A Little Rock man accused of fentanyl distribution and being a felon in possession of a handgun was ordered Thursday to remain in jail to await trial after a federal magistrate judge said she could think of no way to allow him to remain free that would not pose a danger to the community and risk that he would flee to avoid prosecution.
Prosecutors said Jemel Foster, 30, sold 1½ grams of fentanyl on Jan. 11 to a McGehee woman who was found dead of a suspected overdose the next morning. After the death of 33-year-old Kayleigh Walser, police found evidence in her cellphone that led them to Foster, who was taken into custody the following day after police set up a meeting by texting him from Walser's phone, according to authorities.
During the two-hour bond hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Harris heard testimony from Foster's mother, Rhonda Wilson, who testified about the sometimes turbulent relationship she had with her son.
Also testifying was Arkansas State Police detective Stephen Briggs, who walked the court through how Foster came to the attention of investigators and how they were able to arrest him by setting up a drug buy using Walser's cellphone before news got out that she had died.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens played recordings of telephone calls between Foster and his girlfriend, identified only as "Poo," discussing Foster's arrest; and text messages, often laced with profanity, between Foster and Wilson as the two argued over his lifestyle and choice of women.
Wilson, after being sworn in, walked slowly to the witness stand. Her voice broke at times when she told her son's attorney John Wesley Hall that she had a good relationship with Foster, that they talked often and that she owned her home and two rental units that Foster would inherit one day. She said Foster has a 5-year-old son he cares for and that her son would have a job waiting for him if he were to be released into her custody.
But under Givens' cross-examination, Wilson admitted that her relationship with Foster was sometimes stormy, and that she was troubled by his drug use and the women in his life.
"I knew something was going on," she said, but added that after he had given her some problems 12 years previously, he seemed to have gotten his life back on track up until the past few months.
Wilson testified that she had no knowledge of Foster dealing fentanyl or any other drugs, although she did admit to throwing her son out of her home over his drug use.
"Jemel was put out of my house for using fentanyl," she said. "I didn't know anything about him selling it."
During his testimony, Briggs outlined the circumstances that led to the death of Walser and how the investigation led to Foster. He said Walser, who had struggled with opioid addiction, had served 30 days in a Florida jail and was released Jan. 10. He said she flew home Jan. 11 with her father, arriving in Little Rock that afternoon.
About 6 a.m. the next day, Briggs said, Walser's 14-year-old daughter found her body in the bathroom of Walser's mother's west Little Rock home.
Briggs said a search of Walser's cellphone turned up an exchange of text messages between Walser and a contact entered into her phone as "J," who a friend of Walser's identified as a Little Rock fentanyl dealer.
As Walser was heading back from Florida, Briggs said, she began sending text messages to "J" asking him to meet her at the Little Rock airport, saying that her mother would not let her leave the house once she arrived home. She then texted the address and texted several more times but received no response, Briggs said.
"So when she ... gives her address and then says, 'I'll pay extra for you to bring in,' what does that mean?" Givens asked.
"She's willing to pay more for the narcotics," Briggs said.
"For him to deliver?"
"Yes, for him to deliver."
Briggs said "J" never responded to Walser's increasingly frantic text messages. About an hour after arriving in Little Rock, Briggs said, Walser texted, "Let's meet at Walgreens on Bowman. That's all I can do."
Briggs said Walser still got no response until she texted, "Leaving my house, I've got $300."
"It wasn't two minutes later he responds, 'On my way! Come on,'" Briggs said, then he said Walser texted "J" to tell him she would go into the store and for him to park in the parking lot away from the door and that she would park by the door.
"It's obvious to me, based on that message that her father didn't know what she was doing," Briggs said.
He said that text message was the last communication Walser sent.
"And it was later that evening that Ms. Walser passed away?" Givens asked.
"It was the early morning hours," Briggs said. "She actually met at the Walgreens, based on those messages and the surveillance, she met him at the Walgreens on the night of Jan. 11."
Briggs said about 4 p.m. on Jan. 12, police used Walser's cellphone to text "J" and set up another drug buy in the same Walgreens parking lot.
"It was a last resort for us to use her cellphone to contact this 'J,'" he said. "We mimicked the exact same text messages she had sent to 'J' to establish communications."
Briggs said a text was sent by police mimicking Walser to make Foster think she had another $300 and wanted to meet again at Walgreens, a text that he said got an immediate reply. He described how police set up a perimeter around the Walgreens parking lot to wait.
When Foster arrived, Briggs said, he texted simply, "hur," as a black Infiniti sedan described as Foster's car pulled in and backed into a parking space. Moments later, Briggs said, officers blocked him in and arrested him.
Givens showed photos of eight baggies containing a half-gram each of fentanyl taken from Foster, then compared them with two identical baggies containing a half-gram each of fentanyl that were found in Walser's bra.
"Can a half-gram of fentanyl kill a person?" Givens asked.
"It's deadly," Briggs said. "A microgram can kill a person."
Givens pointed out that in Foster's 2012 felony drug arrest, two loaded pistols were seized from his car and that Foster had a loaded pistol with a round chambered stuck between the driver's seat and console of his car when he was arrested Jan. 12.
Givens played recordings of phone calls between Foster and Poo that were recorded from the Pulaski County jail shortly after Foster's arrest in which the two discussed why Foster didn't run from police when they arrived to arrest him.
"I knew they had to block you in because you always talking about how you gonna take them folks on a chase," Poo can be heard saying on the recording.
"I couldn't, they blocked me in too hard," Foster was heard to reply.
Hall argued that his client's lack of violent criminal history and his ties to the community made him unlikely to be a flight risk. Givens countered with Foster's history of ditching court appearances, two arrests for fleeing, and two felony arrests involving firearms and evidence of fentanyl distribution as risk factors making detention the best option.
After remarking on the merits of defense and prosecution arguments, the judge said the prosecution's argument for detention was the most compelling.
"I have to consider the danger to the community," Harris said. "Mr. Givens is right. This is a very, very dangerous drug. It doesn't take much to cause a death. ... That to me is the most relevant factor here."