Agent describes cell phone calls surrounding drug murder

A federal drug agent today traced a web of cell phone calls that he said linked Kenneth Tuck to the 2006 drug deal in which authorities say Shamari Taylor was kidnapped and apparently murdered.

Agent David McNamara told a Common Pleas Court jury how he analyzed cell phone records of Taylor and others involved in the ill-fated Aug. 26, 2006 cocaine deal.

McNamara said the records show a series of phone calls between Tuck - whom the prosecution alleges was one of about six gunmen who kidnapped Taylor - and Kevin "Muhammed" Andrews, 30, the man who was allegedly going to pay Taylor $40,000 for two kilograms of cocaine.

Moreover, McNamara said, the cell phone Tuck carried on Aug. 31, 2006 - the day he was shot and wounded in Camden - showed that he called Andrews just four hours before the shooting.

Assistant District Attorney Gonen Haklay has argued that Tuck, 36, of West Philadelphia, was shot by the Taylor's kidnappers to dispose of a potential witness.

In court Tuesday, Haklay also introduced Philadelphia prison records showing that Andrews had visited Tuck in prison five times since April 1, 2007, most recently on May 2.

Authorities, however, testified that they have not been able to locate Andrews. He has not been charged in the Taylor disappearance.

Tuck has been identified by witness Caren Murphy, 23, a friend who was driving him to the drug deal late at night when they were surrounded, handcuffed, blindfolded and driven to another location.

Murphy said she recognized Tuck because of a sexual relationship they had six years earlier.

She also told the jury how she sat, blindfolded, and listened as Taylor, son of state Rep. John Myers (D., Phila.), begged for his life and was apparently tortured and killed.

Murphy, still blindfolded, was released after four hours at a North Philadelphia alley.

McNamara was the prosecution's final witness in Tuck's retrial on kidnapping and robbery charges in Taylor's disappearance.

Tuck's first trial in May 2007 ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

Tuck has maintained his innocence. When the trial resumes Wednesday defense attorney Gary Silver said he will call as witnesses Tuck's mother and sister. Both are expected to reprise their alibi testimony that Tuck was home playing cards at the time of the crime.

Tuck has not yet decided if he will testify in his own defense, as he did in the first trial, Silver said.

McNamara's testimony was based on new evidence discovered in the year since the first trial after investigators asked him to perform an analysis of phone calls surrounding Taylor's disappearance.

McNamara, assigned to federal Drug Enforcement Administration office in Camden, told the jury he began with a prepaid cell phone Tuck had the day he was shot.

Beginning with an Aug. 31, 2006 call to Tuck from Andrews, McNamara said he obtained warrants to get Andrews' cell phone records for the weeks before and after the kidnapping.

The Andrews records led to others allegedly involved in planning the drug deal that proved to be Taylor's last, McNamara said.

One key contact was Lester Smith, a West Philadelphia drug broker who testified Monday how he set up the drug deal between Taylor and Andrews. Smith, McNamara testified, appeared to have bought the prepaid cellphone Tuck carried when he was shot.

McNamara said cell phones are commonly used by drug dealers, and the call records - the timing and frequency - often reveal a crescendo of activity shortly before and after a drug deal.

That was the case on Aug. 25 and 26, McNamara said, when Taylor, Smith the broker and Andrews the buyer made hundreds of calls to each other and associates as the hour of the deal neared.

Although Taylor's body has never been found, McNamara yesterday posited a possible time of death.

"There were phone calls in increasing numbers between Lester Smith and Shamari Taylor leading right up until 11:16 p.m. ," McNamara testified.

"There was one last phone call made from Lester Smith to Shamari Taylor's phone," McNamara added. "That call went to voice mail."