? 5

A The story was that three black men jumped out at the truck 6

stop over there in St. Louis and robbed Tweety and that’s -- 7

Q Did you believe that story at the time? 8

A No, I didn’t. 9

Q Did you talk to any -- to Simms or to Dillon or to anybody 10

of those people that you were supplying this cocaine to about 11

this lost load? 12

A Yes, I did. 13

Q Who did you talk to? 14

A I talked to Simms and Oscar. 15

Q What did you tell Simms or what did he tell you about the 16

lost load? 17

A Well, we were trying to figure out what had happened. We 18

were on the phone -- we were talking on the phone a few times. 19

I talked to Dillon a few times. We were discussing back and 20

forth what had happened. So did you tell them that you didn’t 21

believe the story? What did you tell them about -- 22

A Well, I told them someone was playing games but at the 23

time I just wasn’t sure who it was. 24

Q Did you at some point reach some kind of conclusion in 25




95

your own mind as to who had stolen the cocaine or what had 1

happened to that cocaine? 2

A Yes. 3

Q When did that happen -- when did you reach that 4

conclusion? 5

A Like, sometime in, like, August or September. 6

Q And did -- at any point between July and August or 7

September, did Simms give you any cash up front for a supply of 8

cocaine? 9

A Yes, he did. 10

Q When did that occur? 11

A Right after 7-7-7. 12

Q What is the significance of 7-7-7? 13

A That’s the day where this whole robbery thing was planned 14

by Yvonne and the kilos were supposed to be going to St. Louis. 15

Q Now, 7-7-7, in your mind, stands for what -- what is -- 16

A July 7th of -- July of -- July 7th of ’07. The seventh 17

month, yeah. 18

Q Is that the day you became aware of the fact that this 19

load went missing? 20

A Yes. 21

Q Now -- so sometime after that date, Simms gave you some 22

cash for a supply of cocaine. That’s what you said? 23

A Yes, he did. 24

Q Do you recall how much cash he gave you? 25




96

A Sixty thousand. 1

Q Did he tell you where he got that cash? 2

A Yeah. He had said half of it was Demond Lee’s and the 3

other half was his. 4

Q And what were you supposed to do with that cash? 5

A Get cocaine for them. 6

Q How much -- do you recall how much cocaine you were 7

supposed to get for that cash? 8

A Right around 5 kilos. 9

Q Did Simms tell you what he was going to do with that 10

cocaine? 11

A Yeah, transport -- take it to St. Louis. 12

Q Did he say anybody in particular was going to get it? 13

A Yeah, well, he was going to give it to Mr. Lee and take it 14

to St. Louis. 15

Q Did you actually supply the cocaine that they gave you 16

money for? 17


Q Why not? 19

A I had stayed with the money. 20

Q When you say, “I had stayed with the money” -- 21

A Yeah, I stayed with the money because at the time I had 22

five -- when that had happened, I thought, you know, that they 23

were, kind of, in on the robbery and, you know, I wasn’t sure 24

if they were in or not on 7-7-7, the robbery that took place in 25




97

St. Louis. So I decided to just tell them, you know, that -- 1

well, I decided to really just take that money from them. 2

Q How much was that hundred-kilo load of cocaine worth to 3

purchase from your suppliers? 4

A One point five million. 5

MR. CROWFOOT: Your Honor, I’m going to publish 6

Exhibit 239. 7

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 8

Q Mr. Corral, up there on the -- where you’re sitting, there 9

is a binder of transcripts. If you would -- it’s a black 10

binder. Perhaps Mr. Cruz might be able to show you which one 11

it is because there’s several binders up there. 12

A Yeah, there’s three over here. 13

THE COURT: On the note that I have from one of the 14

jurors is the -- first is, can you provide a picture of Daniel 15

Corral. Just so we have clarification, Mr. Corral is in the 16

witness chair and if the Government has a picture, then we can 17

provide that later. 18

MR. CROWFOOT: A picture of Mr. Corral, your Honor? 19

THE COURT: There’s a request for a picture of 20

Mr. Corral. Okay. So the Government may have that picture but 21

I just want to make sure everyone understands Mr. Corral is the 22

person testifying in the witness chair. And the other question 23

is, what does “pretext” mean. “Pretext” means the stated 24

reason is different than the actual reason. Go ahead. 25




98


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 2

Q Mr. Corral, do you have Exhibit 239-A in front of you? 3

A Yes. 4

Q Would you look at the very first page of that exhibit 5

before it has all the lines with the talking on it? Are you 6

looking at that? 7

A Um. 8

Q The very, very first page. It looks like -- the one that 9

looks like that? 10

A Yes, yes. 11

Q Okay. Could you just tell us by looking at that page what 12

is the date of this particular telephone call? 13

A 8/6/07. 14

Q And who is involved in this call? 15

A Me and Simms. 16

Q Now, you have listened to that call before, have you not? 17

A Yes, I have. 18

Q And you’ve read the transcript before this morning? 19

