Woman's outburst disrupts Detroit Highwaymen trial

Off the Wire
MCs in the News
Paul Egan / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Jurors in the Highwaymen Motorcycle Club racketeering trial got a shock this morning when a woman in the audience stood up and accused a government witness of murdering her son.

Daniel Sanchez, a former vice-president of the Detroit Highwaymen, was testifying when the woman stood up, pointed her finger at him, and shouted, "He murdered my son," referring to an unsolved 1999 killing, several witnesses told The Detroit News.

U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds excused jurors and took testimony from the woman to determine the reason for her outburst. The woman testified she heard Sanchez would be testifying from a defendant in the case who is not one of the six alleged Highwaymen leaders now on trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Graveline said.

That defendant learned Sanchez would be testifying today from defendant Joseph "Little Joe" Whiting, but Whiting was as surprised as anyone by the woman's outburst, Whiting attorney Henry Scharg said.

Edmunds later called the jurors back into the courtroom, instructed them to disregard the outburst, and the trial resumed, Graveline said.

David Nacht, an attorney for Sanchez, could not be reached for comment.

Scharg said today's incident is consistent with a defense theme that the worst criminals in the case are those testifying on behalf of the government.

"It's just one bad apple after another," Scharg said of the parade of government witnesses.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Marion, the lead prosecutor in the Highwaymen case, declined comment. She said the killing the woman referred to remains under investigation.

Earlier witnesses, including former national president Gerald "Byrd" Peters and club member Robert "Bobby" Burton, have testified both about their own crimes and those of defendants in the case.

Sanchez, who joined the Highwaymen in 1997 at age 21, was called to testify about the structure and history of the club, including the selection of defendant Anthony "Mad Anthony" Clark as national president in 2009.

According to court filings, Sanchez was expected to testify that another defendant in the case, Leonard "Dad" Moore, remained the "godfather" and leader of the club in all but name. Sanchez told prosecutors that Moore declined the national president title, saying: "I don't need the title .... I've got the control.

"I don't need the feds coming at me. I don't need no RICO charge," according to court filings.

The government may rest its case at the end of this week. The trial, which began April 1, had earlier drama when defendant Michael "Cocoa" Cicchetti suffered a heart attack away from court that required open heart surgery. He is now being tried in absentia.

The trial is the first phase in the prosecution of a Highwaymen case involving more than 80 defendants resulting from a lengthy FBI investigation. The indictment in the case is one of the largest in terms of the number of defendants ever brought in the eastern district of Michigan.

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