Mistrial declared in case against Buju Banton

A mistrial was declared Monday afternoon in the drug trial of reggae star Buju Banton. Jurors informed the judge today that after three days of deliberations they are split.

"We are still split on a decision and after reviewing evidence, nobody has changed their minds from our original vote on Thursday," said a note delivered to the judge from the jurors.

U.S. District Judge James Moody implored jurors to continue working on a verdict.

Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, has been held in jail since December on drug conspiracy charges.

Wyclef Hospitalized, Blames "Stress and Fatigue"

Wyclef Jean was hospitalized over the weekend at an undisclosed location due to "symptoms of stress and fatigue,” Jean’s rep told CNN. The musician has since been released, and his rep added that Jean “will be fine – just needs the space to recover.”

The 37-year-old has had “an extremely grueling three months–truly an exhausting eight months, since the earthquake when he recommitted himself to our homeland and his passion for our people,” his rep explained further in a statement.

The former Fugee “is currently suffering the effects of lack of sleep and stress, global travel, even the endless public eye, and has asked that his fans and supporters bear with him for the next several days as he regains his physical health and stamina.”

Jean is planning to head back to work a week from today, and “will be back out in front of the crusade to rebuild Haiti and his pledge to make it even better for business,” according to the statement.

The artist announced his intent to run for president of Haiti in August, but was deemed ineligible. Jean officially ended his bid for presidency last week. In a statement, he said fans can expect a new album, "If I Were President, the Haitian Experience," in February.

Jamaican Wins $54 Million Lottery Jackpot

She's been homeless, bankrupt, a robbery victim and assaulted on the job -- but radiant Rikers Island guard Garina Fearon now has 54 million glorious reasons to start living la dolce vita.

The 34-year-old single mom from East New York, Brooklyn, who has endured a lifetime of hardship and poverty, told The Post she's the mystery winner of last Friday's Mega Millions drawing.

"I wanted a better life. I was struggling as a single parent," a beaming Fearon said yesterday. "I've really come back from nothing."

She never imagined such joy was possible when she was down to her last $25 six years ago and forced to file for bankruptcy.

Hard times struck again two years later, when burglars robbed her apart ment while she was at work guarding danger ous inmates.

Fearon, who spent part of her youth in a homeless shelter with no stable family, went on to endure sickening abuse from the monsters in her care.

"She's had feces thrown in her face and on her uniform in the years that she's been there," said a fellow jail guard. "She's a tough young lady."

How she won is as re markable as her change of fortune.

Fearon said she bought the wrong ticket at a Sutter Ave nue bodega, where she went to play Powerball, not Mega Millions.

"I only play every six months or so," said Fearon, who has a 16-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.

She held on to the ticket all weekend, and didn't think about it until Monday, when she asked a co-worker for a newspaper. She scribbled the winning numbers on the back of an inmate pass as her shift ended.

As she waited for the bus, she made the amazing discovery.

"I was about to fold up the lottery ticket," Fearon said. "Then I saw the numbers, and I started running from one part of the parking lot to the other screaming."

She still hasn't come down from her high.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "It's something unexpected."

The first thing on her "to-do" list was to talk to supervisors at the Correction Department. She said she feels too loyal to the job to let it go, even with all that money coming her way.

"I'm going to go to my job to get some days off," Fearon said. "I don't want to resign."

Fearon said it was her correction career that rescued her from her financial ruin.

Her top priority is taking care of her ailing mom.

"I'm from Jamaica," Fearon said. "I have a sick mother. She has diabetes, and I'm going to buy my mom a house in Jamaica."

Fearon said she will take the lump-sum option, which will pay her about $30 million before taxes. Beyond that, she's not sure what she'll do next.

"I don't know anything about all this kind of money," she said.

Buju awaits verdict - African-American juror falls ill

(via The Jamaica Observer)

A 13-member panel of jurors are now deliberating whether to find Reggae artiste Buju Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, guilty or innocent of conspiracy with intent to distribute five kilogrammes of cocaine.

A female African-American juror fell ill and will not take part in this afternoon's deliberation.

The jury retired at 12:40 pm.

Myrie's attorney David Oscar Markus in his final argument, told the jurors that his client was innocent and asked them to return a not guilty verdict.

"Ladies and gentlemen, he is not guilty. Mr Myrie is not a drug dealer. Please, Please find him not guilty. Not because he was at the warehouse when the drugs were being inspected means he is guilty of the conspiracy charge against him," Markus said.

