U.S. v. Goodman
| Decision Date | 01 November 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-5443,78-5443 |
| Parties | 5 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 96 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David Ivan GOODMAN, a/k/a Charles Riccardi and David Lash, and Paul AlexanderWest, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Paul Alexander West, pro se.
Percy Foreman, Mike DeGeurin, Houston, Tex., for West.
William A. Bratton, III, Dallas, Tex., for Goodman.
D. Mark Elliston, Asst. U.S. Atty., Dallas, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Before GODBOLD, Circuit Judge, SKELTON, Senior Judge, * and RUBIN, Circuit Judge.
The Appellants, David Ivan Goodman and Paul Alexander West, were indicted in three counts for conspiring to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, methaqualone (Count 1); manufacturing methaqualone (Count 2); and possessing with intent to distribute methaqualone (Count 3), all being violations of 21 U.S.C.A., §§ 846 and 841(a)(1). 1
Following a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, the Appellants were found guilty on each of the three counts and were sentenced to five years imprisonment with a special parole term of two years and a fifteen thousand dollar fine on each of the three counts, all sentences to run consecutively. 2 The Appellants have appealed their conviction to this court. We affirm.
The evidence adduced at trial showed that Appellant West and Herbert Goodman decided as early as December, 1975 to go into business together to "make a lot of money." The business was the making of methaqualone, a sedative, hypnotic depressant which is used as a replacement for barbiturates. This business venture became the largest operating clandestine drug laboratory seized in the history of the United States with a potential output of fourteen million methaqualone tablets, with street values ranging from one dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars and ninety-five cents per tablet. The laboratory was capable of producing four hundred thousand tablets in a twenty-four hour period.
The idea of manufacturing methaqualone originated with Herbert Goodman, although Appellant West claimed to have done as much in the beginning as did Herbert Goodman. Appellant Goodman, Herbert Goodman's brother, came into the the operation around May of 1976. Then Deborah Carrier joined in the process of making methaqualone tablets around June of 1976 after being earlier persuaded to do so by Herbert Goodman.
Herbert Goodman, Appellant Goodman, and Appellant West originally made the methaqualone in Houston at different addresses at various times. Herbert Goodman planned for a bigger operation in Dallas, and, consequently, Herbert Goodman, Appellants Goodman and West, and Deborah Carrier discussed the equipment needed and plans for moving the laboratory to Dallas. All four engaged in many conversations with each other regarding the making of methaqualone.
Appellant Goodman, with the assistance of Appellant West, constructed the interior of the new laboratory; Herbert Goodman ran the tablet punch machine; and Appellant West "cooked" and distributed the tablets. Deborah Carrier made an answering service tape for the new laboratory, bought labels for barrels used, helped purchase a large mixer for the laboratory, and assisted in the move to Dallas by finding places to live.
Herbert Goodman and the Appellants split their profits equally among themselves. They paid Deborah Carrier a lump sum of either eighty-five thousand or one hundred thousand dollars as her share. A portion of the money made went into a slush fund to be used either in the event of arrest or to buy more equipment.
Herbert Goodman and the Appellants sometimes worked at the laboratory for two months at a time, and then they would quit for a period of a week to a month. Appellant Goodman did nothing else during this time except make methaqualone. When they did work they worked on a daily basis.
Investigation of this offense began with a telephone call from Forest Squire, director of security at the Sherwin-Williams Company, to George Krebs, compliance investigator with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Mr. Squire, as a part of his duties, routinely informed the DEA of the sale of N-acetylanthranilic acid which is a necessary substance in the manufacture of methaqualone. Pursuant to his duties, Mr. Squire advised Mr. Krebs of company records reflecting several shipments of N-acetylanthranilic acid to Cougar Construction Company and International Chemical Testing Laboratory at various addresses in Houston and reflecting business dealings with Herbert Goodman and Appellant Goodman. After the initial telephone contact, Mr. Squire further determined that Sherwin-Williams had shipped seventy-three hundred pounds of N-acetylanthranilic acid to Cougar Construction and International Chemical.
