THE COURT: Mr. Jaywalker?
It was Judge Levines way of checking to make sure he was awake. But she neednt have bothered. Jaywalker does a lot of things during the course of a trial, but falling asleep has never been among them. His decision not to object to what was obviously going to be hearsay testimony was therefore a calculated one. He wanted to hear what Trevor St. James had been told, and he wanted the jurors to hear it, too. So when he stood to say No objection, he threw in an exaggerated shrug, his way of saying, Hey, weve got nothing to hide here.
What Agent St. James had been told, it turned out, was pretty much what Jaywalker had expected, that up until that point in the investigation, the surveillance of Alonzo Barnett had failed to bear fruit. St. Jamess job would be to figure out a way to approach Barnett, gain his confidence and attempt to buy drugs from him.
SHAUGHNESSEY: And how did you go about trying to do those things?
ST. JAMES: Well, surveillance had established that Mr. Barnett had several associates, individuals he hung out with. One of those associates in particular interested the team. Theyd tentatively identified him as John Doe Stump, because he was short and heavyset. And theyd observed him in Mr. Barnetts company on a number of occasions. So what I did was try to strike up a conversation with Stump one day, approaching him a few blocks away after hed been seen meeting with Mr. Barnett.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Did you ever learn Stumps true name?
ST. JAMES: Yeah, I think I heard it. I believe the backup team found it out at some point, but I honestly dont remember it.
Agent St. James described how hed called to a couple of people within earshot of Stump and asked them if they knew how to get to Big Wilts Smalls Paradise. Smalls was a Harlem institution that had opened way back in the 1920s. At some point the basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain had bought into it, hence the name. Everyone in Harlem had heard of it, but none of the people St. James asked knew exactly where it was. Except Stump.
Its up on 135th Street, he told the stranger. Over on 7th Avenue.
Which way is that? St. James had asked him.
Where you from, man?
Philly, St. James had replied.
Which way is that? St. James had asked him.
Where you from, man?
Philly, St. James had replied.
Aint got no cheese steaks at Smalls, you know.
Aint lookin for no cheese steaks, St. James had laughed, before rubbing both nostrils and sniffing in loudly.
The gesture hadnt been lost on Stump. What is it you might be lookin for? hed asked. Little bit a blow?
Nah, St. James had said. Blow I can find any ole place. I be lookin for some shit, brotha. Some weight.
Here Miki Shaughnessey stopped her witness and had him explain a few of his terms. Blow was cocaine, shit was heroin, and weight was a lot of it.
How long you in town? Stump had asked St. James.
A few days. A week if I gotta be.
Do yourself a favor, Stump had told him, and stay away from Smalls. Place be crawling with the po-leece.
Good to know, St. James had said.
Tell you what, Stump had offered. You be back here this same time tomorrow. I see if I cant hook you up with my man. He jus might be able to help you out with what you lookin for.
St. James had said, Bet, meaning hed be there.
But before Stump had walked off, hed issued a warning of sorts to St. James. Tween now an then, hed said, I be checkin you out, makin sure you aint the Man.
The Man, Shaughnessey had St. James explain, was another term for the po-leece, and was definitely not to be confused with my man.
Several jurors laughed loudly at the distinction, until Jaywalker stared them down. This isnt funny, he wanted them to know. Theres a mans freedom on the line here.
As for Stumps threat to check out the stranger, it was just that, a threat. Jaywalker knew that from his own undercover days. The same dealer whod accuse him of being the Man one minute would sell to him the next one. The truth was, nobody ever really bothered to check out anybody. In the world of buying and selling drugs, caution got trumped by greed. Every time out.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What happened after that?
ST. JAMES: I met Stump the next day, like hed suggested. But he said there was a problem. His man was spooked, he told me, and didnt want to meet me.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What did you take him to mean when he said spooked?
ST. JAMES: Spooked means nervous like, afraid.
Interesting, thought Jaywalker. If he had the timing down right, this conversation would have taken place at the point where Alonzo Barnett had been telling Clarence Hightower that he couldnt help him. Not because he was nervous, though, but because hed given up selling drugs and had no interest in getting back in business. So either Hightower had been deliberately stringing his customer along with a story while he tried to break down Barnetts resistance, or Agent St. James was now putting his own spin on what Stump had told him. One of them was fudging. But which one? And why?
SHAUGHNESSEY: What happened after that?
ST. JAMES: Me and Stump set up another meet for a couple days later. And at that meet, he told me it was a go, that his man AB-thats what he called him-had agreed to meet me. So the two of us, me and Stump, we went back to the stoop that evening. He introduced me to AB, and then he left the set.