A Yes. 20

Q Okay. And you’re aware of the fact that the transcript 21

that you have in front of you, and the jury has, has been 22

redacted for legal reasons, things have been blacked out for 23

legal reasons? 24

A Sure. 25




99

Q Okay. 1

MR. CROWFOOT: I’m now publishing Exhibit 239. 2

(Government’s Exhibit Number 239 audio was played from 3

11:01 a.m. to 11:17 a.m.) 4

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 5

Q Mr. Corral, in this call -- I’m now looking at the page 6

that says -- it’s got a little “Page 2” at the bottom of it 7

just so that we can keep track of the questions. You tell 8

Simms, “I’ve been suffering, man.” What did you mean by that? 9

A I meant that I’ve been very confused ‘cause of what had 10

happened and -- 11

Q I’m sorry. Go ahead. 12

A No, and I just wasn’t able to figure out what had 13

happened. 14

Q And what was it that had happened that you were referring 15

to? 16

A Well, the delivery of the cocaine was all phony. 17

Q The lost load of cocaine. 18

A Yeah, the lost load of the cocaine, yeah. 19

Q When you told him that the cats -- “These cats are on me,” 20

what did you mean by that? 21

A The suppliers were pressuring me. 22

Q Were the suppliers, in fact, pressuring you? 23

A Yes, they were. 24

Q Who was pressuring you? 25




100

A The suppliers, Yvonne’s suppliers. 1

Q At the time -- on Page 3, if you look down, sort of, half 2

way down the page, you say, “But you didn’t do that, Brother?” 3

And it’s a question. You asked him as a question. You’re 4

talking to Simms. Did you at the time believe that Simms might 5

have been involved in that lost load? 6

A Yes. 7

Q On Page 4, Simms -- in the conversation, Simms says to 8

you, “Muscles, swear to god, he didn’t, man.” What did you 9

understand him to be telling you there? 10

A That Muscles wouldn’t have done that. 11

Q That -- and who did you think he was referring to when he 12

said, “Muscles didn’t do that”? 13

A Oscar Dillon. 14

Q Just a little bit -- a few moments later in that same 15

conversation on the transcript on the same page, you go -- he 16

says, “Then on top of that, you know, they done started that 17

other shit back.” What was -- what did you understand him to 18

be referring to at that point? 19

A Some other indictments that came out. 20

Q Do you know where that had happened? 21

A I believe Atlanta. 22

Q I’ll refer you to the transcript on Page 6, the little 6 23

on the bottom. It says -- Simms at that point in the 24

conversation says to you, “Dude, swear to god, he ain’t either. 25




101

He down there talking about how bad he’s suffering ‘cause you 1

know, he was looking -- looking forward to that.” It appears 2

that you knew what he was talking about. What did you -- who 3

did you understand him to be referring to in that? 4

A Oscar Dillon. 5

Q Now, on Page 7 of the transcript -- well, let me ask you 6

this. Did you -- were you ever introduced to or meet anybody 7

by the name of -- that you knew by the name of Scooter? 8

A Yes. 9

Q Who was that person? 10

A Scooter is D-Boy. 11

Q And D-Boy is? 12

A Demond Lee. 13

Q Now, in that section of the conversation -- if you look on 14

Page 7, it’s the first one where Simms is speaking to you. He 15

said, “You know, he been out here for a week and shit, too. He 16

be calling me everyday wanting to know if I talked to 17

you and I’m, like, I just be telling him no ‘cause I 18

already know you don’t want to talk to no mother-19

fucker.” Did you understand what he meant by -- when 20

he was telling you that that person named Scooter or Demond Lee 21

was looking to talk to you? 22

MR. SWARTH: Objection, speculation. 23


THE WITNESS: Uh, yes. 25




102

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 1

Q What did you understand him to be telling you? 2

A Oh, he wanted to come talk to me about cocaine, kilos of 3

cocaine. 4

Q Any particular kilos of cocaine that he wanted to talk to 5

you about? 6

A The ones he -- that were for him. 7

Q Are those -- are you referring to the ones for which you 8

had received money but had not delivered? 9

A Yes, the 30,000 that he had put up. 10

Q So by the time this conversation took place, you had 11

already gotten that money that you kept? 12

A Yes. 13

Q Looking at Page 9 of the transcript, you’re going back and 14

forth about, you know, my dead son, et cetera. And you say to 15

Simms, “Dude came back beat up, man.” And then you say, “They 16

just touched him up a little bit.” Who were you talking about 17

and what did you mean? 18

A I was talking Tweety, the guy that supposedly had 19

transported it. 20

Q So you saw Tweety after he came back from St. Louis? 21

A Yes, I did. Yes. 22

Q And did he appear injured to you in some way? 23

A I did see him. He had a black eye. 24

Q Further on, on that same page and just a little bit later 25




103

in the conversation, you tell Simms, “I gave him everything I 1

had. I owe him, like, one two right now -- a point, 1.2.” 2

What are you referring to there? 3

