DRUG-RING ARRESTS LINKED TO MAN'S DEATH

LANCASTER -- The accused killers of a Lancaster video gambling business
manager are believed to be members of a massive crack cocaine drug ring,
Sheriff Johnny Cauthen said Tuesday.

Four men and one woman face charges in the kidnapping and murder of Melvin
Steele, as well as the kidnapping of Rita Steele in June 2000.

Bond had been denied in November for Vernard Jerome Mathis of Lanham, Md.,
and two Lancaster men, Vernard Jerome Sparks Jr. and William Thomas
Witherspoon. Elton Lowell Wiggins of Washington, D.C., is in custody
without bond, while Sylvia Talford of Lancaster is out on bond, according
to police.

Now, they and 18 others have been charged by the Lancaster County Sheriff's
Office for criminal conspiracy to traffic crack cocaine, Cauthen said.

Cauthen said the group was the major supplier of crack into the Lancaster
area, running kilos of the drug for the past two years.

Asked why members of a drug ring would want to rob the Steeles, who police
said had no connection to drug trafficking, Cauthen replied: "Just greed. I
don't know any other way to put it."

Rita Steele was found handcuffed in the woods June 20, 2000, off Old Camden
Road by a neighbor. Her clothes were covered with blood and her head was
wrapped with duct tape.

Melvin Steele's body was found by police soon after in a parking lot
overgrown with weeds at the former Southern Tool and Die Co. on U.S. 521
Business, just south of the city of Lancaster.

Melvin Steele - the 38-year-old office manager of McDonald's Amusements in
Lancaster and brother-in-law of business owner Jimmy McDonald - was
handcuffed, gagged, blindfolded and shot in the legs, police said.

The men had allegedly handcuffed and blindfolded the couple, put them in a
van and rode around, while attempting to get the security codes and safe
combinations for McDonald's Amusements, located at 1965 Great Falls Highway.

Circuit Court Judge Paul Short has set Feb. 11 for the 6th Circuit
Solicitor's Office to either set a trial date for the defendants or file
motions to seek the death penalty.

Cauthen described the group of 23 as one of the biggest and best organized
seen in years, responsible for moving kilos of crack cocaine from the
Maryland and Washington, D.C., areas. The drugs could have been worth as
much as $500,000 to $1 million or more, he said.

Many of the suspects were members of one family, although Mathis and
fugitive Robert Madison Brooks of 353 Willowoak Circle were said to be the
brains behind the operation, using friends and relatives in the area,
police said.

Drugs, money and property have been seized during the investigation. The 23
suspects were arrested and charged starting in December, Cauthen said.

Contact Susan J. Stabley at 329-4063 or sstabley@heraldonline.com