Davon Lymon
Attorneys for Davon Lymon, the man accused of killing Albuquerque Police officer Daniel Webster, said in a newly filed court motion that a confidential informant was the “driving force” behind a series of undercover heroin and firearms sales Lymon allegedly made to undercover federal agents in the weeks before Webster’s death last year.
The informant appears to have provided the heroin to Lymon, which he allegedly then sold to federal agents, according to the motion. The “transactions of which Mr. Lymon is accused … would not have occurred but for the actions and involvement” of the informant.
Agents from the federal bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) did not arrest Lymon after the alleged sales, which totaled $6,500, on Sept. 11 and Oct. 2. That left Lymon free and, authorities say, on a path to shooting Webster several times during a traffic stop on Oct. 21.
The ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have refused to say why Lymon, who spent a decade in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in 2002, was not arrested. They charged him with distribution of heroin and possession of a firearm by a felon on Dec. 3 — more than six weeks after Webster’s death.
In their motion filed Tuesday, attorneys Marc Robert and Kari Converse say agents recorded undercover audio of the alleged heroin and gun sales. The informant was present on each occasion, the motion says, and “took an active part in them.”
But the attorneys do not know the informant’s identity, and prosecutors have declined to provide it. The motion seeks the informant’s identity; whether the informant was “working in any capacity for any government agency, federal, state or local;” and a wide assortment of the informant’s past dealings with law enforcement, including criminal history, past promises of immunity or payment from the government in exchange for cooperation.
Robert and Converse argue that because the informant was a “central figure” in the alleged transactions — or, at a minimum, an eyewitness — his identity “should be disclosed because he is the only witness in a position to amplify or contradict the testimony of the government witnesses.”
That makes information about the informant’s identity, history and relationship to law enforcement essential to Lymon’s defense, the attorneys wrote in their motion.
The federal prosecutors assigned to the case have not responded to the motion.
In addition to the charges related to the alleged undercover purchases, Lymon faces two other federal counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm — one related to the night Webster was shot and the other connected to an incident in May.
He has not yet been charged with killing Webster. Authorities have said that case will proceed in state court.