Markus argued that the government could not prove its case against Myrie and pointed to the Drug Enforcement Agency's Daniel McCeaffrey's testimony that despite investigating the artiste for a year he could find no evidence against him. Markus also painted US government informant Alexander Johnson as a 'master manipulator and con man'.

"To him this was a pay day. This guy was looking for his jackpot. This is how he makes a living," Markus said.

Lead prosecutor Jim Preston countered Markus' claims by telling the jurors that Myrie was 'neck deep' in the conspiracy to distribute cocaine and said it was his fault why his co-defendants James Mack and Ian Thomas were arrested. Preston said Thomas was brought into the deal by Myrie.

During his address to the jury, Preston walked over to Myrie and pointed at him for emphasis.

Thomas was expected to testify this morning but was not called to the witness stand by Markus.

"We felt we had it without him," Markus told the Observer.

Presiding Judge Jim Moody in his summation to the jury, instructed them that not because Banton was on the spot when the contraband was being inspected meant he was guilty of conspiracy. He instructed them to carefully weigh the evidence of a convicted person or a government informant because they may have a motive to give false statements.

He also informed the jury that their decision had to be unanimous to stand and instructed them that in cases of entrapment they had to find Myrie not guilty if he was not previously willing or if it was because a Government agent enticed him, they should return a not guilty verdict.

Buju speaks

(via The Jamaica Gleaner)

The chatty man drinking red wine with reggae star Buju Banton on a flight from Madrid, Spain, to Miami in the United States seemed to have important music industry connections so, the singer told a court in Tampa, Florida, yesterday, he tried to impress with made-up ambitions of drug trafficking when the talk turned to cocaine.

Buju, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was giving testimony in a Tampa federal court where he is facing charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and aiding and abetting two others in possessing a firearm during the course of cocaine distribution. He faces up to life in prison.

The man, Alexander Johnson, was an undercover United States government informant. Buju said he liked Johnson, but he was only looking to secure a new distribution contract - not a cocaine deal.

"I'm just a humble musician. I was talking over my head," the four-time Grammy-nominated musician declared. "I was trying to impress this guy and that's what got me in this hot seat right now."

Johnson has testified that Buju admitted involvement in drug trafficking, and he wanted to give Johnson money so he could buy and sell cocaine. Their recorded conversations were played Tuesday for the jury.

The 37-year-old Rastafarian took the stand yesterday in a grey suit jacket, his long dreadlocks tied up in a braid. He said Johnson initiated their conversation about drugs on the plane in July 2009.

Buju said he made up ambitions to deal cocaine to one-up Johnson, who was talking about cocaine and marijuana deals of his own, alongside a legitimate seafood business and music industry contacts in Los Angeles.

When they met for lunch at a Fort Lauderdale restaurant the next day and at a hotel a few days later, it was Johnson who brought up cocaine, Buju said.

Buju said he never wanted nor expected Johnson to set up a cocaine deal, despite what he said in the recordings. The singer had told Johnson that he financed drug deals, wanted to sell drugs in Europe, buy drugs from the Caribbean and South America and use Johnson's boat to transport drugs.

"I talk too much, but I am not a drug dealer," Buju told the court.

Buju said he was surprised when the informant presented him with cocaine at an undercover police warehouse in Sarasota on December 8. Surveillance video shows Buju peering over co-defendant Ian Thomas' shoulder at the cocaine, and the singer tasting the drugs with a finger.

The singer said he thought Johnson was going to show him his boat and offices.

"When I realised this was real drugs, I thought, 'This is a real drug dealer, and I want no part of it'," Buju said. "I was in over my head."

Under cross-examination yesterday by Markus, Johnson said the cocaine was a "surprise showing".

Johnson said he continued to pursue a cocaine deal with Banton, even though the singer repeatedly cancelled meetings and rushed him off the phone, if he answered Johnson's calls at all.

"I needed him to come to me," Johnson said. "I was doing the job I was doing from day one."

Buju said he avoided Johnson's calls afterward, and he did not know Thomas would try to set up a drug deal with Johnson on December 10.

That day, Thomas and another co-defendant, James Mack, were arrested at the warehouse. Buju was arrested at his Miami-area home.

Thomas and Mack have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Each faces up to life in prison.

Assistant US Attorney James Preston asked Buju what he thought he would gain by lying about his involvement in drug trafficking.

