Opening Statement - Defendant May it please the Court, counsel, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. This is a case about a cornered criminal in desperate need of a fall man. We are here today because a convicted drug dealer, Domingo Molina, set up a fake drug buy with an easy victim because he was under grievous pressure from an over-zealous DEA agent to do so or else face prison time. The evidence to come will establish not only a reasonable doubt, but that Stevie Tyler is innocent of the crime the state has outlined before you. Since the prosecution presents first in a criminal case, you will have to wait to hear Stevie Tyler present his case. We ask that you wait patiently until after he has been given this full and fair chance to present his case and his witnesses, before deciding what really happened. Before I talk to you about what the evidence will show, I want to make it clear that we do not dispute Stevie Tyler transported a red cooler full of heroine to the Wal-Mart parking lot. We agree this happened. However, this fact is not the issue in this case. The issue is whether Stevie Tyler intentionally transported the …show more content…
Mr. Molina had been arrested for possession of 15 kilograms of heroin being transported in a false bottom of a truck and copped a deal with the DEA to avoid having his bond revoked. We believe the evidence will show that this same individual is now attempting to use Stevie Tyler as a fall man to save his own skin; that he staged a fake buy with a cognitively impaired person to get the DEA off his back and avoid going to prison. We will show Mr. Molina used Stevie Tyler because he was an easy target who Mr. Molina knew could be used. Unaware of all of this, Stevie Tyler simply thought he was delivering a cooler for a friend whom he