On January 25, 1977, Mr. Krebs told George Shepard, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Houston, that Sherwin-Williams had an existing order for twenty-five hundred pounds of N-acetylanthranilic acid from International Chemical Testing Laboratory. Mr. Krebs and agent Shepard arranged for a controlled delivery of the chemical to the Houston company. Agent Shepard, in an undercover capacity, then delivered the twenty-five hundred pounds of N-acetylanthranilic acid to International Chemical Testing Lab on Jessamine Street in Houston. Once there, Shepard met "Charles Riccardi" whom he later identified as Herbert Goodman. Herbert Goodman signed the delivery ticket for the chemical and then drove away from the Jessamine address in a car registered to Appellant Goodman's wife.
George Shepard next initiated a twenty-four hour surveillance for a two-week period on the Jessamine address and observed Herbert Goodman and Appellant West go in and out of the laboratory during that time. Also, during this time, agent Shepard contacted several companies to determine whether they had shipped chemicals and equipment to International Chemical Testing Laboratory and Cougar Construction Company. This part of the investigation subsequently uncovered numerous business dealings involving sales of chemicals and equipment, eventually seized by the DEA, to International Chemical Testing Laboratory, Cougar Construction Company, Environmental Testing Laboratory (all of these were business fronts used by the Appellants in the methaqualone operation), and to Herbert Goodman and Appellant Goodman in both their real names and aliases (i. e., Charles Riccardi, Dave Riccardi, Herb Lash, David Lash, etc.). Environmental Testing Laboratory was the name used by the Appellants for their laboratory on Farrington Street in Dallas, Texas.
Having discovered the Dallas laboratory, agent Shepard contacted Russel Pfeiffer, special agent with the DEA in Dallas, and requested his assistance. Agents Pfeiffer and Shepard arranged to make a controlled delivery of equipment to the Dallas laboratory on Farrington Street. When agent Pfeiffer delivered the equipment to the Farrington address on February 14, 1977, Herbert Goodman, Appellant Goodman, and Appellant West were present. Appellant West helped agent Pfeiffer unload the truck, and Appellant Goodman signed the receipt for the equipment. The next day, Appellant Goodman was again present at the Farrington Street laboratory.
On February 16, 1977, Appellant West rented a Hertz truck and he and Herbert Goodman were observed loading the truck with N-acetylanthranilic acid at the Jessamine Street laboratory in Houston. Appellant West, followed by agent Shepard, drove the truck to the Farrington Street address in Dallas where he and Herbert Goodman unloaded the N-acetylanthranilic acid.
Surveillance on the Farrington Street address disclosed that from February 22, 1977, to July 27, 1977, Herbert Goodman was at the Farrington Street laboratory on at least six different dates. Appellant Goodman was there on at least five different dates, and Appellant West was there on at least three different dates. Photographs depicted Herbert Goodman and Appellant West at the Farrington address on February 22, 1977, and depicted Herbert Goodman and Appellant Goodman there on May 23, 1977.
On May 9, 1977, Wayne Joyce, a Dallas engraver, revealed to the DEA that he had been working on tablet punches for Herbert and David Lash since August or September of 1976. Mr. Joyce maintained that he had several dealings in this regard with Herbert and David Lash, whom he later identified as Herbert Goodman and Appellant Goodman. Mr. Joyce gave agent Pfeiffer a tablet punch which he had made for Herbert Goodman and Appellant Goodman in August of 1976 and which Herbert Goodman had returned in April of 1977. Agent Pfeiffer gave this punch to Dr. Edward Franzosa who made duplicast molds of this punch and eventually made placebos (i. e., sample tablets that will show exterior characteristics of a tablet) from several other punches that either Herbert Goodman and Appellant Goodman had ordered or were seized from the Farrington Street laboratory in August of 1977.
Dr. Franzosa, using the process of ballistics analysis, compared the duplicast molds and the placebos with his reference collection at the Special Testing Laboratory. Based upon this comparison, Dr. Franzosa concluded that the punch given to agent Pfeiffer and punches recovered from the Farrington Street laboratory were used to make over forty-eight thousand methaqualone tablets seized by the DEA in New York, Colorado, and Texas from a period of November of 1976 to April of 1977.
The DEA waited until August 18, 1977, to seize the Farrington Street laboratory in hopes that they would...
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