ALTON MAN CONVICTED OF DRUG DEALING

EAST ST. LOUIS -- A federal jury took four hours Friday to convict an Alton
drug dealer called "a menace" by the city's top detective.

Christopher B. "Picklehead" Taylor, 38, of the 1100 block of West Ninth
Street in Alton, was convicted in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis on
two counts of dealing crack cocaine.

The convictions resulted from a collaboration between the Alton Police
Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, whose officers
observed one of the two incidents in which Taylor was proven to be dealing
crack.

"We are happy the jury has agreed with us and the evidence we presented and
twice convicted this menace that we have always known him to be in the city
of Alton," police Lt. David Hayes said.

Taylor was observed by federal agents in September 2003 selling drugs to an
undercover informant, who admitted on the witness stand that she had been
convicted of a felony and was herself suspected of dealing drugs.

Taylor also was found to have more than 5 grams of cocaine in his coat
pockets, along with $799 in small bills, after Hayes and another officer
spotted him driving around the Belle Manor city housing project at 11 p.m.
Jan. 22, 2004.

Agents testified that the amount of the drug and the small denominations of
the bills fit the pattern of a drug dealer conducting business in a public
housing project. The informant called the project "infested with drug
activity."

She later was kicked out of Belle Manor by the Alton Housing Authority,
U.S. Attorney Tom Daly said.

Hayes said the convictions are the culmination of nearly two years of work
and cooperation between city and federal authorities.

Taylor has previous convictions of felony criminal damage to
state-supported property, three felony convictions for probation violation,
a felony aggravated battery conviction and a felony conviction of unlawful
use of weapons by a felon.

Taylor could get up to 30 years for the offenses, in part, because he has a
long history of criminal convictions.

Hayes said he is hoping for a stiff sentence to get Taylor off the streets
for the foreseeable future.

"We just hope the courts will agree with us, also," Hayes said.

The case went to the jury about noon Friday. Daly admitted in closing
arguments that the informant was not a model citizen but said such
witnesses were a necessary evil if authorities were to crack the drug
subculture in Alton. Agents said they were looking for Taylor's help in
breaking up a wider conspiracy.

Daly reminded the jury of testimony that the informant was searched just
before the deal went down in a parking lot a few hundred yards from the
Alton Main Post Office on Belle Street, then turned the drugs over to the
agents after her contacts with Taylor.

The informant had called Taylor, who came to meet her then was followed by
undercover agents back to his house then back to the meeting point, where
the deal went down.

Later, the informant called and told Taylor she was "shorted" about half
the crack she paid for, so officers watched a second meeting that day at
the East Alton McDonald's.

"He had a good customer. He wanted to keep the relationship on a sound
footing," Daly said.

The total sale that day was 12.8 grams.

The Jan. 22 case involved a traffic stop in which Taylor was pulled over
for failing to have a front license plate. In the process of writing him a
ticket, officers smelled marijuana in the car. A later search turned up the
crack cocaine.

Taylor's lawyer, John Stobbs, admitted that Taylor had the crack but
claimed there was no evidence he was selling it. He noted his client's
statement that he had the drugs for his own use.

Stobbs also claimed that the informant hid the drugs on her person just
before the September 2003 deal went down. She was the type of person who
would do that and lie to the agents, just to get out from under her own
legal troubles, he argued.

Stobbs claimed the agents went after his client because Taylor vehemently
turned them down when they approached him about doing some undercover work
for them.

After the conviction, Stobbs said he and his client respect the verdict but
will appeal. He said U.S. District Judge David Herndon and the U.S.
Attorney's Office gave his client a fair trial.