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Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Case of confidential informant slaying goes to the jury
DAYTON — The case of an Indiana man accused of assassinating a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confidential informant went to the jury Wednesday evening, after more than a week of testimony.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Frances E. McGee gave the case to the jury at 5:15 p.m. The jurors picked a foreperson, then went home for the night. Jurors will start deliberations Thursday.
Anthony Croom, 43, of Bunker Hill, Ind., was indicted in October 2010 on one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder and two counts of felonious assault. He is accused of gunning down Anthony Hurd on Aug. 2, 2007 in Englewood.
At the time of his death, Hurd, who was from Richmond, Ind., was in Ohio hiding from three men who had sold him crack cocaine while he was wearing a wire, according to trial testimony. Prosecutors claim Croom was hired to kill Hurd to derail criminal prosecutions of those three men, who are all from Richmond.
“They were facing decades in prison,” assistant county prosecutor Erin Claypoole told the jury Wednesday. “Tony Hurd was the problem. The goal of the plan is simple: eliminate Tony Hurd.”
Those buys were in the summer of 2006. The first involved a Rollie Mitchell, now doing a life sentence in federal prison for knowingly distributing 50 grams or more of cocaine. Federal court documents show that the date of that offense was June 6, 2006, the day of the first buy.
Another man allegedly involved in that drug buy, identified in court as Tyree Smith, was never charged. A man allegedly involved in the second drug buy, on July 17, 2006, Billy Hicks, Jr, is awaiting trial on a drug trafficking charge, according to records filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
Those three men were charged in state court in July 2007, just weeks before Hurd, 24, was shot eight times as he sat in the passenger seat of a Chevrolet Blazer that was in the parking lot of a Sunoco gas station, 1070 S. Main St. A Wayne County (Indiana) Sheriff’s Office detective testified that the charges in state court against Mitchell, Hicks and Smith were dismissed because of Hurd’s death.
Claypoole said that cellular phone records for the different players, including Croom, show a web of phone calls the evening Hurd was killed, with some of the calls coming from Englewood. She said that Croom made at least two phone calls to Hicks, even though Croom testified he did not know him.
She also pointed to the testimony of Lindsey Hoover, an eastern Ohio woman who happened to be in a car parked at the Sunoco when Hurd was killed. Hoover said she picked Croom out of a photo spread and said she would never forget the killer’s eyes.
But defense attorney Scott Calaway said Hoover was wrong about key details, including claiming the killer was wearing a red hat. He said Sunoco surveillance video caught the slaying, and the killer was not wearing a red hat, nor did he run in front of the parked car Hoover was sitting in, as she testified.
Calaway attacked the credibility of two Indiana inmates, who both testified that Croom admitted committing the crime, and a girlfriend of Mitchell, who said she heard that a “Boogie” was hired to kill Hurd. Boogie is Croom’s nickname. Calaway said the men were friends of the Richmond dealers, and that they and the girlfriend, Heather Clark, were purposely feeding bad information to frame Croom while taking suspicion away from Mitchell, Hicks and Smith.
“They fed them a red herring,” Calaway said. “You think they’re not going to feed information to get out of a murder.”
Assistant county prosecutor Dan Brandt said this was ridiculous and noted that questioning Clark “was like pulling teeth.” He also said that the video, which shows the inside of the store though some of the parking lot is visible through glass doors, had plenty of reflections and that the footage did not necessarily contradict Hoover’s testimony.
Last week, Latisha Walker, 32, of West Carrollton, testified that Hurd had been her boyfriend and he told her he was cooperating with the DEA. When she found out that Hurd got another girl pregnant, she spoke with Mitchell, whom she had dated, Hicks and Smith, and told them Hurd wore a wire when purchasing cocaine from them.
They did not believe her accusation, Walker said. In September 2006, she moved to Centerville and a month later, Hurd moved in with her. But after Mitchell, Smith and Hicks were charged, Hurd became paranoid, even sleeping on the couch with his gun underneath it. On Aug. 1, 2007, they fought, she said, because he was told by authorities to keep a low profile, but he kept going out. That night, she said, he left with some friends.
One of those friends, Kraig Rakestraw, 38, testified that, on Hurd’s request, he drove Hurd to Englewood, dropping him off between a Waffle House and a McDonald’s. As he drove off, Rakestraw said, he saw Hurd get into another vehicle. This was in the early hours of Aug. 2, he said.
Hurd was shot while sitting in the Blazer driven by Tiffany Brewer, of Richmond, who was struck by one of the rounds, according to prosecutors. Brewer did not testify during the trial. Prosecutors said Brewer played an integral part of the conspiracy and was in communication with the other players through her cellular phone.
Claypoole said Hurd was probably supposed to be killed at a Motel 6 he tried to check into with Brewer. When his credit card was rejected, a motel employee directed him to an ATM at the Sunoco station.
TweetPermanent injunction approved against Centerville businessman accused of securities fraud
DAYTON — A permanent injunction has been approved against a Centerville businessman and his three companies, all accused of securities fraud by the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Both the preliminary and permanent injunctions were approved Tuesday and signed by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman. Those injunctions, prohibit Wayne T. Essex and his companies from:
• selling or offering to sell securities in violation of the Ohio Securities Act • selling or offering to sell securities without prior approval of the court • engaging in any deceptive, fraudulent or manipulative act
The affected companies are Essex And Associates, Inc., in Dayton, Essex HR & Associates, Inc. in Beavercreek and HR Reconciliation, LLC in Dayton, according to the commerce department.
In December 2011, Judge Wiseman issued a temporary restraining order against Essex and his companies. Wiseman also appointed local attorney James Swaim as receiver, who will work to recover Essex’s business assets for distribution as approved by the court.
The Division of Securities initiated the action based on allegations that Essex sold promissory notes in the Dayton Small Business Capital Fund, which he told investors would be invested in Dayton-area small businesses. Twenty investors purchased approximately $1.1 million in the fraudulent investment between July 2010 and November 2011. The state charges that Essex never made loans to or investments in small businesses with the money, according to court records.
The Division’s investigation found that Essex sold securities without a license, sold unregistered securities and engaged in securities fraud. The Division also found that Essex commingled investor funds with his business and were used to support his personal lifestyle, including out-of-state travel, according to the court records.
Essex did not tell investors that he was not licensed to sell securities and that the securities were not properly registered. Essex told investors that their funds were guaranteed and that they would receive annual returns of five, seven or 10 percent - with higher rates to those who invested larger dollar amounts, according to the commerce department.
Essex said in December that he was “disappointed and a bit dismayed” by the commerce department’s position. He said that earlier that month, after state officials approached them, company officials began the steps to properly liquidate the fund.
“The majority of investors have already received all of their initial investments, with the full amount of interest promised,” Essex said. “Any remaining investors have received the significant majority of their initial investment, and we expect that in the very near future, once all liquidation efforts are complete, every investor will receive not only their initial principal investment, but all promised interest as well.”
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