TRIAL OPENS FOR MEN ACCUSED OF SUPPLYING METH INGREDIENT

Officials Say University Rexall Sold More Pseudoephedrine Than Some
Large Area Chains

A mom-and-pop drugstore in west Mobile became a one-stop shopping haven for
people seeking ingredients to make methamphetamine, prosecutors alleged
Wednesday as the pharmacy's owner and a former employee went on trial in
federal court.

From late 2000 until the middle of last year, University Rexall Drugs sold
so much Sudafed and other medicine containing pseudoephedrine that it
outpaced giant area chains, including Bruno's Supermarkets and CVS
Pharmacies, and broke the law in doing so, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger
Burke told jurors.

"For the meth cooks, that was the Wal-Mart of drugstores. That was the
place to go," Burke said.

Longtime University Rexall owner Robert Warhurst Jr., 70, watched
Wednesday's action from the defense table, seated next to his nephew, Gene
Warhurst Jr., a lawyer who is representing him along with Billy Kimbrough.
With a distinguishing white mustache to match his bushy brows and his shiny
white hair slicked back, Robert Warhurst looked every bit the old-time
neighborhood merchant.

"You'll find he only wears white shirts and blue pants, too," his nephew
told the jury in his opening remarks.

Robert Warhurst's ruddy-faced co-defendant and former employee, James K.
Wells, 73, in a dark polo shirt and wide suspenders, appeared jovial
despite needing a cane to get around. He suffered a stroke more than 10
years ago and went to Warhurst's store for medicine so often that he
finally started working there part-time, his lawyer, Skip Brutkiewicz, told
jurors.

A federal grand jury indicted Robert Warhurst, Wells and three former
University Rexall clerks in March, accusing the five of conspiring to sell
bulk quantities of pseudoephedrine, knowing that the buyers would use it to
make methamphetamine.

The ex-employees, except Wells, all were accepted into a pre-trial
diversion program, a sort of probation that, if properly completed, will
obligate prosecutors to drop the charges against them. Defense lawyers told
jurors the clerks were the ones who handled almost all of the
pseudoephedrine transactions, unbeknownst to Robert Warhurst or Wells.

By statute, the two face up to 20 years in prison each if convicted, though
they likely would face less time due to their lack of serious criminal
records. Robert Warhurst shuttered the pharmacy last year, but stands to
forfeit the building and the property where it has sat, for years, on Old
Shell Road near Schillinger Road.

U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. thrice warned the defense lawyers to
skip their clients' life stories, hindering their attempts to portray the
defendants as beloved elderly gentlemen unaware of the vagaries of federal
drug law.

Pseudoephedrine, a common chemical in cold and flu remedies, has become
such a popular ingredient among meth cooks -- and therefore a frequently
shoplifted item -- that a growing number of pharmacies keep all products
containing it behind the counter and will sell only a few packets to a
single customer. Federal law forbids stores from selling more than 24 grams
of pseudoephedrine in a single transaction and requires reports on all
sales involving 9 grams or more.

"The first step would be to go buy the pills," said Byron Jones, one of
three convicted meth cooks to testify Wednesday morning, answering a
prosecutor's query about how to produce and consume one of the nation's
most prevalent and addictive street drugs.

Mix a bit of ether, some rock salt, a pinch of battery acid, a dollop of
drain cleaner, denatured alcohol, ammonia and about 10,000 milligrams of
pseudoephedrine for a modest batch, he said, drawing gasps and whispers
from the mostly older gallery.

He and the other two cooks testified that Wells encouraged them to call
ahead to place orders for entire cases of pseudoephedrine, which they said
would be waiting for them at the counter when they arrived, sometimes with
more cold medicine from the store's shelves.

"I'd go ahead and take everything and leave a tip," Jones said.

The supply from Warhurst's store was so good, Jones claimed, that he
wondered whether it was a setup.

"This is what meth does to you," he explained. "It makes you paranoid.
You're always thinking that the law's gonna get you. I was getting such a
good deal at University, I thought it was a trap."

Fully four dozen spectators filled the pews in Butler's fifth-floor
courtroom, nearly all of them graying contemporaries of the defendants.
They waited in turn to greet Robert Warhurst, in particular, during breaks
in the action, and clucked and murmured approvingly each time a defense
lawyer cross-examining a government witness scored a point.

The first prosecution witness, a convict named James Harrell, initially had
trouble picking out Wells at the defense table, and he waffled on whether
he had dealt with Robert Warhurst at the store. He also admitted he had
lied to federal agents about his dealings with them.

Still, Harrell claimed, he or someone working for him went to University
Rexall every day for months, spending at least $200 per visit and buying
enough medicine to make 20 pounds of meth, worth up to $20,000 per pound.

Testimony is expected to continue throughout today at the courthouse on St.
Joseph Street, with jurors expected to start deliberations Friday.