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

from the DEA starts hitting me with a phone book, shouting, ‘Where’s the money? Where’s the money?’ I said, ‘What money?’ They said, ‘Twenty-eight thousand dollars—where is it?’ ‘I don’t know nothing about twenty eight thousand dollars.’ They said, ‘We got it all on tape; we got it filmed! We’ve got your buyers pulled over, and we’re arrestin’ ’em right now.’ So I said, ‘Well, if you got me, then you got me. I ain’t got nothin’ to say.’” Mark was searched, at which time the police discovered a full clip of .45 caliber ammunition in his back pocket. The agents demanded to know where the gun was. The irony of the situation was that although Mark had fully trusted McFarland, he was less comfortable with the would-be buyers and had taken the precaution of borrowing a .45 caliber automatic pistol from longtime friend and retired St. Francis County sheriff Dallas Brogden, a licensed gun dealer. Drug dealers—especially cocaine dealers—are always armed. Because the only time Mark felt he would be threatened was while exchanging the cocaine with the buyers, he had left the unloaded pistol and two clips in the trunk of the car; he had neglected to remove a third clip from his pocket when entering the hotel.
    Mark was handcuffed and led by the agents outside to a black “panel van,” where he saw that the buyers, “two black dudes,” were seated inside, casting Mark hateful glances; they naturally assumed that he had set them up. Mark then led the agents to his car, gave them the keys, and directed them to the trunk, where they located the Colt 45. He was booked for conspiracy to sell cocaine and for the illegal possession of a firearm and was told that he was being bound over to the US Marshals Service.
    Needless to say, there was no “seller” in the hotel, and Mark never saw John McFarland again. Mark has always assumed that McFarland was caught up on a federal charge and had “flipped” to avoid prosecution. He must have convinced the feds that Mark was a much bigger fish than he actually was, possibly out of fear of setting up someone who was truly dangerous. The mystery woman, McFarland’s “girlfriend,” was a DEA agent. Mark saw her only once again, while he was being interrogated prior to being locked up. Agents had tailed Mark to his initial rendezvous with the buyers, who were also taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to buy and distribute cocaine. Mark was taken to the Shelby County jail at 201 Poplar and held in the lockup overnight. At 9:26 the following morning, Mark and the others were “marched across the street” to the US Marshals office at 167 North Main Street, where they were held for seven hours until they faced the federal magistrate who would formally charge the men and set bail. The DEA and ATF agents were present. The first thing they discovered after checking the gun’s serial number was that the weapon belonged to Brogden, who, when contacted by agents, not only denied knowing why Mark had borrowed the gun (he didn’t know) but also demanded its return.
    The federal agents made two charges against Mark. The first was the illegal possession of a firearm, the Colt .45 automatic found in the trunk of Mark’s car. But there is no federal law against having an unloaded firearm in the trunk of a car. There is also no law against carrying a clip of ammunition. As such, the charge was dismissed. The second charge was for conspiracy to commit a felony—that is, the brokering of the cocaine sale. The magistrate was satisfied that Mark had not tasted the drug and had not even touched the package. He was also confident that neither Mark nor the buyers had adequate funds to consummate the sale. (Between Mark and the buyers, they had something less than twenty dollars when they were arrested. The magistrate asked, “Is that what a kilo of cocaine sells for today?”) Thus, this charge was dropped as well, and Mark was released.
    As it turned