The agony of ecstasy: Montana, day 2

So the question I’m sure many people have is this: what does the mysterious plea deal Alan Mulder and Christian Laurin made with the U.S. government mean in terms of the ultimate prison sentences they might get?

Timothy Morneau’s lawyer, David Duke, gave a few hints today after going after both the men for the credibility of their testimony in light of the plea deal they made only recently.

Under federal U.S. sentencing guidelines, Mulder’s sentence has a corresponding "base level" of 38 points. He may -- if all goes according to plan -- receive the following reductions:

• 2 for playing a "mitigating role" in the prosecution’s case against Morneau.
• 4 for what was described in court today as a "decrease as warranted."
• 2 under the application of what’s called "the safety valve" for first-time offenders in the U.S. More on this later.

He may also be granted further reductions in prison time for testifying against Morneau.

In real terms, this means the base level could be reduced to 30 or less, so they could spend a maximum of six years in prison for their crimes, after looking over the drug sentencing section of the U.S. sentencing guidelines.

But it could also be much less. As it is in Canada, the sentencing judge will likely have a wide range of discretion in how he deals with Mulder and Laurin. One has to remember that neither has a criminal record.

And this doesn’t take into account parole accommodations or the possibility of other penalties, like fines.

The "safety valve" aspect is something the Free Press wrote about when the trio were originally charged.

At its essence, what it means is that they could be exempted from the mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison and $4 million fine that U.S. law dictates for crimes of the nature Mulder and Laurin have admitted to committing.

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Below, I’m presenting in point form what both Mulder and Laurin said in court actually happened when they decided to get involved in taking up a job to transport the ecstasy into the U.S.

In the absense of Morneau testifying on his own behalf, his defence could be best stated as one where his lawyer attacked the plea deal the two co-accused had made with the government. Duke attempted to portray Laurin’s and Mulder’s stories as not credible and inconsistent. You be the judge:

Alan James Mulder’s side:

He and Laurin became roommates in Sept. 2007 and lived with another man named Jeff in a house on Glasgow in Winnipeg. Mulder and Laurin had been friends for about three years. Mulder admitted to using a variety of drugs from time to time, including ecstasy.

On Feb. 4, he was approached by a friend named Matt who said he had a way to make some "quick money" giving a guy name Tim a ride. Mulder claims he met Tim at a house in Winnipeg after calling a number given to him by Matt.

"I said that I would do it, that I could give him a ride," Mulder told court.

He claims that he suspected he’d be transporting drugs, but "thought it would be weed."

Tim "told us we’d be driving him to California, I think," he testified. "He never told us how much money we’d make."

Tim asked about Mulder’s criminal record.

Mulder said he drove back to the Glasgow home to tell Laurin about what was happening. Laurin agreed to come along, Mulder said. Again, he said: "I didn’t know how much money we were going to make."

The pair drove over to the same home and helped Tim put three duffle bags in the trunk of the 2003 VW Golf registered to Mulder’s parents. They were really heavy, he recollected.

At 4:30 p.m. that same day, they left the city. Mulder told his folks he was going to Mall of America in Minnesota. [Again, off topic, but Mulder’s folks filed a missing persons report with the Winnipeg police after he failed to turn up when he was supposed to last February.]

There was no discussion of a "story" the trio might tell law enforcement if caught.  Tim, Mulder said, was directing the mission, telling them where to go. "He told us it was ecstasy in the bags about halfway to Brandon," he said.

Just prior to leaving the city, Mulder said that Morneau and another man went to a Western Union to get some money.

There was no discussion about crossing the border until the next day, or even the following day, Mulder claims.

After driving west past Brandon and arriving in Souris, they scouted around people’s yards looking for a snowmobile.

"We were going to steal one … we ended up finding one outside a snowmobile shop," he said. He and Laurin hooked the snowmobile up to the Golf with a rope and dragged it away sometime in the early morning. The court had heard previously that the key was still in the ignition.

The three crashed in a Souris motel for the time being. Apparently, the snowmobile broke down in a field near Deloraine and they thought it needed repairing. It later just started up – but not before they had purchased a new fuel filter.

On uesday, Mulder returned to Winnipeg briefly to fetch a SIN card and other documents from his family’s home to ensure a smooth border crossing.

They wound up staying in Deloraine for about two days as Morneau, Mulder and Laurin tinkered with the snow machine. The bags of ecstasy were left in their hotel room and never touched.

"From our idea it was a business thing. We didn’t want to get into trouble," Mulder said.

On the night of Feb. 8, the ecstasy was strapped to the snowmobile and tied down with straps. The plan, Mulder said, was to meet up with Morneau in Bottineau, just across the Canada-U.S. border. Morneau pointed this out to them on a map.