A That I had given him money but that was just smoke I was 4

blowing. 5

Q Well, let’s break it down. You had given who money? 6

A The suppliers -- 7

Q And -- 8

A -- just to calm him down. 9

Q -- you’re -- so had you given the suppliers any money at 10

that point? 11

A No. 12

Q But you were telling Simms that you had given them some 13

amount of money, 1.2? 14

A Yes. 15

Q What was the 1.2 a reference to? What did you mean by 16

1.2? 17

A Oh, for the kilos of cocaine. 18

Q And the number 1.2, how much money were you referring to? 19

A $1.2 million. 20

Q And just -- and the very next you said, you said, “You 21

know, the door is shut. The door is shut. I need to come in 22

with at least seven or six so I can get that opportunity.” 23

What did you -- what were you telling him there? What did you 24

mean? 25




104

A I was trying to get some type of money from him so that I 1

can give it towards the suppliers ‘cause they were pressing me. 2

Q When you say, “The door is shut,” what door were you 3

referring to? 4

A The cocaine business, the cocaine. 5

Q Were you referring to the availability of supply? 6

A Yes. 7

Q And what did you mean? 8

A That it was closed. We can’t grab any kilos of cocaine 9

right now ‘cause of the situation. 10

Q And when you said, “I need to give him six or seven,” what 11

were you actually referring to? 12

A Six hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand. 13

Q Now, just shortly after that in the conversation, Simms 14

tells you, “The dude, he finally got that with what’s-ya-name” 15

and you say, “What,” basically “Who that” and then he says, 16

“You know, putting the speakers in the truck.” Did you 17

understand what he meant at that point by “putting the speakers 18

in the truck”? 19

A Yes. 20

Q What did he mean? 21

A The truck that was getting the stash done. 22

Q And when he said, “You finally got done with that 23

yesterday, all that shit for nothing,” what did you understand 24

that to mean? 25




105

A That he had finished up installing of the stash in the 1

truck. 2

Q And what did he mean by “all that shit for nothing”? 3

A I don’t know. 4

Q You asked him, “Where’s Scooter at?” Who were you 5

referring to in that reference? 6

A Demond Lee. 7

Q Then Simms replies to you, “He in the house, sick as hell 8

worried about, you know, what his man going to do, sick as 9

hell. He don’t know what’s, man.” Did you understand what 10

Simms meant when he said that to you? 11

A No. 12

Q A good deal later in the conversation on Page 15 of the 13

transcript -- the part that’s on Page 15 of the transcript, you 14

tell Simms, “Man, tell Muscles to help me out.” 15

A Correct. 16

Q What did you mean when you said that? 17

A To give me some cash. 18

Q Who should give you some cash? 19

A For Muscles to give me some cash. 20

Q “Muscles” meaning whom? 21

A Oscar -- I’m sorry. 22

Q Oscar who? 23

A Oscar Dillon. So he can -- so I can give it to my 24

suppliers. 25




106

Q Why should Oscar Dillon have given you any cash? 1

A ‘Cause he’s the money man. 2

Q He’s the money man in what context? 3

A He’s the money man in St. Louis. 4

MR. ROGERS: Objection, move to strike. There’s been 5

no foundation established so the witness can make that 6

statement. 7

THE COURT: The motion is denied. 8

BY MR. CROWFOOT: 9

Q Later on in that -- well, right after that, Simms says -- 10

you have a discussion about -- he tells you about calling him 11

on a phone. Did you ever actually -- after this conversation 12

actually talk to Oscar Dillon about this situation? 13

A Yes. 14

Q Did Dillon ever agree to give you any money to resolve 15

this issue? 16

A No. 17

Q Do you know a person by the name of Roy Burris? 18

A Yes, I do. 19

Q Who is he? How do you know him? 20

A I know him through Simms. 21

Q Do you see him here in this courtroom? 22

A Yes. He’s sitting right over here in the front, white 23

shirt on. 24

THE COURT: Indicating Mr. Burris. 25




107


BY MR. CROWFOOT: 2

Q How did you meet Defendant Burris? 3

A I met him through Simms. 4

Q How often did you see Defendant Burris? 5

A A total of five, six, seven times maybe. 6

Q Do you recall ever talking to Burris either in person or 7

on the telephone about any specific cocaine transaction? 8

A I think we had -- we talked about the whole 7-7-7 thing 9

once. 10

Q And when you say you talked about the whole 7-7-7 thing 11

once -- 12

A Yes. 13

Q -- why don’t you spell that out a little bit more in plain 14

English? What did you talk about with him about the 7-7-7 15

thing? 16

A I just remember him saying that the problem will get 17

fixed. Don’t worry about it. 18

Q Do you remember when you had that conversation? 19

A August, September maybe. I’m not sure. 20

Q Of what year? 21

A ’07. 22

Q Do you recall having a meeting in person with both Simms 23

and Burris in August of 2007? 24

A Yes, I do. 25




108

Q Where was that meeting? 1

A Century City at McDonald’s on -- 2

Q Do you recall when in August -- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t 3