SHAUGHNESSEY: He left the set?
ST. JAMES: Stump. He split. Walked away.
SHAUGHNESSEY: I see. And the man Stump introduced to you as AB. Do you see him in the courtroom today?
ST. JAMES: Yes, hes sitting right over there. [Points]
THE COURT: Indicating the defendant, Alonzo Barnett. Correct, Mr. Jaywalker?
JAYWALKER: Absolutely.
It was always a good idea to concede what you couldnt contest. It bought you credibility in the eyes of the jury. That way, when you fought over something, the jurors were more likely to take your side.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Did you and the defendant then have a conversation?
ST. JAMES: Yes. I told him I was up from Philly and looking to score some high-quality heroin. I said I was prepared to buy as much as a kilo, but that I wanted to start small, with a sample, to check out the purity.
SHAUGHNESSEY: When you said a kilo, what did you mean?
ST. JAMES: A kilo is a kilogram, a little over two point two pounds, or about thirty-five ounces. Its a lot of weight, and it can go for as much as forty thousand dollars if its uncut.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What happened next?
ST. JAMES: The defendant told me to come back the next evening. In the meantime, he said, he was going to talk to his connection.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Whats a connection?
ST. JAMES: A source of supply. The guy he was getting it from.
SHAUGHNESSEY: And the following evening, did you do as he instructed you to?
ST. JAMES: Yes, I did.
SHAUGHNESSEY: How did you get there?
ST. JAMES: I drove an unmarked government vehicle, a late-model Cadillac.
Jaywalker looked up from his note-scribbling, suppressing a grin. Just as they had back in his day, DEA agents still seized cars that had been used to facilitate drug deals. Then, after conducting civil forfeiture proceedings, they put the cars into service to use during undercover and surveillance operations. Which was how Jaywalker had once ended up in an almost-brand-new five-speed Corvette, trying to see how fast it would go early one morning on the Harlem River Drive. Hed opened it up pretty good before being flagged over by a motorcycle patrolman, one of those guys in the storm trooper outfits, with the squashed down cap and knee-high boots. Ill give you a choice, the cop had said. Two tickets for exceeding sixty, or one for going a hundred and twenty. Sorry, Jaywalker had told him, but he was on the job. An insiders way of saying he was the Man.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What happened when you arrived there?
ST. JAMES: The defendant got in and told me to drive to a particular corner, 127th Street and Broadway.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What happened there?
ST. JAMES: He told me to wait while he got out. He walked around the corner and out of my sight. He was gone about twenty minutes. When he came back, he told me that his man refused to meet with me, that hed deal only with him. So I took a chance. I fronted the defendant a hundred dollars and told him to bring me back a sample.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Fronted?
ST. JAMES: Gave him the money up front, in advance.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Was there anything special about the money?
ST. JAMES: Yes, it was what we call Official Advance Funds. Meaning the bills had been photocopied to show the serial numbers. That way, if the backup team recovers any money at the time of an arrest, they can compare the bills to the photocopy for evidentiary purposes.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Did there come a time when the defendant returned to your car?
ST. JAMES: Yes. After about another twenty minutes, he came back, got in and told me to drive. When wed gone a few blocks he handed me an amber-colored glass vial containing a white powder. I thanked him and said Id be checking it out, and would want more if it was good. We agreed to meet again in two days. I drove him back to his building and dropped him off.
From there Agent St. James had proceeded to a pre-arranged location, where he met with the backup team. There he field-tested the contents of the vial, watching the re-agent turn a telltale red, indicating a positive reaction for the presence of an opiate. He then turned the evidence over to one of the backup team members for vouchering and a more sophisticated chemical analysis.
The second of the three buys, according to Agent St. James, followed much the same pattern. The United States chemist had reported that the sample tested out as eighty-one percent heroin, pretty close to pure, and strong enough to drop a user in his tracks were he to cook it and shoot it up uncut. St. James met with Barnett as scheduled and ordered an ounce, which Barnett told him would cost fifteen hundred dollars. A day later they drove back to the same corner, where St. James handed Barnett the money and watched him walk out of view. Twenty minutes later Barnett returned with a small paper bag. Inside the bag was a glassine envelope containing a white powder that turned out to be just over an ounce of eighty percent pure heroin.
The third buy had taken a little longer to set up. Agent St. James had said he wanted an eighth of a kilo this time. Jaywalker knew the amount arrived at had been no accident. Since an eighth of a kilogram translated to a little more than four ounces, it would bump the case up into the first-degree category, not only for sale but possession, with the mandatory life sentence that an A-1 felony carried.