"I know you want to paint me bad," Buju replied. "If I was a drug dealer, I would have taken the plea deal you offered me."

Another reggae singer testified yesterday for Banton.

Stephen Marley, one of music legend Bob Marley's sons, told jurors that in the 19 years he has been friends and played music with Buju, he has never known him to traffic in cocaine.

'A nuh Killa mi a talk!' - Lisa Hyper says new song was not about Bounty

Although Bounty Killer is currently in jail on wounding charges, female artiste Lisa Hyper says her new song 'No Beat Up' is not in reference to him.

"A nuh Killa mi a talk, a real ting mi a talk. It is just coincidental that Bounty commit such an act by the time the song supposed to come out," she said, noting that the demo for the song was done about three days ago.

"Certain things Lisa Hyper is finished with. That song definitely not going out to Bounty."

In the song, Lisa Hyper said, "No beat up mi nah tek no beat up/ Any day him lick mi a deh so mi erupt/ After mi a nuh punching bag fi him beat mi/ Is like yuh waan mi lef yuh and go find another man/ Then send yuh go Bellevue go mad/ Di Hennessy drinking yuh need fi quit it/ If mi deh wid yuh mi life ago sticky/ So mi stay single and party wid Nicky."

Bounty Killer was arrested and charged with wounding after a woman turned up at the Constant Spring Police Station and reported that the deejay used a hammer to abuse her over the weekend. It is reported that the woman had to be given 19 stitches and her body had marks associated with being beaten.

Only last April, he spent several weeks in police lock-ups after he was charged with beating his girlfriend and threatening her while he was at the police station. However, the matter was removed from the courts after the girlfriend said she did not wish to continue.

Despite the contents of the song, Lisa Hyper said she wants to take a different path, a change from the negative one she was previously on.

"People already know Lisa Hyper. Now we a move on to bigger and better things. We don't always want to paint a bad picture. You don't always want to give the people dem a bad impression. Even the baby fi can sing my song dem," she told THE STAR, noting that she is an 'artiste of the week' on Stampede Street Charts.

In the meantime, Lisa Hyper said she has been busy doing work with producers like Cashflow, Arrows Recording, Coppershot Disco, Truckback Records and Black Spade. She also has other recent releases like Night Nurse and It's Over.

Minor setback for Buju

(via The Jamaica Observer)

The defence in the Buju Banton trial suffered a minor setback this morning when a possible witness pleaded the Fifth Amendment, deciding not to testify on behalf of the Jamaican singer.

The defence had requested that James Mack, Buju's former co-accused, give evidence for him, but Mack, fearful that he might jeopardise his chances of getting a lighter sentence, opted not to.

Mack was arrested in December 2009 the same day that Buju, whose given name is Mark Myrie, was arrested and slapped with cocaine charges.

He recently copped a plead deal for a lighter sentence. Also arrested along with Mack in a sting operation was Ian Thomas, who also copped a plea deal. Both men will be sentenced in November.

Reacting to the development, Buju's lawyer David Markus expressed some disappointment as he spoke with the Observer.

"He would have helped," Markus said.

Meanwhile, Markus continued his grilling of Alexander Johnson, the prosecution's main witness.

Markus, with his line of questioning painted a picture of a man who was in financial debt and was pushing to entrap Buju because of the money he stood to earn from the case, if the entertainer was arrested.

The court was told that Johnson was behind on his credit card bills, mortgage payment and owed the US government over $100,000 in taxes.

Markus pointed out from transcripts of Johnson's recorded conversations with Buju, that he was the one constantly bringing up talks of drugs and that the entertainer was not interested.

Johnson also said that he did not inform Buju that he was going to look at drugs on December 8 when the entertainer was caught on tape tasting the cocaine. He said the artiste was under the impression that he was going to see a sailboat he (Johnson) owned.

Buju was arrested at his home at Tamarac, South Florida hours after his former co-accused Thomas and Mack, were arrested during an alleged drug bust in an undercover operation at a warehouse in Sarasota, Florida in December last year.

All three were charged with conspiracy to possess more than five kilogrammes of cocaine with intent to distribute, while Mack was charged with possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offence.

The drug charge carries a minimum sentence of 20 years to life in addition to a fine of up to US$4 million, while the firearm charge carries a sentence of five years to life and a fine of up to US$250,000.

Both Mack and Thomas, in their plea deals, have agreed to give evidence to assist the US Government in building a case against Banton, in exchange for lesser sentences.