Bobby Banks Trial Continues- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ex-addict mom says son never sold to her
BY LINDA SATTER
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Two strikingly different versions of Bobby Banks emerged Monday as jurors heard testimony from the mother of the suspected ringleader of a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation in Little Rock.
In contrast to Banks’ portrayal last week by prosecution witnesses — many of them drug users and sellers who were promised leniency for agreeing to testify against him — his mother told a federal jury that he “never” went to the crack houses near Central High School that a prosecutor said he ran “with an iron hand.”
“My son was never there,” declared Nadine Webb, an admitted former crack addict and alcoholic. Instead, “he be at home cooking and caring for the kids,” she said. She said that before she went through drug rehabilitation, “If he would have been selling it [cocaine], I would have gotten it from him.”
Banks, a good father whose asthma helped deter him from illegal drug use, didn’t like his mother using cocaine, she said. She added that a Little Rock police detective, Mark Stafford, “has been picking and trying to get something on that boy since he was a child.”
Stafford and FBI agent Steve Crutchfield led an investigation that in late 2004 resulted in a federal indictment against Banks and 16 others. A superseding indictment added a charge against Banks of interfering with an officer ; it accuses Banks of making veiled threats against Stafford in October 2005 to try to thwart his investigation.
Last week, Stafford testified that one of Banks’ associates named in the indictment, Kenneth Dewayne “Cable Man” Williams, was fatally shot in the head just before the indictment was released. Another of Banks’ suspected associates, Harry Tyrone “Sleepy” Baker, is missing.
The others indicted with Banks have pleaded guilty to various charges, with some agreeing to cooperate with authorities. Stafford also testified about two laser-sighted 9mm pistols, a “mean-looking” silencer and two taped-together gun clips that police found in Banks’ Windamere Drive home in late 2005 alongside two empty safes. The home was protected by video surveillance cameras, pit bull dogs and a chain-link fence, Stafford said.
After Webb and two other defense witnesses testified Monday morning, jurors heard closing arguments and then deliberated for about half an hour before U.S. District Judge Howard Jr. sent them home for the day. Deliberations will resume at 9:30 a.m. today on seven remaining charges against Banks. They include an all-encompassing charge of conspiring to sell cocaine, single counts of using a telephone to facilitate a drug offense and interfering with an officer, and four counts of possessing cocaine with the intent to deliver.
If convicted, Banks faces up to life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Pat Harris and Jane Duke told jurors that, at the government’s request, the judge dismissed another charge Banks faced: possession of 6 kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. The prosecutors said they made the request after a potential witness told authorities last week that he didn’t ever buy cocaine from Banks, a retraction of an early statement.
That person, Chris Lamont Alexander, who is serving a sentence on a robbery conviction in the state Department of Correction, instead testified on Banks’ behalf Monday. Alexander, 29, said he and Banks were once enemies. “If he’d had a lot of drugs or money around, I probably would have robbed him,” Alexander said, indicating he was not aware of Banks being a drug dealer.
On cross-examination, Alexander acknowledged that he has been a “muscle man for a drug dealer,” but he denied being an actual dealer.
Banks, turning around in his chair to face the gallery during a break while the jury was out of the room, declared, “I am innocent.” Pointing toward prosecutors, he told a reporter, “They are framing me.” He said that he had never met the string of people who testified against him, and that the witnesses lied to get leniency in their own cases.
Banks’ attorney, Ron Nichols, told jurors that the prosecutors’ case was based on “innuendo,” although the prosecutors have spoken about Banks as if were Al Capone. Duke reminded jurors of testimony about police finding Banks hiding in a crawl space accessed through a hidden door in the linen closet of his bathroom, asking, “Why does somebody go to that extreme of a measure not to be found? Because they’re guilty, that’s why.”
This story was published Tuesday, February 07, 2006
BY LINDA SATTER
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Two strikingly different versions of Bobby Banks emerged Monday as jurors heard testimony from the mother of the suspected ringleader of a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation in Little Rock.
In contrast to Banks’ portrayal last week by prosecution witnesses — many of them drug users and sellers who were promised leniency for agreeing to testify against him — his mother told a federal jury that he “never” went to the crack houses near Central High School that a prosecutor said he ran “with an iron hand.”
“My son was never there,” declared Nadine Webb, an admitted former crack addict and alcoholic. Instead, “he be at home cooking and caring for the kids,” she said. She said that before she went through drug rehabilitation, “If he would have been selling it [cocaine], I would have gotten it from him.”
Banks, a good father whose asthma helped deter him from illegal drug use, didn’t like his mother using cocaine, she said. She added that a Little Rock police detective, Mark Stafford, “has been picking and trying to get something on that boy since he was a child.”
Stafford and FBI agent Steve Crutchfield led an investigation that in late 2004 resulted in a federal indictment against Banks and 16 others. A superseding indictment added a charge against Banks of interfering with an officer ; it accuses Banks of making veiled threats against Stafford in October 2005 to try to thwart his investigation.
Last week, Stafford testified that one of Banks’ associates named in the indictment, Kenneth Dewayne “Cable Man” Williams, was fatally shot in the head just before the indictment was released. Another of Banks’ suspected associates, Harry Tyrone “Sleepy” Baker, is missing.
The others indicted with Banks have pleaded guilty to various charges, with some agreeing to cooperate with authorities. Stafford also testified about two laser-sighted 9mm pistols, a “mean-looking” silencer and two taped-together gun clips that police found in Banks’ Windamere Drive home in late 2005 alongside two empty safes. The home was protected by video surveillance cameras, pit bull dogs and a chain-link fence, Stafford said.
After Webb and two other defense witnesses testified Monday morning, jurors heard closing arguments and then deliberated for about half an hour before U.S. District Judge Howard Jr. sent them home for the day. Deliberations will resume at 9:30 a.m. today on seven remaining charges against Banks. They include an all-encompassing charge of conspiring to sell cocaine, single counts of using a telephone to facilitate a drug offense and interfering with an officer, and four counts of possessing cocaine with the intent to deliver.
If convicted, Banks faces up to life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Pat Harris and Jane Duke told jurors that, at the government’s request, the judge dismissed another charge Banks faced: possession of 6 kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. The prosecutors said they made the request after a potential witness told authorities last week that he didn’t ever buy cocaine from Banks, a retraction of an early statement.
That person, Chris Lamont Alexander, who is serving a sentence on a robbery conviction in the state Department of Correction, instead testified on Banks’ behalf Monday. Alexander, 29, said he and Banks were once enemies. “If he’d had a lot of drugs or money around, I probably would have robbed him,” Alexander said, indicating he was not aware of Banks being a drug dealer.
On cross-examination, Alexander acknowledged that he has been a “muscle man for a drug dealer,” but he denied being an actual dealer.
Banks, turning around in his chair to face the gallery during a break while the jury was out of the room, declared, “I am innocent.” Pointing toward prosecutors, he told a reporter, “They are framing me.” He said that he had never met the string of people who testified against him, and that the witnesses lied to get leniency in their own cases.
Banks’ attorney, Ron Nichols, told jurors that the prosecutors’ case was based on “innuendo,” although the prosecutors have spoken about Banks as if were Al Capone. Duke reminded jurors of testimony about police finding Banks hiding in a crawl space accessed through a hidden door in the linen closet of his bathroom, asking, “Why does somebody go to that extreme of a measure not to be found? Because they’re guilty, that’s why.”
This story was published Tuesday, February 07, 2006
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