FRESNO, CA -- At the end of their second day of deliberations, the jury in the federal trial of Luke Scarmazzo and Ricardo Montes returned a string of guilty verdicts. Although they deadlocked on the conspiracy counts and acquitted on the firearms counts, the jurors delivered a grand total of eight guilty verdicts against the defendants. One of these convictions, for continuing criminal enterprise, puts Scarmazzo and Montes at risk of life imprisonment. The sentencing has been set for August 4th, but due to the severity of the penalties, both defendants were literally wrested out of the arms of their families and taken into the custody of U.S. Marshals this afternoon.
Their case came as a result of the 2006 bust of the Modesto-based California Healthcare Collective, and was touted as the first trial of a medical marijuana dispensary in federal court. This trailblazing took the parties through some rocky terrain, while Judge Oliver Wanger maintained a difficult balance regarding the admission of documents relating to medical marijuana. Such evidence is typically kept from juries in federal court – United States law prohibits marijuana uniformly, even in states that have enacted laws for its medical use. However, because Scarmazzo and Montes were charged with continuing criminal enterprise, the judge allowed them to defend themselves by presenting documents related to their business. The judge repeatedly stated that this information was being presented for a limited purpose, saying the medical use of marijuana is not a defense under federal law and should not be used as grounds for acquittal.
Luke Scarmazzo
Jurors consequently heard a great deal about medical marijuana during the trial, and conflict quickly ensued when they were asked to completely disregard the subject during deliberations. On Tuesday, after only an hour of wrestling with the verdicts, the pressures heightened to an unbearable level and one juror asked to be excused. This juror revealed to the court that he would not be able to live with himself if the defendants were found guilty, since his recently-deceased wife had used marijuana during the course of her illness. The deliberations were suspended upon his dismissal, and the jury began deliberating anew on Wednesday with an alternate juror.
The next two days proceeded at an agonizingly slow pace, punctuated by questions the jury periodically sent to the judge. Some of these queries were inscrutable, as when the jurors asked for a recitation of the testimony regarding a seemingly insignificant financial document. Other inquiries, however, were more complex, indicating a leaning towards conviction. One was a note about possession with the intent to distribute, asking how many of these charges could be counted if a defendant had a stockpile of marijuana that was partly distributed and partly kept.
But the most revealing notes came in the middle of the second day of deliberation, when the jury repeatedly informed the court that it had reached verdicts for all but one count faced by each defendant. The jurors continued deliberating on this last count until the end of the day, at which time they said they were unable to reach resolution and Judge Wanger declared them officially deadlocked. A warning about outbursts from the gallery preceded the reading of the other verdicts, but the news nonetheless inspired moments of riveting emotional intensity.
Ricardo Montes
The first guilty verdict announced was for Scarmazzo on the continuing criminal enterprise count, and a collective moan went through the gallery. It was the sound of dull shock, similar to the noise often produced when severe head trauma is inflicted. Guilty verdicts were then announced for the manufacture of over a hundred plants and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. These same verdicts were repeated for Montes, along with additional counts of possession with the intent to distribute that related to a July 2006 search of his residence and vehicle.
During the recitation of the verdicts for Montes, fear and cognition merged into full reality for the defendants’ families, and the crying began. As the judge polled the jurors individually about their verdicts, Scarmazzo sat stoically and Montes rested his forehead on clasped hands, shaking slightly. Montes’s mother, who had been pacing the courthouse hallways in prayer, sobbed heavily from the gallery with her bible lying on the seat beside her. In the front row, Scarmazzo’s five year-old daughter broke out in a flood of tears as she was rocked in the arms of her crying mother.
Luke Scarmazzo with daughter Jasmine
Following the poll of the jurors, both defendants waived their right to a jury trial on the resulting forfeiture proceedings. Instead, the decisions on forfeiture will be made by Judge Wanger on Monday, May 19th. The attorneys briefly debated whether additional findings from the jury would be necessary for the forfeiture hearing, but the judge ultimately decided against it. “The jury is not required to make these findings,” Judge Wanger stated, warning that it was like re-deliberation to have the jury decide such matters at this point. Besides, he said, such additional considerations were unnecessary. “The court believes that the evidence is overwhelming,” the judge repeated at different intervals.
As the crying in the gallery continued steadily, Judge Wanger delivered a speech of thanks and congratulations to the jurors. “Personally, and on behalf of the United States of America, I want to express sincere, heartfelt appreciation,” he gushed as he excused the jury from their service. The judge then declared a mistrial for the conspiracy count on which the jury had deadlocked, and the date of May 27th was chosen for a status conference on the government’s intention to have a retrial on that charge.
Emotions began to escalate when the judge and attorneys held a brief private conference. Scarmazzo embraced his crying daughter over the railing that separated the gallery from the rest of the court. The little girl clung to her father, desperately wailing, and soon whole families were hugging and kissing the defendants in a tear-jerking congregation at the courtroom railing.
“I love you,” Montes’s mother bawled. “This is so unfair! It’s so unfair!”
“It’s okay,” her son said with tender assurance. “It’s going to be okay.”
Montes then held his wife, her big pregnant belly pushing over the railing as she wept. He gave her the same comforts he had given his mother, but at their tearful parting, he murmured, “Send me pictures of my new baby, okay?”
The new baby, in its last trimester of gestation, is the couple’s first boy. Although he won’t be there to help with the birth, Montes has a special gift for his son – the little boy will be named Ricardo Jr.
Next in his arms was his daughter Nina, who had attended a substantial portion of the trial. Montes warned her softly that her daddy would be gone for a while, but the little girl just asked him whether he had to go to court. “No, court is over,” Montes told her, lowering her back down over the other side of the railing. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”
But she was already older – today was Nina’s fourth birthday.
Shortly after the judge and attorneys returned, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Servatius moved to take Scarmazzo and Montes into custody immediately. The defense attorneys tried to object, arguing that their clients had been successfully out on bond for over a year, but the judge agreed with the government. “The court doesn’t have any discretion,” Judge Wanger said somberly. “We’ve faced this in many, many cases.”
As the U.S. Marshals approached Scarmazzo and Montes, the families flocked to the railing once again and the sound of sobbing reached a climax of desperation.
“I love you,” Scarmazzo’s mother shouted out as her son was led towards a door on the side of the courtroom.
A din of wailing threatened to drown out the last farewells, but Scarmazzo’s daughter suddenly began shouting above the noise. “Daddy! Daddy!” she called out frantically. Scarmazzo turned just soon enough to beam a loving smile at his daughter before disappearing behind the door.
Defense attorney Anthony P. Capozzi
Marshals then crowded in to escort the emotional family members out into the hallway. Observers inside the courtroom waited for the defense attorneys to return from the backroom holding cells, where they had followed Scarmazzo and Montes. When the attorneys finally emerged, each gently but visibly held the belt and tie of his client. These belongings, so conspicuously abstracted from their owners, were somehow like relics. They seemed like mysterious artifacts of life, what remains once the flesh is gone…a skull, a handful of teeth, a glass eye or a metal hip.
But these morbid words were not on the tongue of defense attorney Anthony P. Capozzi. To him, death was nowhere near, and the fight was not even close to finished. “It’s not over,” he said with calm confidence at the end of the proceedings. “It’s not over.”
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