A federal jury is scheduled to resume deliberating today on six charges against a West Memphis man accused of being part of a large cocaine-trafficking ring in Crittenden County in 2012 and 2013.
Defense attorney Chris Tarver told jurors in closing arguments Thursday that his client, Rafael McDaniel, 32, isn't the big, bad drug dealer that prosecutors have portrayed him to be, even if he has admitted to cooking some cocaine into crack for friends and selling small amounts of it over a period of years.
"The reality is, sometimes the government just overcharges," Tarver told the six men and six women who have been hearing the case since Monday before Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller. "This is one of those times."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benecia Moore reminded jurors of a video they watched of a West Memphis police officer's walk through McDaniel's house Feb. 19, 2012. The video showed the officer walking through a messy house and pointing out 14 guns, some loaded, that were tucked into a couch cushion, lying on tables and dressers, or propped up in doorways. She also reminded them of the piles of cash, totaling $12,652, that were found throughout the house, along with drug paraphernalia and residue.
McDaniel had the guns legally and had a permit to carry them, Tarver said, noting that no evidence was presented that he ever used any of the guns to further a drug-trafficking conspiracy, as prosecutors claim. Tarver noted that the guns were inside McDaniel's house, and that McDaniel said he kept them on hand to protect his cocaine and his piles of cash.
Moore referred to the piles of cash as "drug proceeds," while Tarver indicated that at least some of the cash was grouped according to where it came from -- such as rent collected from houses McDaniel owned -- or what it was to be used for -- such as roofing repairs.
Jurors also saw video of another search warrant being executed at another house of McDaniel's on Nov. 18, 2013, the day he was arrested.
"You can see, almost two years later, Mr. McDaniel is up to the same thing," Moore said, citing the finding of 6½ grams of cocaine, $7,564 in cash and five other guns at that house.
If jurors convict McDaniel of using firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking conspiracy, he faces an additional 30 years in prison on top of any time he must serve if convicted on the other charges.
An FBI agent testified Wednesday that McDaniel admitted, when the second warrant was served, that he had sold small quantities of drugs, probably totaling 1 kilogram -- about 2.2 pounds -- over three years. He also admitted that he sometimes cooked cocaine into crack.
Tarver told jurors, "Even if he cooked drugs at his house, the people there were friends of his. He didn't need the guns to protect himself from them."
He also told them to remember that "most of the phone calls you heard were between other people using his [McDaniel's] name," and that there were "no phone calls from any of these people to Raf McDaniel looking to buy drugs."
If McDaniel wasn't a dealer of large quantities of drugs, why would he have "all the tools of the trade," including a well-used cocaine press and a scale, Moore asked jurors to consider.
McDaniel was one of about 20 people arrested Nov. 18, 2013, on accusations of being part of a West Memphis-based drug-trafficking organization that was uncovered during a two-year state and federal investigation. The other defendants avoided trial by negotiating guilty pleas.
FBI agents have said they heard a lot of talk of violence on intercepted phone calls but weren't aware of any violence actually occurring.
Metro on 03/20/2015