TOLIVER SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR SELLING CRACK COCAINE

EDITOR'S NOTE: The names of the undercover law enforcement officers
and confidential informant in this article are not identified to
protect their identity.

Johnathan Toliver was sentenced to life in prison for selling crack
cocaine to a confidential informant he later allegedly planned to
have killed so he would not be able to testify.

A Smith County jury deliberated for about 15 minutes Thursday before
delivering the life sentence and a $10,000 fine in 241st District
Judge Jack Skeen Jr.'s court. The jury convicted Toliver of the
first-degree felony of delivery of a controlled substance on
Wednesday after about 15 minutes of deliberation.

Toliver sold the confidential informant (CI) more than 4 grams of
crack on May 25. The sentencing range was enhanced to 15 years to
life in prison because of his prior convictions. Toliver will be
eligible for parole after 15 years in prison.

Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy told the jury to
consider the evidence in both the guilt and punishment phase of the
trial, which included testimony about Toliver's conspiracy to commit
capital murder case, for which he has not been indicted.

Murphy said justice in the case was life in prison.

On Jan. 26, Toliver was operating one of his many "trap houses" when
police searched it and found 21 grams of crack, scales and a handgun
in Toliver's bedroom, Murphy said. Toliver was arrested, bonded out
of jail and while awaiting trial, sold three crack rocks to the CI on
May 24 and sold more than four grams of crack to the CI on May 25, Murphy said.

He said there was a long-term investigation into Toliver, whom police
have been trying since 1997 to catch selling dope.

Toliver told a Smith County jail inmate that he was in jail because
of the CI, Murphy said, adding that he obtained a picture of the CI
and a cell phone in the jail and plotted to kill the CI.

The CI was bonded out of jail by an unknown person and called police,
who told him to go back inside the jail as fast as he could while
they armed themselves with assault rifles and bulletproof vests. The
police had already heard about an alleged plot to kill the man,
Murphy said. By the time they got downtown that Sunday morning,
police said "Greasy Greg," Johnathan Brown, was driving slowly around
the jail and neighboring bail bond company, he said.

Brown and Jessie Jackson also face conspiracy to commit capital murder charges.

Murphy said three police officers protected the CI with their assault
rifles by their side for two days, before they could safely get him
out of town.

"Johnathan Toliver knew the only way to avoid today was to get rid of
(the CI)," Murphy said.

Murphy asked the jurors to send a message with their sentence and to
keep Toliver out of their community by sending him to jail for life.

Defense attorney Bill Rosenstein told the jurors that they had never
seen Toliver before the trial because he was not part of their community.

He said the 4.78 grams Toliver sold was a minuscule amount of the
crack smoked in Smith County each day.

"Have they (prosecutors) brought you any evidence that cocaine has
ruined anybody's lives?" Rosenstein asked the jury. "No, they haven't."

He said the state spent days trying the case that involved a
30-second transaction and instead focused on what Toliver did before
and after the offense. He told the jury that to consider that the
state had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Toliver committed the
conspiracy to commit capital murder was "laughable." He also said
that Toliver had already been punished for his prior convictions.

Toliver has prior convictions of aggravated assault, robbery and
retaliation. In 1989 in Smith County, Toliver assaulted a man in
retaliation for reporting a crime. He also has an assault/family
violence conviction.

Rosenstein told the jurors that if they sentenced Toliver to life in
prison, they were obligating themselves to house, feed and clothe him
and to support his children and family. He said they would not
accomplish winning the battle of removing drugs from the community.

"You can't effectively eliminate what a substantial portion of the
population wants," he said.

He asked the jury to sentence him to the low end of the punishment
range for the "small amount" of crack he sold.

Murphy said Toliver was selling poison in the juror's community and
he had already gotten a lot of chances to change his behavior.

"Do you know how much that crack cocaine was worth to Johnathan
Toliver?" Murphy asked the jurors. "(The CI's) life. People kill for
it. People steal for it."

Tyler police officers Billy Yates and Darrell Gardner testified about
their involvement in the case, as well as several undercover Tyler
policemen and the CI.

Casey Knaupp covers county, state and federal courts.