have -- Century City -- could you repeat your answer? 4

A Century City at McDonald’s on Pico Boulevard. 5

Q And I asked you whether it was in August. Was it, in 6

fact, in August? 7

A It could have been July. I’m not sure. 8

Q Had anything else occurred right around that time that you 9

recall caused this meeting to happen? 10

A The Atlanta indictments came out. Mr. Simms was -- he was 11

concerned. 12

Q And so did he invite you to come to this meeting? 13

A Simms did, yeah. 14

Q And who was present at the meeting? 15

A R.B. was. 16

Q Who is R.B.? 17

A Roy Burris, yes. 18

Q And I should have asked you. 19

A Yeah. 20

Q Well -- Roy Burris. You knew him as R.B.? 21

A Yes. 22

Q And what did Simms talk to you about that -- about at that 23

meeting? 24

A Well, he had just told me if anything happens to him 25




109

because he was concerned about the indictment that came out in 1

Atlanta -- if anything happens to him, talk to R.B. He knows 2

the whole business. 3

Q Now, did you contact Simms after July -- after the 7-7 4

lost load -- after July 2007 to put together any cocaine 5

transactions other than the 30,000 -- or the one where you kept 6

the money? 7

A Uh -- 8

Q Any -- did you -- after that transaction where you kept 9

the money, did you engage in any other discussions about any 10

transactions? 11

A Yes, we did in -- towards the end, like, October time. 12

Q And what was that discussion about? 13

A It was a 30-kilo discussion that we wanted to put together 14

and it was going to St. Louis. 15

Q Now, what had changed to -- you had told him before that 16

the door was shut. What had changed between your conversation 17

in early August and this conversation in October? What caused 18

the door to open? 19

A Well, at that point I had already started putting things 20

together and I realized that it wasn’t the people from 21

St. Louis that stole that. 22

Q When you said, “I had started putting things together,” -- 23

A Yeah. 24

Q -- what do you mean in plain English? 25




110

A Well, Yvonne Vasquez had -- she started telling me what 1

had happened and she told me that it wasn’t the people in 2

St. Louis, that she, kind of, planned it and stuff like that. 3

She started telling me. 4

Q And did you speak with anybody other than Simms in October 5

about putting together another cocaine transaction? 6

A Oscar Dillon. 7

Q Did you speak to him in person? 8

A On the phone. 9

Q Did you discuss a transaction in any kind of detail? 10

A We would just talk about 30 cents here and there, the “30 11

cents” meaning kilos of cocaine. 12

Q And so that would have been how many kilos of cocaine? 13

A Thirty -- 30 kilos, yeah. 14

Q Did you discuss a price with him for those kilos? 15

A No. 16

Q Why not? 17

A ‘Cause I’m sure he knew the price. 18

Q How would he know the price? 19

A He’s a good customer from St. Louis. 20

Q Did that further transaction with Simms or Dillon ever 21

occur? 22

A No. 23

Q Why not? 24

A ‘Cause the indictments came out. 25


Corral - Cross by Mr. Rogers


111

Q The indictments in which case? 1

A In this case. 2

MR. CROWFOOT: No further questions, your Honor. 3

THE COURT: Mr. Rogers? 4


THE COURT: And, recall, we will end at noon today. 6


CROSS EXAMINATION 8

BY MR. ROGERS: 9

Q Mr. Corral, my name is John Rogers. I’m an attorney and I 10

represent a gentleman named Oscar Dillon. I’m curious, sir. 11

Would you tell me the number of times you rehearsed your direct 12

testimony with a prosecutor from the United States Attorney’s 13

Office? 14

MR. CROWFOOT: Objection, argumentative. 15

THE COURT: It’s sustained and let me just instruct 16

the jury. Any insinuations suggested by Counsel in this 17

question is not evidence. 18

BY MR. ROGERS: 19

Q Sir -- 20

THE COURT: This is the second time Counsel’s 21

admonished. 22


THE COURT: Mr. Rogers, you’re on notice. 24

MR. ROGERS: Yes, sir. 25




112

BY MR. ROGERS: 1

Q Can you -- 2

A Hold on. Can I close this? Can I close this up? Yes? 3

THE COURT: Yeah, please. 4

BY MR. ROGERS: 5

Q Mr. Corral, how many times did you go over your testimony 6

with a Government Prosecutor or agent? This testimony that you 7

testified here today, how many times did you go over it? 8

A How many times did I go over it? 9

Q Where they asked you questions and you gave them answers 10

like you did earlier today. 11

A Three times. 12

Q Within the last week, sir? Within the last week? 13

A Uh, yes. 14

Q And, sir -- 15

A The last two weeks. 16

Q Within the last two weeks? 17

A Yes. 18

Q And was that with Mr. Crowfoot? 19

A Yes. 20

Q And, sir, your vocabulary -- you stated a couple things in 21

your direct examination. I’ve got a couple questions. When 22

you say in direct that you stayed with the money, what you 23

really mean is you stole the money, correct? 24

A Yes. 25




113

Q And, sir, when you say -- when you stated on direct that 1

you were blowing smoke, what you meant was you were lying, 2

right? 3

A Correct. That’s correct. 4

Q All right. And, sir, people that lie are called liars, 5

aren’t they? 6


Q And you were lying yourself on that phone call, correct? 8

A Yes. 9

Q When you say you were blowing smoke, what you meant to say 10

is, “I was lying,” right? 11

A Yes. 12

Q All right. And, sir, the way that you spoke on this phone 13

call, that was you on Government’s Exhibit -- well, that was 14

you on the phone call, right, Government’s 239? 15

A Yes, it was. Yes, it was. 16

Q And, sir, you speak in a vocabulary that is -- I would 17

describe as a street vocabulary. Is that -- would you agree? 18

A Sure. 19

Q All right. And so as you speak to these ladies and 20

gentlemen of the jury during your direct testimony, you were 21

