A federal jury entered deliberations on Wednesday at the end of a three-day retrial for accused drug trafficker Russell Robinson. Robinson returned to the role he held in his first trial in June 2023, serving as his own defense attorney.
Wednesday morning proceedings began with the defendant taking the witness stand on his own behalf. He told a panel of jurors his side of the story of events taking place on Nov. 29, 2021.
That was the day that Robinson, along with former co-defendant Trevor Stephen and a third — unidentified — person, loaded seven duffel bags loaded with 210 kilograms of cocaine into a pickup truck. They then drove from Vessup Bay Beach to Hull Bay, leading law enforcement agents on a high-speed chase by land and by air.
Most of the incident was captured on surveillance images shot from a pursuing helicopter. Stephen was convicted at the end of the first trial in June. Robinson was granted a mistrial.
On Wednesday, Robinson said he became an unwilling participant in drug smuggling after Stephen talked him into lending his truck. As they drove along in the Frydenhoj area, the defendant said a third man entered the cab of the truck and pointed a gun at him.
The stranger directed him to do as he was told and he wouldn’t get hurt, Robinson said. All three men helped load the truck at the beach, got back into the cab and drove away. At one point in his testimony, the defendant said he turned into the yard of a friend who lived along the route and knocked on his door, asking for help.
Sometime later, before Robinson and Stephen drove through Long Bay towards Mafolie Hill, the gunman left the truck and disappeared.
Prosecutor Kyle Payne challenged the account, reminding Robinson that the friend whose house he stopped by testified in court on Tuesday. That witness described Robinson as “acting like a crazy man.”
As he left, the witness told the court that Robinson told him to “call the feds.”
Payne asked the defendant why he did not ask his friend to call 911 or why he did not stop the truck when he saw blue flashing lights following him when he got back on the road.
Robinson said he didn’t know who the people in the cars with the flashing lights were. Payne said they were the police.
But those are local police, Robinson said, and he didn’t trust them. Returning to his role as defense attorney, Robinson asked the court to include a jury instruction about committing a drug crime while under duress.
Chief District Judge Robert Molloy called a recess and returned to the courtroom with a ruling from the bench. “The court finds that Mr. Robinson is not entitled to a jury instruction on duress,” the judge said.
Although he had given an account of an encounter with a gunman and actions taken under apparent threat of harm, Molloy said Robinson offered no evidence to prove the things he said.
The defendant also failed to stop fleeing and turn himself into police once the gunman left the vehicle, something the judge said he was obliged to do under law.
The defense rested its case moments later. The prosecutor told the court he wanted to bring a few rebuttal witnesses back to the stand.
Closing arguments followed by mid-afternoon, followed by Molloy’s instructions to the jury. Deliberations began around 3:30 p.m.
Robinson is charged with conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