In the Golf, Mulder and Laurin drove along to a border crossing but it was closed, so they re-routed and went another way to Highway 10 and a 24/7 crossing. A text message was sent to Morneau, out God knows where on the snowmobile: "Twenty one closed at 10:00 going to 10," it read.

At 10:54, they crossed over. They were waved through the round-the-clock checkpoint in under a minute, video of the crossing played in court Monday showed. They checked into the hotel in Bottineau.

By now, Mulder was using his credit card to pay for all the trip’s expenses. "Tim had run out of money so I was paying for everything with my Visa. He said he’d pay me back when he got paid," Mulder testified. [Investigators later used the receipts to trace the trio’s actions back to Feb. 4 in Winnipeg.]

Mulder claimed that Morneau phoned them while they were at the hotel saying he was "broke down" so he and Laurin went to pick him up by the side of the road about five minutes out of town.

From Bottineau, they went toward Minot, where they bought gas and smokes. They stopped in Bismark and Beach, N.D., for gas prior to making their way into Montana. It was about 2 to 3 a.m. when they left Bottineau.

It’s widely known that Trooper Glenn Quinnell pulled the Golf over near Glendive, Montana for having a broken headlight. What was previously unknown until Mulder testified Tuesday is that he knew about it up to a month prior to the trip, and even remarked to Morneau something along the lines that they should get it fixed just hours before being stopped by police. Morneau refused: "He said we were in a hurry," Mulder said.

It was in Beach, N.D. that Laurin took over driving the car. Again, no story was ever discussed or concocted by the men about what they would do if police caught on. That is, until they did.

"Only when we got pulled over (he said to say) he was a hitchhiker," Mulder said. After the stop, Morneau told the two to "just say he was a hitchhiker and that we were going shopping at Billings." Mulder said Morneau gave no other instructions during the stop.

Mulder consented to being escorted back to a Glendive police station to have the vehicle searched. Laurin drove. Morneau didn’t take the news that Mulder consented very well. "S**t, I’m going to jail," Morneau is reported as saying.

Defence lawyer David Duke tried to poke holes in Mulder’s credibility and the truthfulness of his story.

First, he pulled apart the plea deal he made with prosecutors for the jury in an effort to expose some inconsistencies in it. Mulder acknowledges that even though he’d pled guilty to conspiracy with intent to distribute the drugs, he won’t be charged for possession with intent to distribute. Mulder said he understands the maximum penalty he still could face is 20 years in prison.

Duke also questioned what relationship Matt had to Mulder. Initially, Mulder said he was a friend, but only after cross-examination did he admit Matt actually lived at the Glasgow home.

Duke also questioned how Morneau could be considered a major player in the operation given that he ran out of money a few days into the five-day affair. Mulder, who grew very nervous under cross-examination, said that he "figured (Morneau was involved) for the same reason we were … trying to get some quick money."

Another sticking point was also Mulder’s explanation of what happened after crossing the border. Under direct questioning from the prosecution, he said that he and Laurin went straight to the hotel in Bottineau. Under Duke’s questioning it came out that the duo may have gone to look for Morneau first, but couldn’t find him.

He went further by admitting that a large-scale map of the route the prosecution presented to jurors outlining the route the men are said to have travelled from Winnipeg toward their arrests near Glendive was incorrect.

Assistant district attorney James Seykora moved to counter Duke’s assertion that Mulder was getting off lightly under the terms of the plea deal.

"You didn’t get a free ride, did you? You’re in prison right now subject to sentencing," Seykora said. Mulder agreed that this was true, and that he knew the ramifications of the plea deal he had made.

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Christian Daniel Laurin’s side:

Laurin admitted to using marijuana recreationally and "experimenting" with ecstasy. He described the drug’s effect for the jurors: "It makes you feel like a million bucks," he said.

He said the whole event began after a friend named Matt proposed a scheme to make some quick cash. "He never gave a figure but he gave a ballpark of $5,000-$10,000," Laurin said. At the time, he was making $8.50 an hour at a job.

Laurin assumed that the trip would be "less than a week" in duration, he said. He said that Matt had been offered the chance to do the trip but "he refused to go."

"I thought it would be Alan, Matt and I, but at the last minute, Tim subs in for Matt," Laurin said under cross-examination.

The whole transport plot was rather nebulous, Laurin said. "It was really vaguely told to us…as far as I knew we’d be transporting some kind of drug to somewhere."

He said the idea to take up the offer was his idea, but that Mulder was soon brought in.

"Matthew ended up not going," Laurin testified. Tim was the man who would take his place. They "met him on the day we left Winnipeg."

