"Center" of Cocaine Distribution Conspiracy Convicted

October 1, 2009

Following a three-day trial in Howard County Circuit Court, a jury has convicted a Prince George’s County man of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Howard County. In 2008, Marquette Deangelo Best, 35, formerly of the 2100 block of Alice Avenue in Oxen Hill, was arrested on drug charges, along with over a dozen co-conspirators, for operating a cocaine distribution operation in the county. Subsequently, Howard County prosecutors have secured seven convictions, with four cases pending and one additional arrest expected.

Sr. Assistant State’s Attorney Claude de Vastey Jones told jurors that the case against Best began as a wiretap investigation and that the target of that investigation revealed Best as the center of that conspiracy.

During the trial, Marquette Best’s defense attorney argued that Howard County police never found any drugs on his client, nor in his car or residence.

But during closing arguments, Sr. Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Oldham told the jury that “conspiracies are rarely proven with direct evidence” and pointed them to testimony from police and co-conspirators, along with recordings of the conspirators’ telephone conversations. “There should be no doubt—no question—that this drug network was infiltrating into Howard County,” she stated.

Ms. de Vastey Jones echoed Oldham’s arguments, asking jurors to recall one recorded phone conversation during which a co-conspirator told Best that “people don’t like that baking soda.” The prosecutor asked the jury, “Do you think they’re in the baking soda business? Do you think they’re working for Arm and Hammer?” She added, “If you listen to the conversations, it’s all about cocaine…distributing cocaine; the evidence is there.”

Following the jury’s verdict, Howard County Circuit Court Judge Louis A. Becker set a hearing date of January 7, 2010 for sentencing.