Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Tuesday in a federal death penalty case set deep within the "violent world of drug dealing, intimidation and murder" of a tiny section of Northeast Baltimore, prosecutors say, and the alleged drug ring that ran it, selling heroin and crack under one name: Special.
The three defendants - Marvin Gilbert, 34; James "Miami" Dinkins, 37; and Darron "Moo Man" Goods, 24 - are accused, in various combinations, of drug conspiracy and multiple killings, including the shooting deaths of two witnesses, one of them on Thanksgiving Day in 2006. Goods faces life in prison if convicted, while Gilbert and Dinkins could be sentenced to death.
Closing arguments
"You have the power, not them," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kwame Manley told the panel of 15 jurors, three of them alternates, during closing arguments Monday. The defense team, which has steadfastly preserved their clients' claims of innocence, is to finish their statements Tuesday, and the case should go to the jury by midafternoon.
It's been a long, variable, four-week journey filled with brazen stories:
* Female correctional officers who supposedly worked for and slept with prisoners (Gilbert allegedly impregnated one).
* Stop Snitchin' DVD stars turned into government informants (convicted racketeering conspirator Van Sneed testified for the prosecution).
* U.S. marshals put a witness in the same holding cell as the defendants he was testifying against (a fight ensued).
* Two men identified as "Dead-Eye Melvin" and "Bones" allegedly threatened a witness at her job and smashed her daughter's car windows, then showed up for trial, sitting quietly in the courtroom audience the first two days until they were barred.
* And a dead man's supposed confidant, Dinkins, who offered to pay for his funeral and care for his son, turned out to be his killer, according to prosecutors.
They allege that Special was a drug name and an organization, run by Gilbert, protected by Dinkins and upheld by Goods. But Goods' attorney, Thomas Saunders, the only defense lawyer to give his closing argument thus far, called the case against his client "thin."
Goods, an admitted small-time marijuana dealer, is charged with participating in the Special drug conspiracy and with crimes related to the killing of John "Dale" Dowery, a father of nine who was facing 10 years on federal handgun charges and had become a government informant despite the dangers: Baltimore is known for criminal intimidation, if not outright killing, of cooperators. Two other federal witness trials have concluded in the city this spring.