Laurin said that prior to leaving the city, he and Mulder went to a Western Union where Morneau said he was getting some money. Laurin and Mulder waited outside in the car, loaded with the drugs, while Morneau and an unidentified man went into the shop.

Laurin said he never learned Morneau’s full name prior to crossing the border days later.

Morneau, however, did say prior to leaving Winnipeg that if they were questioned by police they should tell them that he was a hitchhiker who was picked up in America, Laurin testified. Morneau also told Laurin to tell police that his name was "Cliff," Laurin said.

Laurin said he had picked up at least one of the bags at one point and, "I knew it wasn’t weed … it was too much, too much weight," he said.

The subject of why receipts of purchases made on the trip were being kept was broached by Seykora. Laurin told him that he "had no idea" why they were keeping them.

Morneau allegedly made references to "checkpoints" along the trip, Laurin said. He was cagey about where those checkpoints actually were.

They left Winnipeg, passed through Brandon and arrived at Souris, where they stayed for about three days prior to moving toward Deloraine and the border crossing. All the while, Laurin said, he and Mulder were wondering what was in the duffle bags in the trunk.

"We were wondering what was in the bags and we asked him what it was," he told the jury.

In terms of payment: Morneau said "there was a pot" which would be evenly divided among the three of them after the trip concluded.

At one point, they were using cell phones to communicate, but later relied on "checkpoints" to keep tabs on one another, Laurin said. The stolen snowmobile wasn’t fixed because Morneau believed "the drugs were late." Mulder and Laurin were told to get a hotel room in Bottineau where Morneau would meet up with them.

Laurin said he never knew prior to being arrested where he, Mulder and Morneau were headed. He claims that Morneau came to meet them at the hotel in Bottineau and all three proceeded to go and pick up the drugs.

The three had breakfast in Beach, N.D., and moved on toward Montana where they were stopped by police. Laurin said Morneau told him again to tell the state trooper that "his name was was Cliff, we did not know him and that he was a hitchhiker."

Laurin said that Morneau didn’t say much after learning Mulder consented to having the car searched. "It was more shock and confusion, I guess, getting our story straight and that was about it."

Laurin said he has seen and spoken to Morneau a couple of times since being locked up. He said he was threatened to stay quiet and not testify in court. "There will be repercussions," he said Morneau told him.

Again, Duke took the tack of attacking Laurin’s plea deal with the government. He also took issue with Morneau being the alleged leader of the so-called conspiracy when all three men were promised equal payment, and that Matt did the actual recruiting of Mulder and Laurin.

Asked what repercussions he was threatened with by Morneau, Laurin wasn’t specific: "Nothing special. It was obviously bodily harm, I believe. That’s about it."

He testified that the threats had been made prior to signing the plea.

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Other surprises that came about on day two of Tim Morneau’s trial

Seykora called felon Jason Lorenz, 34, to the stand prior to Mulder and Laurin testifying. Lenz, who struck me as a reluctant witness (he was there by subpoena), said he had had a conversation in jail with Morneau on March 4 in which Morneau admitted smuggling the ecstasy.

"What he told me is that it was headed to California," Lorenz testified. Morneau also said that the drugs had been purchased for $2 million – but not by him – and that he believed they were worth about $4.5 million on the streets. Morneau admitted to Lorenz that "two younger males" were involved, Lorenz said.

Lorenz also gave evidence that suggested this may not have been Morneau’s first cross-border venture.

"Usually he would stop and get out and walk across the border," Lorenz said Morneau told him while holed up together in B-Pod of the jail in Glendive.

Lorenz said Morneau obviously felt comfortable talking with Lorenz because they were locked up together.

"He felt confident to expose his stuff to me," he said.

Morneau referred to himself as "a runner," Lorenz testified.  "My experience is if a larger man needs something toted to another man, they use a runner."

Morneau made references to someone that he called "the big man," Lorenz told the jury.

"He’ll take care of everything," Lorenz said, later adding he was receiving no benefit in exchange for his testimony.

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Other things you may be wondering

Laurin's and Mulder’s families have been a constant presence during the trial. Each has declined to comment, but reserved the right to do so after the young men are sentenced in April. No one has yet appeared in court to support Morneau.

A bit of irony: The prosecution made quite a show and tell for the jury of the large and colourful bags of the illegal drugs that were concealed and smuggled into the country. What they don’t know is that after court Monday, the bags were simply wheeled down the public street on a luggage cart by a lone sheriff’s officer for all in Billings to see.

One of the reasons for the heightened security at the Federal Courthouse: a man once smuggled a derringer pistol inside a cigarette package and onto the floor where the courts are. An alert security guard caught on to the scheme before anything could happen.