Judge to sift through material from disputed jail search

Before a reputed Charlotte gang leader can stand trial on charges that he murdered three people, a federal judge will decide whether he stands trial at all.

Jamell Cureton and his lawyer again argued Wednesday that Cureton’s right to a fair trial was irreparably damaged by an improper FBI search of his jail cell in January. Charlotte attorney Chiege Okwara told U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn that the agents seized protected correspondence between her and Cureton, and that other documents included notes on legal strategy and approaches for Cureton’s upcoming trial.

At the time of the FBI’s raid, Cureton says he had written her a long letter discussing the case, Okwara said. It was in a sealed envelope addressed to her, Cureton says, according to Okwara. The defendant alleges that the FBI opened the envelope, read the letter and then carted it off with other seized materials, Okwara said.

She accuses the government of trampling on attorney-client privilege and Cureton’s due process. She called on Cogburn to throw out all of Cureton’s charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Gast told the judge that the FBI limited its search of Cureton’s cell to what was spelled out on its warrant. He added that the raid uncovered no “road maps” to Cureton’s legal strategy and that no letter matching the description of what Cureton claims to have written for Okwara has been found.

Gast put an FBI agent and another federal prosecutor on the witness stand to walk the judge through the jail search and how the material was later handled by federal prosecutors.

After listening to more than two hours of back and forth, Cogburn offered a solution: As Okwara requested, the judge said he would go through the documents taken from Cureton’s cell to see if their seizure amounted to a violation of Cureton’s due process. If he finds any that say, “Our legal strategy is A, B and C, that’s a big deal,” Cogburn said.

Cureton, 22, is described by federal authorities as a leader in the Charlotte gang cell of United Blood Nation. He faces almost a dozen federal charges; six carry the death penalty. A federal indictment charges him and other UBN members with the murders of Kwamne Clyburn, 18, in 2013, and Doug and Debbie London last October.

Prosecutors say Clyburn was killed because he falsely claimed to be a UBN member. The Londons were gunned down at their Lake Wylie, S.C., home to keep Doug London from testifying against Cureton and two other gang members who attempted to rob the couple’s mattress store last May, the government says.

Wednesday, Cureton entered the federal courthouse’s main courtroom between two U.S. marshals. He was also Okwara’s first witness – a silent one as it turned out. For about 15 minutes, as Cogburn met privately with both sides, Cureton sat in the witness chair. He asked for and received two cups of water. He smiled at about a dozen gathered family members – some blew kisses in return. When Cogburn and the lawyers returned, the judge sent the defendant back to his seat without explanation.

Gast told the judge that Okwara’s allegations of government impropriety had no supporting proof and risked tainting the future jury pool. He also brought up the defense’s allegation that the government leaked confidential information from the search to the media.

The Observer reported in February that agents found a photo collage in Cureton’s cell that included the judge of his robbery case and two other public figures. All three were put under protective watch.

When Gast tried to address the allegation of government leaks, Cogburn stopped him.

Okwara jumped in: Who, she asked, was the source of the information, which she described as “very scary and very damaging” to her client?

“Where did it come from? How did The Charlotte Observer know all that stuff?”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Judge to sift through material from disputed jail search."