"Ace Capone" Coles jury ready to announce verdict

The jury in the federal drug-trafficking trial of rap music promoter Alton "Ace Capone" Coles and five co-defendants appears poised to announce its verdict today after more than six days of deliberations.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick said late yesterday afternoon that the jury indicated it had reached a decision in all but two of the 137 criminal counts it has been considering. Surrick told the jurors to return this morning to try to work out a decision on the remaining counts.

In a message sent to the judge around 3 p.m., the jury said it had deadlocked on two money-laundering charges involving Coles, 34, and his girlfriend and co-defendant Aysa Richardson, 27.

The jury has asked to hear a tape of a phone conversation between Coles and Richardson from June 2005 and a letter Coles sent from prison to Richardson two years later.

Both the tape and the letter made references to the purchase of a $488,000 house near Mullica Hill that Coles and Richardson moved into less than two weeks before Coles was arrested on Aug. 5, 2005.

The government alleges that Coles used cash from his drug dealing as a down payment for the property.

Coles and co-defendant Timothy "Tim Gotti" Baukman, 32, are charged with using Take Down Records, a company they founded in 2002, as a front for a $25 million crack- and cocaine-distribution network.

Both could be sentenced to life in prison if they are convicted of the most serious charge in the case - managing a continuing criminal enterprise.

The case includes charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud, weapons and perjury.

The other defendants in the case are James Morris, 33, a reputed cocaine supplier for the Coles' drug network; Thais Thompson, 32; and Monique Pullins, 24.

The case grew out of a two-year investigation by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The evidence presented during the six-week trial has included more than 300 secretly recorded conversations in which Coles and his associates allegedly set up drug deals. The jury also was shown more than $800,000 in cash, nearly a kilogram of cocaine, and 30 weapons, including an assault rifle and a machine gun, seized in a series of raids in August 2005.