Preston Brown -- #28840-004

Life in Prison -- Crack Cocaine Conspiracy


Preston Brown, prisoner of the drug war
Stated below are the facts requested for my case. Please note that I am unable to read or write but I have people helping me with my correspondence.

On August 1, 1990, my brother and his friend [John Doe] came to my house from Live Oak, Florida. My brother woke me up and asked for his television. [Doe] came in also and asked me if he could smoke a joint (marijuana), I told him he could not smoke in the house and t go out to the yard.

[Doe] then went outside, smoked his joint and when he finished he came back into the house and asked me if I knew where he could get some rocks (crack cocaine). I told him that it was too hot around here to be talking about cocaine.

[Doe] replied that he could go to Fort Myers to get it, but he didn't like the kind of cocaine they had in Fort Myers. I told him he better be on his way because I didn't know anything about no drugs.

Approximately ten minutes later a Jamaican guy stopped by to ask me about $150.00 that I had borrowed from him to pay my rent, as I was talking to him, [Doe] came over to the car and started talking to him also. [Doe] then got into the car with the Jamaican and they drove off, I went back into the house.

Approximately twenty minutes later the Jamaican dropped [Doe] back off at my house. [Doe] then went to his car and unlocked the passengers side and sat in his car. I came outside of the house and he unlocked the drivers side of the car and I got in.

About ten minutes later my brother that was standing in the yard said "Here comes the Broward County Raiders" (The drug task force in our area). All of the sudden four agents surrounded the car. They asked us what we were doing in the car and I replied just sitting here talking. The agent then asked us to get out of the car, and began searching me, finding nothing he told the other agents that I was clean and should he let me go. The other agent said "hold him".

The agents searched [Doe] also and found nothing on him. The agents then began to search [Doe] 's car and found a white McDonalds bag under the seat where [Doe] was sitting, the agents opened the bag and found 30 small zip-lock bags each containing 10 pieces of rock cocaine . The agent once again told the other agent that I was clean and did they want to let me go, another agent then replied "arrest him, too".

After the arrest [Doe] wrote a statement to the agents against me stating that he gave me $3,000.00 and that I went inside some dude's house for approximately 1 minute and purchased the drugs for him to take back to Live Oak, Florida.

[Doe] became a government witness and testified against me at trial, in which I was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to Life in Prison without parole. The total amount of cocaine base was 53.6 grams. I did not know anything about the drugs that the agents found in [Doe] 's car.

[Doe] received ten years in prison, even though he was on State probation at the time of his arrest.