speaking in a more proper way. Would you agree? 22

A Correct. 23

Q All right. And were you given any instruction by anyone 24

that your vocabulary in court should be professional or in any 25




114

certain way? 1

A Not at all. No one instructed me. 2

Q Okay. And, sir, the way that drug dealers speak on the 3

streets, I mean, it is consistent with Government’s Exhibit 4

that you heard, 239. You speak in slang, right? 5

A Correct. 6

MR. CROWFOOT: Objection, foundation. 7


BY MR. ROGERS: 9

Q Well, sir, you’re certainly a drug dealer. Would you 10

acknowledge that? 11

A Absolutely. 12

Q All right. And the way you communicated with other 13

individuals that were involved in dealing drugs, you spoke to 14

them in a way consistent with the way you spoke on Call 239, 15

right? 16

A Two thirty-nine, what is that? 17

Q I’m sorry. 18

A What is 239? 19

Q On that telephone recording that you heard. 20

A Oh, yes. 21

Q All right. When involved in the drug game, it’s 22

commonplace to lie to other people that you’re dealing with, 23

isn’t it? 24

A Oh, yeah. 25




115

Q The better -- when it serves your purpose -- strike that. 1

When it serves your purpose to lie to other drug dealers, 2

that’s done commonly, isn’t it? 3

A In that business, there’s a lot of smoke going around. 4

Q And another word for “smoke” is there’s a lot of 5

deception. Fair enough? 6

A I don’t know what that means. What does “deception” mean? 7

Q Lie. There’s a lot of lying going on. 8

A Smoke, yes. 9

Q Well, sir, do you understand that blowing smoke and lying 10

is the same thing? 11

A Yes. 12

Q Okay. And so when you were dealing, one of the people 13

that you testified you dealt with was Mr. Ralph Simms, right? 14

A Correct. 15

Q And in the phone call that we just listened to, the two of 16

you are loving you, man, and loving each other. You guys are 17

talking about this back and forth, weren’t you? 18

A Sure. 19

Q Okay. And so it’d be fair to say you had a business 20

relationship with him, right? 21

A Yes. 22

Q But the affection that you shared with him was one of 23

friendship as well, right? 24

A Yes. 25




116

Q Okay. And, sir, I am not asking you to guess during this 1

portion of the questioning. If -- would you agree with me, 2

sir, that if you don’t know the answer to one of my questions 3

that you will tell me you don’t know? 4

A Yes. 5

Q All right. And you said that an individual named 6

Ms. Vasquez was involved in deceiving you regarding this lost 7

100-kilo load that was intended for St. Louis; is that correct, 8

sir? 9

A Correct. 10

Q That woman is legally married to you at this moment, isn’t 11

she? 12

A Correct. 13

Q All right. So when we speak of Ms. Vasquez, we’re 14

speaking of your wife? 15

A Yes. 16

Q The person you share the same bed with, right? 17

A At times. 18

Q During 2007 -- 7-7-7 as you referred to it, sir, were you 19

living in the same household as Ms. Vasquez at that time? 20

A Yes. We were staying in an apartment. 21

Q Okay. And, sir, did you have children together? 22

A No. 23

Q All right. When you had this conversation with Mr. Simms, 24

the one that was played -- Exhibit 239, that took place on 25




117

August 6th, 2007; is that correct, sir? 1

A Yes. 2

Q And so between 7/7/07 and August 6th, ’07, approximately a 3

month in time had gone by, right? 4

A Sounds right. 5

Q And during this conversation, you’re trying to figure out 6

whether Mr. Simms was involved in taking the cocaine, more or 7

less, correct? 8

A Yes. 9

Q So during that time period, you were living with someone 10

who you now know was deceiving for that period of time, 11

correct? 12

A I was not living with her past 7 -- she left right after 13

7-7-7 -- 14

Q Okay. 15

A -- ‘cause she know -- she knew what she had done. 16

Q Did you have any contact with her between 7/7/7 and 8/6/7, 17

the date of this phone call? 18


Q But it would be fair to say that you hadn’t figured out 20

for sure that Ms. Vasquez had anything to do with the nondrug 21

transaction, the non-delivery of the cocaine on 7/7/7 because 22

you were questioning Mr. Simms about it on 8/6/07, correct? 23

A Correct. I was confused. 24

Q You didn’t know what to believe, right? 25




118

A Correct. 1

Q And during this conversation, you lied to Mr. Simms when 2

you told him that you gave him everything I had, 1.2. That was 3

a lie, right? 4

A Yes. 5

Q You didn’t give anybody any money, did you? 6

A Right. 7

Q Sir, you had an opportunity -- you’ve been coming to court 8

in this matter with other people charged in this alleged 9

conspiracy for a good part of the year 2008, correct? 10

A Correct. 11

Q And so you’ve seen me in court before, sir? Do you 12

recall? 13

A Yes, I have. 14

Q And you’ve seen other gentlemen seated at this table in 15

court prior -- 16

A Yes, I -- 17

Q -- to your testimony today, sir, correct? 18

A Yes. 19

Q All right. And you’ve had an opportunity to review your 20

discovery with your attorney, correct? 21

A Yes. 22

Q And your attorney’s name, sir? 23

A Gregory Nicolaysen. 24

Q Okay. And you’ve worked with Mr. Nicolaysen and you’ve 25




119

gone over many of these phone calls, correct, sir? 1

A Yes. 2

Q You’ve listened to them? 3

A Yes. 4

Q All right. With other members of his firm as well, 5

correct? 6

A Just him. 7

Q Okay. And, sir, you’ve had an opportunity to review some 8

of the reports and some of the calls, too, on transcripts, 9

correct? 10

A Yes. 11

Q All right. Sir, you stated that you had a number of 12

telephones; is that correct? 13

A Yes. 14

Q As a matter of fact, you are aware that the Government 15

intercepted two phones in particular that they believed you 16

were using, correct? 17

A Yes. 18

