Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three by Greg Day Page A

barges at various foreign and domestic ports of call. This work took him to South America, where he had met some people who could supply him with cheap cocaine, for $12,000 per kilo. Since both Byers and McFarland knew that the street price in the United States for cocaine was more than twice that amount, they entered into a deal to move at least one kilo in Memphis for $28,000 and split the profits. Since Mark’s jewelry business had soured, and he was facing mounting debt, he agreed to make a connection with some of his former jewelry customers in Memphis whom he knew to be in the drug trade. Since neither McFarland nor Mark had sufficient cash to buy the kilo, McFarland was to arrange to have the seller present at a local hotel. The plan was that Mark would take the cocaine from the hotel to the buyers at a prearranged meeting spot, and McFarland would stay at the hotel with the sellers until Mark’s return.
    The two arranged a meeting time at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza hotel in Memphis, where the middlemen and the seller would transact the deal. If Mark was suspicious when McFarland, a married man, said he would be bringing his “girlfriend,” he did not acknowledge it. Mark arrived at the hotel room, expecting to find McFarland and the drug supplier waiting. As it turned out, only McFarland and the girlfriend were in the room. McFarland told Mark that the seller did not want to be directly involved with anyone other than him and that he was waiting in another room in the hotel where the cash would be delivered once the transaction was complete. McFarland had with him a package that Byers described as “about the size of a football, only flatter,” wrapped in silver duct tape, with the word “Rolex” stamped across the top in red print; the package weighed slightly more than 2.2 pounds. He asked Mark if he wanted to sample the drug; Mark declined. “I’m a pothead,” he told McFarland. “I don’t do cocaine.” McFarland assured him of the drug’s quality and then told Mark that the arrangements had changed; the seller did not want the coke to leave the hotel until he had cash in hand, and the buyers would have to meet them at the hotel. When Mark informed the buyers of this, they refused the change in plans: either the exchange would take place at the originally planned meeting spot, or the deal was off.
    Sensing the collapse of the sale, Mark left the hotel to meet with the buyers to try to convince them that they should come to the hotel to consummate the deal. Again they refused. Mark returned to the hotel to an enraged John McFarland, who became “belligerent,” complaining that the buyers weren’t for real and that he knew Mark wasn’t going to be able to set the deal up; he was generally “gettin’ all crazy.” At this point, Mark lied and told McFarland that the buyers had shown him a shoe box full of cash and were simply protesting the change in plans. McFarland was furious and continued to berate Mark. By this time, Mark had been away from home for much longer than Melissa expected. She was fully aware of the deal and would be nervous if Mark was gone too long. McFarland said he was going to have to go down the hall and apprise the seller of the situation. At that point, Mark picked up the phone, dialed home, and began to explain to his wife what was going on. Then all hell broke loose.
    While sitting on the bed with his back to the door, talking to Melissa, Mark heard a very light knock on the door. McFarland, who had not yet left the room, opened the door, and what seemed like an army rushed in—DEA and ATF agents, all with guns drawn as they screamed, “Drop the phone, you son of a bitch! Drop the phone! Don’t move, or we’ll shoot!” 55 Mark could hear his wife screaming on the other end of the phone as the agents hung up the receiver. Mark said, “The agents began bouncing me around the room, shouting, ‘We got this all on tape; we’ve arrested the buyers.’ This one big guy