Pubdate: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 Source: News & Observer (NC) Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company Contact: http://www.news-observer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304 Author: Angela Heywood Bible FOURTH GUILTY IN DRUG THEFT GREENSBORO - A man convicted Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court of digging up marijuana from the old Chatham County landfill in October 2000 faces as much as 30 years in prison for conspiring to sell the drug. David Wayne Stout, 38, of Kernersville was accused of leading a group of five men in "the chance of a lifetime" -- the overnight theft of marijuana evidence that sheriff's deputies had buried. "The government would argue to you that [Stout] was the catalyst," Randall Galyon, assistant U.S. attorney, said in his closing arguments. "But for David Wayne Stout, they wouldn't have gone. He had the map." Stout's attorney, Amos Tyndall, argued that his client unearthed the marijuana for himself, not as part of a group. "Each person intended to gather his own marijuana and go home," Tyndall said. "It may not be admirable, ... but it's not a conspiracy." Jurors, who Tuesday heard a tape recording of Stout talking about his involvement in the theft, deliberated less than an hour Wednesday morning before reaching a guilty verdict. Stout, who will be sentenced Nov. 15, was convicted of conspiring with James Benjamin Harris, 36, and Gary Leslie Causey, 39, both of Snow Camp, to possess and distribute more than 110 pounds of marijuana. He is likely to spend about six years in prison, according to his attorney. As a U.S. marshal escorted Stout from the courtroom, his common-law wife, Angie Tindall, buried her face in a friend's shoulder and wept aloud. Stout, who owns a power-washing business, has helped support Tindall and her two children for eight years. Stout's trial, which began Monday, was part of a 23-month-old case that has drawn intense criticism of the Chatham County Sheriff's Office, which allowed 5,000 pounds of marijuana evidence to be stolen -- four-fifths of it from a surplus Army truck parked behind the department, and the rest from a shallow pit at the old landfill. The drugs had been seized in February 2000 during a sting near Siler City. The vast majority remains unaccounted for. Harris and Causey, who pleaded guilty in May, testified Monday and Tuesday about digging up 258 pounds of marijuana with Stout and a fourth man, who has not been indicted, on a cool Friday night in mid-October 2000. Causey's father, Ted, who had heart trouble and has since died, drove them from Causey's race shop in Snow Camp to the landfill, then returned to pick them up. The men followed a map drawn by Jody Mitchell Brafford of Goldston, a county backhoe driver who testified Monday that he stole marijuana from the landfill in daylight three times the week after he helped bury it. Brafford pleaded guilty in May to distributing about 80 pounds of the drug. On Dec. 7, 2000, Harris was caught trying to sell about 50 pounds of the drug to an informant, FBI Special Agent Stan Stoy testified Tuesday. That same day, Harris helped trap Causey by delivering money to him, then Causey turned in his father. On Dec. 20, Harris and Causey teamed up to record a personal conversation with Stout at Causey's race shop, where Stout talked about instigating the theft and finding a buyer for his share. Causey, Harris and Brafford, who are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 3, testified against Stout with hopes that their punishments would be reduced. Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. warned jurors to consider their testimony with care. "These witnesses are people who are caught," Tyndall said. "They were caught red-handed, and they're in a lot of trouble." After the verdict, Tyndall argued that because the men decided to split the goods evenly five ways, Stout was responsible for only his 42 pounds, which would warrant a lesser punishment. Harris and Causey had testified that they were caught selling only their portions, and that Stout never saw his share after the dig because Ted Causey kept all of it for cleaning. "Mr. Stout was never going to get the benefit of the marijuana that belonged to other people," Tyndall said. "The most he was ever going to get was one-fifth. The rest wasn't even accessible to him." Galyon, however, convinced jurors that Stout was responsible for the entire amount. "That's the beauty of a conspiracy," he said. "You don't have to do all the work, but you get the benefit." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth