Although Chief Judge Melloy presided over most aspects of this case, Judge Bennett decided the pretrial suppression issues intercepted information. Following his arrest, Gruber filed a motion to suppress the. The district court had ordered the wiretapping of VanBrocklin's telephone and authorized the interception of VanBrocklin's and Gruber's conversations after the government presented the district court with an application and a supporting affidavit. The wiretap of VanBrocklin's telephone line intercepted Gruber's conversations with VanBrocklin regarding the Sons of Silence methamphetamine operation. VanBrocklin was a member of the Cedar Falls/Waterloo Sons of Silence chapter and an associate of Gruber's. The government electronically monitored the telephone of Gerald VanBrocklin. Timothy Fairchild argues that the district court erred by double-counting his criminal history and denying his motion for a downward departure. On appeal, Gruber alleges that the district court erred when it denied his motion to suppress evidence obtained during a wiretap, the government erroneously charged him as an enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the government violated his due process rights by compensating the witnesses who testified against him, the district court erred when it determined the type and quantity of methamphetamine for sentencing purposes, and the district court erred when it imposed a two-level enhancement for possession of a firearm during the course of a drug conspiracy. The jury found Gruber guilty of all the charges made against him after an eight-day trial. A second superceding indictment was returned by the grand jury in September 1997, and was the indictment Gruber was tried upon in February 1998.
#Sons of silence iowa chapter trial
In the meantime, David Fairchild and twelve others had either gone to trial or pleaded guilty and been convicted. Gruber was not found and became a fugitive he was seen (but not apprehended) in 1995 in Costa Rica and was finally arrested in Tacoma, Washington in July 1996. Most, but not all of the associates, were immediately arrested. Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, the defendant Gruber and other Sons of Silence members regularly and routinely shipped illegal drugs and money in and between at least four states.Ī grand jury indicted Gruber and 13 of his associates in November 1994. Other former Sons of Silence members, including a national officer, testified that they often received distributable quantities of methamphetamine from Jeffrey Gruber, which they in turn sold to other members. After David Fairchild's house was searched by law enforcement authorities in 1992, he and the defendant Jeff Gruber began using another gang member to do the drug transportation work. Later, after the two Gruber brothers had a falling out, David Fairchild began dealing directly with and transporting drugs and money directly for the defendant Jeff Gruber between Iowa and Colorado. David Fairchild was told by Ron Gruber that the methamphetamine he was transporting (in three to six pound quantities per trip) belonged to the defendant Jeff Gruber. David Fairchild testified that his involvement with Gruber began in 1986 with the transporting of money and drugs between Kentucky and Iowa for Gruber's brother, Ron. After his conviction, David Fairchild began to cooperate with the government and testified against defendant Jeffrey Gruber when Gruber was later apprehended. His convictions were affirmed by this court. David Fairchild was convicted after a jury trial in 1995 of numerous drug, money laundering, and racketeering offenses and received a 300-month sentence. Fairchild) also was a high ranking member of the Sons of Silence and became the defendant Jeffrey Gruber's partner in the interstate drug trade. David Fairchild (who is no relation to defendant Timothy R. The drug trafficking activity consisted of numerous interstate transactions involving large amounts of money and methamphetamine. In the 1980's, Gruber utilized his position within the Sons of Silence to engage in an illegal drug trafficking enterprise. Gruber rose to prominence in the Sons of Silence, became a national vice-president, and was the de facto leader of the organization's Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Iowa chapter.