Ron Stone: Police Drug Informant?

Ron Stone, a police drug informant disappeared on January 22nd 1977 only for his body to be found two months later on the banks of River Stanislaus, miles from Sonora. The victim had been working as a drug informant for narcotic detectives. His main duty was to set up Christopher Towler by introducing him to two undercover agents who would arrest him as he tried to sell them cocaine. The set up was successful and Towler was arrested and convicted on charges of selling cocaine. In the course of his trial and before his conviction, Towler had expressed his hatred for snitches and the fact that he believed that they should be killed. When he was released on bail, Towler confided to different people that he believed that Stone had betrayed him

Although Stone’s body was greatly decomposed and there were no physical signs to imply that the cause of death was stabbing, shooting, hitting on the head or strangulation, there was evidence that a criminal agency on the part of Towler existed. Naturally, Stone being a suspected police informant, he was a risk to Towler and other drug dealers. From the moment that Stone betrayed Towler to the detectives, his life was in danger. He has also expressed to his fellow workers at the club that incase he disappeared, they should immediately notify the police. The case that faced Christopher was directly related to Stone since he was the one who set him up. From the day he was arrested, Towler had disclosed to different people that Stone deserved to die. The evidence given by Burkhart shows that Towler was ready to kill Stone and incase he was denied bail; he would get someone to do the job. This declared intention by an accused amount to a motive to commit a crime (Turvey, 2008). To him, Stones deserved to die for being a snitch and for setting him

This diminishes any argument that he had gone swimming in the river which was eight miles away from the town. This means that he was transported to the river by someone who was driving a car. The account by Randy Schoeppner shows that Stone was last seen getting into Roland’s truck between 4 and 5 a.m, hours before his disappearance. A later search done on Towler’s footlocker discovered a map of Sonora, with hand drawn stars on the map highlighting the area where Stone’s body was found. Although Towler testified that his only meeting with Stone was at the Happy Kup during breakfast, there was sufficient evidence for corpus delicti on the murder crime. There was overwhelming evidence to show that Stone had earlier beaten Stone and declared him a dead snitch. Additionally, when he was last seen, the deceased was in the company of Towler, the same man who had earlier beaten him and who had a motive to kill him. Although there was evidence that Stone could have died from other causes that were nor crime related, the introduction of evidence by the prosecution on criminal agency were sufficient to convict Towler. On the action of the district attorney seizing documents from Towler without a warrant or the consent of the defense counsel, the same cannot warrant the dismissal of a case or the watering down of evidence presented (Gardner & Anderson, 2009). The prosecution evidence presented clearly proves that Towler had