FOURTH GUILTY IN DRUG THEFT

GREENSBORO - A man convicted Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court of
digging up marijuana from the old Chatham County landfill in October 2000
faces as much as 30 years in prison for conspiring to sell the drug.

David Wayne Stout, 38, of Kernersville was accused of leading a group of
five men in "the chance of a lifetime" -- the overnight theft of marijuana
evidence that sheriff's deputies had buried.

"The government would argue to you that [Stout] was the catalyst," Randall
Galyon, assistant U.S. attorney, said in his closing arguments. "But for
David Wayne Stout, they wouldn't have gone. He had the map."

Stout's attorney, Amos Tyndall, argued that his client unearthed the
marijuana for himself, not as part of a group. "Each person intended to
gather his own marijuana and go home," Tyndall said. "It may not be
admirable, ... but it's not a conspiracy."

Jurors, who Tuesday heard a tape recording of Stout talking about his
involvement in the theft, deliberated less than an hour Wednesday morning
before reaching a guilty verdict. Stout, who will be sentenced Nov. 15, was
convicted of conspiring with James Benjamin Harris, 36, and Gary Leslie
Causey, 39, both of Snow Camp, to possess and distribute more than 110
pounds of marijuana. He is likely to spend about six years in prison,
according to his attorney.

As a U.S. marshal escorted Stout from the courtroom, his common-law wife,
Angie Tindall, buried her face in a friend's shoulder and wept aloud.
Stout, who owns a power-washing business, has helped support Tindall and
her two children for eight years.

Stout's trial, which began Monday, was part of a 23-month-old case that has
drawn intense criticism of the Chatham County Sheriff's Office, which
allowed 5,000 pounds of marijuana evidence to be stolen -- four-fifths of
it from a surplus Army truck parked behind the department, and the rest
from a shallow pit at the old landfill. The drugs had been seized in
February 2000 during a sting near Siler City. The vast majority remains
unaccounted for.

Harris and Causey, who pleaded guilty in May, testified Monday and Tuesday
about digging up 258 pounds of marijuana with Stout and a fourth man, who
has not been indicted, on a cool Friday night in mid-October 2000. Causey's
father, Ted, who had heart trouble and has since died, drove them from
Causey's race shop in Snow Camp to the landfill, then returned to pick them up.

The men followed a map drawn by Jody Mitchell Brafford of Goldston, a
county backhoe driver who testified Monday that he stole marijuana from the
landfill in daylight three times the week after he helped bury it. Brafford
pleaded guilty in May to distributing about 80 pounds of the drug.

On Dec. 7, 2000, Harris was caught trying to sell about 50 pounds of the
drug to an informant, FBI Special Agent Stan Stoy testified Tuesday. That
same day, Harris helped trap Causey by delivering money to him, then Causey
turned in his father. On Dec. 20, Harris and Causey teamed up to record a
personal conversation with Stout at Causey's race shop, where Stout talked
about instigating the theft and finding a buyer for his share.

Causey, Harris and Brafford, who are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 3,
testified against Stout with hopes that their punishments would be reduced.
Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. warned jurors to consider their testimony with
care.

"These witnesses are people who are caught," Tyndall said. "They were
caught red-handed, and they're in a lot of trouble."

After the verdict, Tyndall argued that because the men decided to split the
goods evenly five ways, Stout was responsible for only his 42 pounds, which
would warrant a lesser punishment.

Harris and Causey had testified that they were caught selling only their
portions, and that Stout never saw his share after the dig because Ted
Causey kept all of it for cleaning.

"Mr. Stout was never going to get the benefit of the marijuana that
belonged to other people," Tyndall said. "The most he was ever going to get
was one-fifth. The rest wasn't even accessible to him."

Galyon, however, convinced jurors that Stout was responsible for the entire
amount.

"That's the beauty of a conspiracy," he said. "You don't have to do all the
work, but you get the benefit."