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NEW WEAPONS TRAFFICKING TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR ARMENIAN IMMIGRANT IN NEW YORK AFTER KEY WITNESS PLACED ON SUICIDE WATCH
Larry Neumeister
AP Worldstream
Published: Mar 13, 2007
A new trial for an Armenian immigrant accused of plotting to sell
military weapons to an FBI informant posing as a middleman for
terrorists has been scheduled after the government's key witness was
put on suicide watch and admitted to a psychiatric facility.
Opening statements in the trial of Artur Solomonyan and six others
were supposed to begin Monday, but a mistrial was declared and a new
trial was scheduled for June after prosecutors revealed the twist in
the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Conniff told Judge Richard
J. Holwell on Thursday that the witness, Kelly Davis, had been
hospitalized with stomach and chest pains and put on a suicide watch
the previous weekend, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
Last Wednesday, Conniff said, Davis entered himself into an inpatient
psychiatric facility for evaluation.
Conniff offered to continue the trial without him, but defense lawyers
insisted on a mistrial, saying they would want to call Davis as a
witness if the government did not.
A week ago, Conniff had told the judge that the case began when
one of seven defendants approached Davis to ask about the sale of
machine guns.
The prosecutor said Davis reported the offer to law enforcement, which
initiated an investigation as Davis began making consensual recordings,
generating hundreds of pages of reports. Conniff said the FBI paid
Davis $55,000 during the probe, including some money for expenses.
Defense lawyers complained that they had been given very little
information about Davis, prompting Conniff to reveal that Davis came
to the United States in the late 1990s, that he is a U.S. permanent
resident and that he has a South African driver's license.
A Solomonyan lawyer, Seth Ginsberg, complained to the judge that the
prosecutors' description of their dealings with Davis was difficult
to believe.
"I don't think there is an attorney in this room who is familiar with
an informant in a case that came forward out of an altruistic sense
of civic duty," he said.
Ginsberg said in an interview Monday that the defendants were looking
forward to the new trial.
"We anticipate going forward in June with that witness, who we believe
will be critical to the defense of our case," he said. "We're confident
we'll prevail under any circumstances, but we would prefer to have
a live witness to cross- examine."
Solomonyan was charged with arms trafficking conspiracy, firearms
trafficking conspiracy, interstate firearms trafficking and illegal
transfer and possession of a machine gun in March 2005. Prosecutors
say he was recorded on wiretaps talking with associates in the United
States and the former Soviet Union about obtaining the military
weapons.
An indictment accused Solomonyan and others of conspiring between
December 2003 and March 2005 to import shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles
and machine guns without a license.
Some of the defendants could face up to life in prison if convicted
of the most serious charges.
Larry Neumeister
AP Worldstream
Published: Mar 13, 2007
A new trial for an Armenian immigrant accused of plotting to sell
military weapons to an FBI informant posing as a middleman for
terrorists has been scheduled after the government's key witness was
put on suicide watch and admitted to a psychiatric facility.
Opening statements in the trial of Artur Solomonyan and six others
were supposed to begin Monday, but a mistrial was declared and a new
trial was scheduled for June after prosecutors revealed the twist in
the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Conniff told Judge Richard
J. Holwell on Thursday that the witness, Kelly Davis, had been
hospitalized with stomach and chest pains and put on a suicide watch
the previous weekend, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
Last Wednesday, Conniff said, Davis entered himself into an inpatient
psychiatric facility for evaluation.
Conniff offered to continue the trial without him, but defense lawyers
insisted on a mistrial, saying they would want to call Davis as a
witness if the government did not.
A week ago, Conniff had told the judge that the case began when
one of seven defendants approached Davis to ask about the sale of
machine guns.
The prosecutor said Davis reported the offer to law enforcement, which
initiated an investigation as Davis began making consensual recordings,
generating hundreds of pages of reports. Conniff said the FBI paid
Davis $55,000 during the probe, including some money for expenses.
Defense lawyers complained that they had been given very little
information about Davis, prompting Conniff to reveal that Davis came
to the United States in the late 1990s, that he is a U.S. permanent
resident and that he has a South African driver's license.
A Solomonyan lawyer, Seth Ginsberg, complained to the judge that the
prosecutors' description of their dealings with Davis was difficult
to believe.
"I don't think there is an attorney in this room who is familiar with
an informant in a case that came forward out of an altruistic sense
of civic duty," he said.
Ginsberg said in an interview Monday that the defendants were looking
forward to the new trial.
"We anticipate going forward in June with that witness, who we believe
will be critical to the defense of our case," he said. "We're confident
we'll prevail under any circumstances, but we would prefer to have
a live witness to cross- examine."
Solomonyan was charged with arms trafficking conspiracy, firearms
trafficking conspiracy, interstate firearms trafficking and illegal
transfer and possession of a machine gun in March 2005. Prosecutors
say he was recorded on wiretaps talking with associates in the United
States and the former Soviet Union about obtaining the military
weapons.
An indictment accused Solomonyan and others of conspiring between
December 2003 and March 2005 to import shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles
and machine guns without a license.
Some of the defendants could face up to life in prison if convicted
of the most serious charges.