Q Telephone Number 818-862-8149, do you remember that 19

number, sir? 20

A Yes. 21

Q Sir, do you also remember using and utilizing 818-862-22

4796? Does that sound familiar? 23

A Possibility. 24

Q Okay. The point is you took great care in changing phones 25




120

every couple of weeks according to your testimony in direct, 1

correct? 2

A Correct. 3

Q Even though you took this great care, fair enough to say 4

that the Government got on two of your phones, right? 5

A Yes. 6

Q Certainly you’re aware that they got on Mr. Simms phone 7

because we just heard a conversation between you and Mr. Simms, 8

right? 9

A Was I aware is your question? 10

Q I’m sorry, sir. Let me rephrase it. You are now aware 11

that the Government was on this particular telephone for 12

Mr. Simms where you were talking to him about this missing 13

load? 14

A Yes. 15

Q All right. And so you’re aware that they were on your 16

phones, too, right? 17

A No. I wasn’t aware. 18

Q Okay. You’re aware now? I’m sorry. 19

A Yes. 20

Q And you’re aware now that they’re on Mr. Simms’ phones, 21

correct? 22

A Yes. 23

Q And you’ve seen the applications and they were on a number 24

of phones. You’re aware of that as you testify here today, 25




121

right? 1

A Correct. 2

Q But at this point in time during any of your meetings with 3

the Government, the Government has not played a single phone 4

call where you identified Mr. Dillon as a person involved in 5

that telephone conversation, correct? 6

A Correct. 7

Q So when you contend that you spoke to Mr. Dillon on the 8

phone, there’s nothing to back that up but your word, is there, 9

that you’ve with the Government? 10

A Correct. 11

Q Your dealings with Mr. Simms in particular, you stated 12

that he’s lied to you on a number of occasions while you were 13

talking to him, correct, sir? 14

A Correct. 15

Q As a matter of fact, during one of your business -- 16

illegal business dealings with Mr. Simms, you kept $30,000 that 17

he intended for the future purchase of cocaine to pay off a 18

previously owed debt, correct? 19

A Yes, sir. 20

Q So you took -- that was -- you have to concede that was 21

deception, right? 22

A Yes. 23

Q When you received that money, you told Mr. Simms that you 24

were going to help purchase more cocaine but you kept that 25




122

money -- 1

A Yes. 2

Q -- and that wasn’t the deal at the time, correct? 3

A Correct. 4

Q Okay. One of the things that a drug dealer like yourself 5

is concerned about or was concerned about before the 6

indictments in this case came down was that somebody would 7

snitch on you, right? 8

A Sure. 9

Q Before you were indicted and/or self-surrendered, you were 10

-- you understand how the snitch game works, right? 11


THE COURT: It’s vague and ambiguous. You can 13

rephrase. 14

MR. ROGERS: Thank you. 15


MR. ROGERS: Thank you. 17

BY MR. ROGERS: 18

Q Mr. Corral, you’re -- one of the things that people who 19

are dealing drugs don’t want to happen is they don’t want to 20

get caught, right? 21

A Absolutely. 22

Q And you understand that the Government utilizes people 23

that tell on other people in the presentation of prosecution, 24

that they use snitches in their cases against people they 25




123

charge. Fair enough? 1

A Yeah. 2

Q And so when you were on the street before you were 3

indicted, you were concerned that somebody would snitch on you, 4

right? 5

A Sure. 6

Q Mr. Simms and other people, correct? 7

A Yes. 8

Q And you’ve had an opportunity to review the discovery in 9

this particular case as it pertains to you, correct, sir? 10

A Yes. 11

Q And you’re aware that people said things about you that 12

weren’t true, right? 13

A True. 14

Q They said your mother was involved in this conspiracy. 15

You’ve reviewed that, correct? 16

A Correct. 17

Q All right. And as far as you know, your mother’s never 18

been charged, has she? 19

A No. 20

Q Okay. And your mother’s not involved in working with you 21

in your drug conspiracy, correct? 22

A She’s far from it. 23

Q Okay. And certainly the Government, in exchange for your 24

cooperation, didn’t promise not to prosecute your mother. Fair 25




124

enough? That’s not part any conversation that you had with any 1

member of the Government? 2

A Correct? 3

Q All right. When your home was searched, you resided at 4

6416 West 83rd Street in Los Angeles for a period of time in 5

the year 2007, correct, sir? 6

A Yes, sir. 7

Q And you relayed, before your home was searched, to 8

Mr. Simms that you believed indictments may be coming down 9

soon? 10

A Yes. 11

Q That was on a telephone conversation between you and 12

Mr. Simms, correct, sir? 13

A It sounds right. 14

Q Okay. Sometimes before the indictments actually came 15

down, you got word that they might be coming down, correct? 16

A I had heard it somewhere, yes. 17

Q Sir, when your home was searched on November the 6th, 18

2007, you weren’t home, were you? 19

A Correct. 20

Q You’re aware though, sir, 17 cell phones were recovered 21

from that residence? 22

A Yes. 23

Q All right. And the Government’s in possession of those 24

cell phones as far as you know, correct, sir? 25




125

A Uh-huh, yes. 1

Q And you can’t point to any one of those cell phones to 2

support your story that you used one of them to speak to 3

Mr. Dillon? 4



BY MR. ROGERS: 7

Q To support your contention that you spoke to Mr. Dillon? 8

A The cell phone I talked to him on was on me 24/7. 9

Q Where’s that cell phone today, sir? 10

A I threw it away. 11

Q So there is nothing to support your contention that you 12

spoke to Mr. Dillon on a cell phone other than your word? 13



THE WITNESS: Can you repeat that, please? 16

BY MR. ROGERS: 17

