It was only after one member of the crew dropped out at the last minute that Mayfield called White, whose only criminal history at the time was a minor conviction for drug possession and eluding police for which he’d received probation. He resisted for weeks, but after his van broke down, Mayfield finally bit and agreed to assemble a crew to do the robbery, court records show.
#Stash houses full
Mayfield was working full time to take care of his girlfriend and her four kids, all of whom lived together in a cramped Naperville apartment. The sting that ensnared White began in 2009 when an ATF informant targeted the financially struggling Mayfield at his suburban factory job and prodded him with the promise of a big score, according to court records. Not only did the operations appear to disproportionately target minorities, they also by their very nature swept up others, such as White, who were not in on the planning and in some cases had only minor criminal records.
#Stash houses free
In fact, several were accused of committing additional crimes while free on bond, including one defendant charged with murder and another arrested in the shooting of a Chicago police officer.īut as the use of stash house stings mushroomed in Chicago, defense attorneys began crying foul. The stings were enormously successful and, in many instances, did indeed nab career criminals with violent histories. Stash house stings, which originated in the 1990s as a response to the cocaine wars in South Florida, relied on informants who would dangle the prospect of a lucrative score in front of someone with a known violent criminal history, then tip off the ATF if the target expressed interest.Īn undercover agent posing as the coordinator of the robbery would then meet with a target and outline phony details about the stash house, teasing out the target’s willingness to bring guns and use violence and getting them to make incriminating statements about the amount of drugs - statements that in court would lead to staggering mandatory prison sentences. “I no longer want to fit in and have been doing everything to stand out for the last decade.” A fake score “I was a young man trying to fit in with grown men who had fathered children my age,” White wrote in a letter to U.S. Records cited in the filing show White has embraced prison programs while behind bars and even managed to co-parent his daughter - who was born eight months after his arrest - from a distance.Īnd, of course, he’s given a lot of thought to how he wound up involved in such an outlandish plot in the first place. Meanwhile, White’s lawyers said in their 50-page filing that his family has been devastated by his absence and stands ready to support him if he’s released, helping him line up multiple job offers. attorney’s office had no comment Thursday on whether they planned to oppose the request.
Prosecutors are scheduled to file a response next month to the motion by White’s attorneys. It was not clear whether Coleman’s ruling will impact White’s case.
The judge also chided prosecutors for their “relentless pursuit” of a 15-year sentence, which was the mandatory minimum, “despite the rebuke of these cases across the country.” In her opinion, Coleman ripped the “outrageous and disreputable law enforcement tactics” that led to Conley’s participation in the 2009 robbery plot, which he joined at the last minute after being approached at a gas station while headed home from a legitimate job. Conley is believed to be the first stash house defendant in the country to be released via the First Step Act.
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