Montana jurors begin deliberations in Winnipegger's drug trial

BILLINGS, MONTANA --- A Winnipeg man on trial in this quiet U.S. city could learn his fate by the end of business today.

Jurors in the drug-trafficking trial of 32-year-old Tim Morneau will begin deliberations this afternoon.

Their decision will come after an emotional morning of witness testimony given by two other Winnipeg men who were co-accused with Morneau after the three were allegedly found with a massive amount of ecstasy in their car when a state trooper pulled them over last February.

Christian Laurin, 20, and Alan Mulder, 20, have pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to distribute nearly 224,000 tablets of the drug that were seized.

A controversial plea deal made with prosecutors means the two men had possession charges against them dropped in exchange for a guilty plea and an agreement to testify against Morneau.

Morneau elected to go to trial, which began yesterday.  He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years to life in prison and a $4 million fine if found guilty by the five-woman, seven-man jury.

Defence lawyer David Duke didn’t call a single witness to the stand. Morneau did not testify.

Instead, Duke used the opportunity to cross-examine Mulder and Laurin this morning in hopes of showing that the plea deal the two had made was a deliberate and unjust attempt to peg Morneau as the mastermind behind the whole incident.

Laurin and Mulder had been friends for about three years and were living together with two other men around the time that they became involved in the smuggling operation on Feb. 4, 2008.

It came out in court that one of their roommates, a man named "Matt," approached the two with an offer to make some "easy money" by helping someone he knew transport drugs into the U.S.

After meeting Morneau – only initially known to the two as "Tim" -- at a home in Winnipeg's North End, they set off on a five-day odyssey across western Manitoba and into the U.S., the court heard.

The ploy involved stealing and using a snowmobile to ferret the drugs across the border on the day prior to their arrest near Glendive, not far from Billings.

While prosecutor Jim Seykora yesterday painted a picture of Morneau as recruiting the other two to set off on a "drug-smuggling business trip" that investigators uncovered by tracing receipts found in Mulder’s wallet and car, Duke suggested to jurors that it was in fact the roommate who set the whole plan in motion and that each was being paid the same for their trouble.

"All three of you are being treated the same as far as getting paid," he said to Laurin, who agreed that this was true as far as he understood the deal.

Morneau told police that he never discussed money with the other two. He was expecting to be paid $5,000 for transporting the haul into the U.S. with the final destination of California.

Laurin testified that neither he nor Mulder really knew until later in the trip that they were carting ecstasy and said that Morneau was cagey about revealing to them his plans.

"It was really vaguely told to us … as far as I know we’d be transporting some kind of drug to somewhere," he said.

Duke also revealed some of the details behind the plea deal the younger men had made. In exchange for their guilty plea to conspiracy, possession charges would be dropped and they’d be granted immunity from prosecution for information provided to prosecutors.

While Mulder and Laurin still could face a maximum 20 year prison penalty for their crime, it came out in court that their plea deal also makes considerable adjustments to any amount of time they may serve.

In an effort to counter Duke’s attack on his credibility, Seykora questioned Mulder in an effort to show jurors that the young man won’t be getting off scott free.

"You didn’t get a free ride, did you? You’re in prison right now subject to sentencing," Seykora asked a clearly nervous Mulder, who readily agreed.

james.turner@freepress.mb.ca