Q Yes, sir. There is no cell phone record that you reviewed 18

to support that you talked to Mr. Dillon, correct? 19

A Correct. 20

Q There is -- you did not produce any cell phone and hand it 21

over to the Government to show them this is the phone that I 22

spoke to Mr. Dillon with, right? 23

A Correct. 24

Q What we’re left with is your word? 25




126

A Correct. 1

Q Sir, you contend that you had -- strike that. You 2

understand, sir, that it’s -- that the Court has requested that 3

you in court identify individuals by name. You heard the judge 4

instruct you to do that earlier, correct? 5

A Yes, I did. 6

Q But you -- prior to the prosecution of this case, you 7

never used the word “Dillon” when referring to the person 8

Muscles ever, had you? 9

A Correct. 10

Q And what you did in this particular case is after the 11

indictments came down and you began coming to court, you tried 12

to put pieces of the puzzle together, right? 13

A Pieces -- 14

Q Match names with nicknames and things? 15

A Well, you get the indictment, you look at it and you know 16

who “who” is. I’m -- yeah. 17

Q But you hadn’t -- 18

A I’m -- 19

Q You could no more on November 7th, 2007 linked Muscles to 20

any particular name. You couldn’t have done that on that day, 21

right, sir? 22

A Correct. 23

Q But as time progressed and you reviewed discovery, you 24

became familiar with the people in the discovery, correct? 25




127

A Yes. 1

Q All right. And the indictment assisted you in putting 2

that -- names with nicknames as well, correct? 3

A Yes. 4

Q All right. You became aware that the Government executed 5

a search warrant of 6416 West 83rd Street close in time to the 6

actual execution of that warrant, correct? 7

A Yes. 8

Q All right. But you were not arrested on November the 6th, 9

2007, were you? 10

A Correct. 11

Q You went on the run, right? 12

A Yes. 13

Q And your lawyer and yourself turned you in knowing that 14

there was a fugitive warrant for your arrest in 2008, correct? 15

A Yes. 16

Q So there is a period of time where you didn’t volunteer to 17

turn yourself in from November to January of ’08, right? You 18

remained on the run during that time period, right? 19

A Yes. I was trying to find the proper lawyer to walk me 20

through it. 21

Q All right. And you did self-surrender in January of the 22

year 2008, correct? 23

A Yes. 24

Q All right. And you’re aware, sir, that a number -- that 25




128

the Government in this particular case moved to have a number 1

of people charged in this case detained without a bond, right? 2


THE COURT: Overruled. If he knows, he can answer. 4

BY MR. ROGERS: 5

Q You’re aware that a lot of guys charged in this indictment 6

were detained -- they were locked up, right? 7

A Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. 8

Q And they were not given an opportunity to make bond, 9

right? 10

A I’m not aware of that. I don’t know. 11

Q Okay. In your case though, are you aware of whether or 12

not the Government moved to detain you with -- for -- to not 13

allow you to have a bond? Was that motion filed? 14

A No, I don’t -- 15

Q And the reason it wasn’t filed is because when you went 16

in, you agreed to start cooperating with them, right? 17

A Correct. 18

Q It’s a deal you and your lawyer were involved with making 19

with the Government, correct? 20

A Yes. 21

Q And so on the very day that you turned yourself in, you 22

began to speak to Government agents including Ms. Wang from the 23

United States Attorney’s Office? 24

A Correct. 25




129

Q That date was -- I’m sorry -- February 26th, 2008, 1

correct? 2

A Sounds right. 3

Q Sir, what’s been previously marked as Defendant’s Exhibit 4

306, might it help refresh your recollection as to the date of 5

your first meeting with Ms. Wang and the Government if you 6

refer to notes of that meeting? 7

A Can you rephrase that, please? 8

Q No problem. Would it help you out if you were able to 9

look to notes of that meeting to see the date that the meeting 10

took place? 11

A It was the day when I surrendered. 12

Q And I had previously stated that it was January but it was 13

February 28th, 2008? 14

A Yeah. 15

Q Okay. Sir, I’m not looking for you to guess and I don’t 16

mean to confuse you. When you agreed with me that you turned 17

yourself in in January of 2008, you remember agreeing that you 18

did it in that month? This is a time question. Do you 19

remember agreeing that you turned yourself in in January? 20

A Yes, I did. Yes. 21

Q But, sir, I believe now that it was actually February that 22

you turned yourself in. Can you tell me as you sit here today 23

using your memory whether you turned yourself in in January of 24

’08 or February of ’08? 25




130

A February. 1

Q Okay. 2

A Late February. 3

Q All right. February 26, 2008, perhaps. 4

A Sounds right. 5

Q All right. Whenever it was, whatever date it was that you 6

turned yourself in, that same day you sat down and met with 7

Government agents. We’re clear about that, right? 8

A Yes. 9

Q All right. And your lawyer, before even turning you in, 10

told you how important it was to tell the Government the truth, 11

right? 12

A Yes. 13

Q And Ms. Wang and Government -- and Agent Smith were there 14

when you first sat down with them and they said, “Mr. Corral, 15

don’t lie to us.” Didn’t they? 16

A Yes. 17

Q And they said, “If you lie to us, we might not be able to 18

use you as a witness in our prosecution in the future and all 19

bets are off,” right? That was generally conveyed to you, that 20

message, true? 21

A Yes. 22

Q And what you did when you went into that meeting is you 23

lied to them, didn’t you? 24

A Yes. 25




131

Q Told them that Simms was small-time marijuana dealer, 1

