BY STAN FINGER
The Wichita Eagle

The first trial in Kansas charging alleged gang members with federal racketeering crimes went to the jury Friday with attorneys acknowledging the case's high profile in closing arguments.

Shortly before 3 p.m., a jury of eight women and four men began deliberating the evidence in the case against Tracy Harris, 34, Clinton Knight, 29, and Chester Randall Jr., 34. The jury adjourned for the weekend at 5 p.m. and will resume deliberations Monday.

The three defendants are among 28 people who were charged with participating in a "pattern of racketeering activity" that dates to December 1990. The defendants also face a number of additional charges. The racketeering charge against Randall was dropped last week.

Wichita police have said the defendants are Crips gang members.

Harris and Knight are charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, with engaging in a pattern of criminal activity to support and strengthen the Crips.

Defense arguments

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deb Barnett reminded jurors that they had to agree on only two of five alleged racketeering acts presented against Harris to convict him of racketeering.

Similarly, she said, they had to agree on only two of three racketeering acts alleged against Knight.

She led the jurors through each of the counts, offering the basis for convictions on each of the charges -- among them cocaine distribution, possession of a firearm by a felon, wire fraud and a RICO charge of conspiracy.

But defense attorneys scoffed at the evidence presented during the trial, and chided the U.S. Attorney's Office for seeking RICO convictions, which carry up to 20 years in prison for each count and fines of as much as $250,000.

Kurt Kerns, who represents Harris, called the RICO portion of the charges a "pit bull foaming at the mouth, rolling around on the ground" because it has no legs to stand on.

"That dog won't hunt," Kerns said, adding that prosecutors sought RICO convictions so they would have something to brag about at parties.

Prosecutors, he argued, are "not even close" to meeting the burden of proof for convictions.

Harris has conducted legitimate real estate transactions that have been viewed with the suspicion of an "evil eye" by investigators, Kerns said.

Interviews with some witnesses were not taped, he said, and that alone establishes reasonable doubt about their testimony.

Among those whose interrogations were not recorded was Trena Ridge, one of the original defendants in the RICO indictment. He has accepted a plea agreement and testified for the prosecution, hoping to receive a reduced prison sentence.

Attorneys for all three defendants zeroed in on Ridge.

Laura Shaneyfelt, who represents Knight, reminded jurors that Ridge swore to U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten that the facts stated in his plea agreement were true -- but later contradicted a portion of it.

In the plea agreement, he acknowledged having sex with an underage girl, but he denied it during testimony.

James Turner, who represents Randall, repeatedly referred to Ridge as "Mr. Opportunity" and accused him of consistently changing his testimony to meet the needs of the government's case.

"He's facing the rest of his life in prison," Turner said of Ridge. "His only way out is to give substantial assistance to the government."

'The Crips'

Shaneyfelt hammered the point to the jury that there is no organization known as "The Crips." Rather, she said, there are numerous subsets of Crips known by names such as the Deuce-Treys, the Trey-Five-Sevens, the Neighborhood Crips and the Insane Crips.

Occasionally, she acknowledged, the subsets form alliances, but they generally operate independently.

A not-guilty plea does not mean the jury condones gang activity, Shaneyfelt said.

"It simply means the government did not prove its case," she said.

Barnett, the prosecutor, countered that jurors have "more than enough evidence" to convict the defendants of every charge they face.

She reminded them of the answer a Crips gang member gave when she asked who Crips consider their enemy:

"Everybody."