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September 5, 2007

Business owner gets 5 years in meth case

Raoul David of David’s Food Center convicted of selling meth precursors

By Deb McKee

TERRE HAUTE — A Terre Haute businessman who pleaded guilty in 2005 to five counts of selling methamphetamine precursors from the back of his grocery store has been sentenced in federal court.

Raoul David, 68, on Wednesday learned he will serve five years in the federal Bureau of Prisons. According to federal guidelines, he must serve at least 85 percent of that sentence.

The hearing took place before a crowded courtroom in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Terre Haute, with many of David’s family and supporters, including members of his church.

David was arrested and charged in July 2004 after federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Vigo County Drug Task Force officers spent months investigating his store, David’s Food Center on Indiana 63 in southern Vigo County.

They found that David had been selling pseudoephedrine — an ingredient used in making meth — by the caseload to known meth users.

From late 2003 to his arrest in 2004, David was selling 96-count boxes of pseudoephedrine in cases of 12 boxes for $150 a case. David told police later that he was making a profit of $6,000 each month selling the drug, according to court documents.

Denzil Lewis, an officer with the Vigo County Drug Task Force, testified that one ounce — or 28 grams — of meth, could be made from a case of 96-count boxes of pseudoephedrine.

Madeleine Kuzma, an agent from the Indianapolis district office of the DEA, testified Wednesday that the Grocer’s Supply Business, which supplied David, reported “suspicious and extraordinary orders of pseudoephedrine by David’s Food Center,” beginning in October 2003.

According to court documents, David had become involved in selling the precursor after a longtime meth user came to him and requested large amounts of pseudoephedrine.

The meth user had told police earlier in the investigation that after drug dealer Don Osborn was convicted in 2003 of dealing meth and members of the Diablos motorcycle gang were jailed for the same offense, he was at a loss for finding meth. That was when he approached David for help, he said.

David pleaded guilty in June 2005 to one count of conspiracy to distribute pseudoephedrine, a schedule-1 listed chemical, and four counts of distribution of pseudoephedrine.

Defense attorneys Kal Ellis and Richard Kiefer on Wednesday asked Judge Larry J. McKinney to consider David’s severe health issues, including uncontrolled diabetes, blocked arteries and a weak heart, in handing down a sentence.

The defense requested that the court put David on probation “under whatever conditions the court wants to impose,” Kiefer said, adding, “Incarceration for [David] basically amounts to a death sentence.”

Kiefer relied on several medical witnesses who testified that the stress of prison, poor medical treatment and a “less-predictable” form of insulin offered by the prison could cause David’s health to decline.

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Blackington said he found it ironic — “not in the humorous sense” — that David had brought up the issue of his own health in hopes of avoiding jail, with no concern that his act of “pumping out pseudoephedrine” had harmed the health of others.

Blackington also said the Bureau of Prisons has the necessary staff and resources to manage David’s needs.

Blackington relied on statements from informants as evidence to show that David was aware of the illegality of selling large amounts of pseudoephedrine, including the fact that David sold single boxes of pseudoephedrine at the front of the store, and allowed it to be rung up by cashiers, but when he sold cases, he sold them at the back of the store, managed the transactions himself, and took cash, keeping those sales “off the books.”

Blackington said when David’s case was about to go to trial, the court could not seat a jury because nearly one-third of the jury pool stated that meth had affected a family member.

“It has been a terrible problem in this community,” Blackington said. “When … [a meth user] couldn’t go to Don Osborn anymore, instead of going to a guy in a biker jacket and faded jeans, he goes to a guy in a suit … the difference between Don Osborn and [David]? The suit.”

Blackington asked the court to impose a minimum of 87 months.

Defense attorney Kiefer told the court his client made “a foolish decision,” and said David poses no threat to society. David addressed the judge, saying, “I’m sorry I sold it … I won’t never sell it anymore.”

Judge McKinney, in giving 60 months, first reminded David that the U.S. Congress allows a sentence of up to 20 years on each count and $250,000 in fines on each count.

“That tells me what Congress thinks about the seriousness of this crime,” McKinney said.

Federal sentencing guidelines provided an advisory sentence of 87 to 108 months based on the amount sold, David’s lack of criminal history and other factors.

“That’s a far cry from 20 years on each count,” McKinney said.

“This was not a foolish mistake,” he added. “It was a deliberate action on your part to make a profit … I want the sentence to promote respect for the law.”

Regarding David’s health issues, McKinney said a prison medical team will monitor him “in a way that is humane and reasonable.”

David will be housed in a federal medical center in the Bureau of Prisons, according to the judge. McKinney also imposed two years supervised release after David’s release from imprisonment. David also was fined $15,000.

Lewis, of the Drug Task Force, said, “The judge did a wonderful job in citing the reasons for the sentence. Anybody else trying to make a profit from the city’s meth problem” will take notice.

David declined to comment as he left the courtroom.

Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.

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