right? 2

A Something like that. 3

Q Didn’t tell them the same information that you relayed 4

here today about dealing with Mr. Simms in significant amount 5

of kilo cocaine drug transactions. You didn’t tell them that? 6

A No. That meeting -- I remember when that meeting took 7

place. I’ve -- 8

Q A meeting was -- I’m sorry. 9

A I’ve never experienced nothing like. I didn’t know what 10

was going on -- 11

Q And so -- 12

A -- and I didn’t know what to expect. 13

Q Okay. And so in your words today, that gives you 14

permission to lie? Not knowing what to expect made it okay for 15

you to lie to them. Is that what you’re saying? 16

A Not no -- 17


THE COURT: Overruled. He can respond. 19

THE WITNESS: Can you rephrase that again? 20

BY MR. ROGERS: 21

Q Your not knowing what to expect gave you an excuse to lie 22

to the United States Attorney’s Office during that February 23

26th proffer. Is that what you’re saying? 24

A It gave me what? 25




132

Q Are you trying to imply with your answer to my question 1

that because you didn’t know what to expect -- 2

A Right. 3

Q -- during that proffer meeting -- 4

A Right. 5

Q -- that it was okay for you to lie? 6

A It’s not okay to lie but I just -- I was confused, never 7

experienced nothing like that. 8

Q Well, are you -- 9

A I didn’t know what to expect. 10

Q Have you ever experienced testifying in court before, sir? 11


Q Okay. So you don’t know what to expect here today, 13

correct, sir? 14

A Absolutely. 15

Q July 7th, 2007 is this 100-kilo non-transaction that we’ve 16

been speaking of, correct? 17

A Correct. 18

Q And I call it a non-transaction. You understand as you 19

sit here today there was never any drugs. There was never 20

100,000 kilos that ever left the state of California intended 21

for 22

St. Louis on or about July 7th, ’07? 23

THE COURT: One hundred kilos. 24

THE WITNESS: One hundred. 25




133

MR. ROGERS: I’m sorry. Thank you, your Honor. 1

BY MR. ROGERS: 2

Q One hundred kilos. 3

A Correct. 4

Q All right. And during your direct examination, you stated 5

that you had Mr. Dillon’s telephone number and you spoke to him 6

on it occasionally, right? 7

A Yes. 8

Q You didn’t have his telephone -- you didn’t have Muscles’ 9

telephone number on July 7th, 2007, did you? 10

A We had a number that we communicated on. 11

Q Well, certainly in August of 2007 when you’re on the 12

recorded phone call -- well, strike that. What was the number? 13

A Which number? 14

Q The number that you say that you had of the guy named 15

Muscles from St. Louis in July of 2007? 16

A I can’t remember it completely but it was a 636. 17

Q Well, that’s half of St. Louis, sir. 18

A Oh, okay. 19

Q You understand that? 20

A That’s the only thing I can give you. 21

Q Six three six is the prefix -- is the area code for half 22

of St. Louis’ telephone numbers. Are you aware of that? 23

MR. CROWFOOT: Counsel is testifying. 24

THE COURT: It’s a question and you can answer. 25




134

BY MR. ROGERS: 1

Q You’re aware of that, sir? 2

A Yes. 3

Q Okay. 4

THE COURT: Okay. We’ll stop. We’re going to -- 5

Monday I have another calendar to handle in the morning. So 6

we’ll start at 9:30. Have a good weekend, Thanksgiving 7

holiday. Please do not discuss the case amongst yourselves or 8

with any other person. Again, Monday at 9:30. 9

(Jurors exited the courtroom at 12:01 p.m.) 10

THE COURT: Let’s see. Just a few housekeeping 11

matters. The jury’s been excused. Counsel remains. Please 12

have a seat. When does -- 13

MR. SPEAKER: Does the witness remain, your Honor? 14

THE COURT: Yeah, the witness is excused. You can -- 15

witnesses can leave also. When does the Government believe 16

they will conclude? December 4th still the target date? 17

MS. WANG: Yes, your Honor. 18

THE COURT: Okay. And then Defense, when do you 19

believe you will conclude? December 12th is still the target 20

date? Yes? 21

MR. ROGERS: We’ll conclude before that, I would 22

guess, your Honor. I’m conferring with Co-counsel. 23

MR. KALOYANIDES: I think that’s -- 24

THE COURT: Okay. I have another trial to start 25



135

after this one here but I just want to make -- to get a 1

determination as to when we will conclude in this case. The 2

Government still has another second portion of a count to 3

proceed with. 4

MS. WANG: We do but it’s very short, your Honor. 5

THE COURT: And how long will that take? 6

MS. O’NEILL: Your Honor, I’d estimate approximately 7

two hours. I’d also like to alert the Court that for that 8

second part, we would be proving some of the elements of 9

possession in the bifurcated count. We haven’t proven them all 10

here in this trial. 11

THE COURT: Okay. Okay. 12

MR. COOPER: And, your Honor, there is one scheduling 13

matter. It’s about Mr. Beard. I will know more about the 14

Defense case if the Government can tell me if they are going to 15

call Steven Peoples, aka Rambo, because that will shorten my 16

defense if they don’t call him. 17

THE COURT: Okay. You mean in this portion of the 18

case? 19

MR. COOPER: Yes. 20

THE COURT: Have you -- 21

MS. WANG: Well, we’re not going to call Peoples in 22

our case-in-chief, your Honor. 23

THE COURT: That answers your question. 24

MR. COOPER: Okay. 25



136

THE COURT: Thank you. Have a good holiday. 1

MR. COOPER: Thank you. 2

MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, your Honor. 3

(This proceeding was adjourned at 12:03 p.m.) 4

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CERTIFICATION

I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from the

electronic sound recording of the proceedings in the above-

entitled matter.

November 28, 2008 _

TONI HUDSON, TRANSCRIBER


Documents

Ralph Simms Testimony