Pubdate: Wed, 29 Feb 2012
Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright: 2012 The Commercial Appeal
Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm
Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95
Author: Beth Warren

MEMPHIS DRUG-RING ACCOMPLICE TESTIFIES OF VIOLENCE THAT DROVE HIM TO 
FLEE WITH HIS FAMILY

Memphis drug-ring accomplice testifies of violence that drove him to
flee with his family

A former member of Craig Petties' drug organization told jurors
Tuesday about a series of ghoulish events that drove him from Memphis
and ultimately into the federal witness protection program.

Dana Bradley, testifying in the federal trial of two alleged hit men,
said the disturbing errands he was asked to carry out on behalf of the
drug ring included digging a grave, carting around a heavily armed
death squad from Mexico and burning up a murder victim's car.

Bradley said his brother-in-law, high-ranking drug-ring member Rickey
Evans, called him from Mexico in September 2006 and told him to dig a
grave.

"I told him: 'I ain't no grave digger. I ain't doing that,' " Bradley
told jurors.

Bradley said Evans later called him and ordered him to "blow up," or
torch, a maroon Monte Carlo. Bradley said he was told to meet
defendant Clinton "Goldie" Lewis, 36, to get the car and drive it to
an apartment complex.

Days after Bradley and a friend moved the Monte Carlo, he saw news
reports that Marcus Turner's naked body had been found in a ditch in
Olive Branch.

"When Marcus Turner's body came up, I called Rickey and I asked him:
'What's up with this car?' "

He said Evans refused to talk about the car, except to re-emphasize
the need to burn it.

Bradley told jurors he lied to Evans and claimed he had destroyed it,
when in reality someone had taken it. He didn't elaborate on whether
it was stolen or moved by someone from the organization.

Prosecutors allege that in September 2006, Lewis helped kidnap and
kill Turner, who owned a maroon Monte Carlo.

Lewis and his cousin, Martin "M" Lewis, 34, are on trial in federal
court on charges that include murder, racketeering and drug
trafficking for their alleged roles in the notorious Petties drug
ring, which had ties to a powerful and volatile Mexican cartel.

Bradley also told jurors that Martin Lewis, who didn't have a job,
suddenly had money and a black truck days after the murder of Turner's
best friend, Mario McNeil.

The younger Lewis is alleged to have gunned down McNeil in a wings
restaurant on Kirby Parkway on orders of the Petties
organization.

Bradley said Evans, who had fled to Mexico to hide out with Petties,
called him around the time of the murder and ordered him to give
Clinton Lewis $19,000 without explaining why.

Three days later, he ran into both Lewises in Martin Lewis' new black
truck.

Bradley said when he asked if they knew anything about the March 2007
murder inside the wings restaurant, "Martin started laughing."

"He had new clothes, new shoes, gotta haircut, looked like he had some
money now," Bradley testified.

Bradley said he concluded he wasn't getting paid enough to compensate
for the constant dangers -- from the menacing Mexican hit men, from
vengeful members of his own organization and from police who were
beginning to close in.

"The DEA had grabbed Goldie and White Boy," he said, referring to the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I got a bad feeling about everything," he said.

Bradley said after his son's birth, he feared he would never get to
see the boy grow up. So he gathered his children and girlfriend and
fled Memphis.

After settling into a house in Louisiana, where his father lived,
Bradley learned that Petties associates wanted him dead.

He figured he had two choices: fight, which would likely entail a
shootout, or flight. "My dad told me: 'If you pull the trigger, there
ain't no going back,' " Bradley testified.

He opted to run, this time to the police. He called Baton Rouge
police, CrimeStoppers, Memphis police homicide detectives and the DEA
task force.

Police from Memphis rushed to Baton Rouge.

"They bum rushed my house and took me out with my daughter crying:
'Daddy, Daddy!' " Bradley told jurors. "They said: 'We're going to
help you, protect you. You got a hit out for you.' "

Bradley entered the federal witness protection program, changing his
identity and moving.

More associates of Petties, who grew up in South Memphis and oversaw a
drug organization that distributed to a large territory in the
Southeastern U.S. before his capture, are expected to testify today.
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