Four-Year Saga of Willie Ed Harris : Gun Dealings Leave Trail of Frustration for Lawmen

Gun shows seem harmless enough, on the surface.

There is even a festive, make-believe quality to these weekend events held at county and state fairgrounds and at civic convention centers all over the state.

Sometimes men dress in soldier of fortune camouflage outfits and walk around carrying assault rifles. A man wearing a buckskin shirt with a six-shooter strapped to his hip is just part of the crowd.

Many of the men who buy, sell and trade guns at the shows seem to truly adore and appreciate these weapons. One federal firearms agent likens gun shows to the gatherings of model train collectors. The guns are so plentiful and are handled so casually that they don’t seem to be quite real.

But they are real. And while most participants in these events are probably just plain law-abiding, gun-loving folks, law enforcement officials say that some of the transactions conducted at the shows are not only illegal but can be dangerous to society.

Gun shows, say law enforcement officials, can be a marketplace for stolen weapons and a source of firearms for criminals because weapons transactions at these events frequently go unrecorded and handguns often are sold in violation of state law requiring a 15-day “cooling-off” period and a criminal records check of the purchaser.

The shows are sometimes linked, say investigators, to street gangs and narcotics dealers and to international gun smuggling.

Take the case of Willie Ed Harris.

When police arrested Harris at a gun show in Pomona on May 5, 1985, it looked like just another misdemeanor handgun sale.

After all, Harris was only one of 32 people charged with breaking California law by selling handguns cash-and-carry to undercover police officers at the weekend show. The miscreants could expect to be fined a few hundred dollars and sent on their way.

But Harris’ arrest proved to be not just another misdemeanor case. It was instead the first step in a twisting, frustrating four-year journey that led investigators from gun shows to violent street gangs in Los Angeles, to a drug dealer, to a Filipino gun-smuggling operation and to a Los Angeles County sheriff’s reserve deputy who allegedly ran an illicit firearms business, according to court records and interviews.

Pomona police realized that Harris was not simply guilty of a misdemeanor when a criminal records check revealed two previous felony convictions: assault with a deadly weapon involving a pistol in 1978 and lewd acts with a child under the age of 14 in 1971.

It is against the law in California for a convicted felon to possess a concealable weapon. It is also against state law for a person convicted of a felony involving a gun to possess any type of firearm. In other words, Harris was prohibited from possessing handguns, rifles or shotguns.

On May 15, 1985, 10 days after his arrest at the gun show, Pomona police officers served a search warrant on Harris’ home on Redondo Boulevard in a working-class neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles. They found two handguns, a blackjack, a billy club and at least a dozen empty firearms boxes, according to court records.

No-Contest Plea

On June 13, Harris pleaded no contest in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pomona to three felony counts of being a convicted felon in possession of handguns and two felony counts of possessing illegal weapons: the blackjack and billy club. Superior Court Judge Loren Miller Jr. put Harris on two years probation without supervision, over the objections of Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold W. Hoffman Jr. A condition of Harris’ probation was that he not possess any firearms.

Miller, in an interview, defended giving Harris probation rather than jail time, stating:

“I remember how chicken I thought it was to arrest somebody at the gun show. I thought that (selling guns) was the purpose of the gun show. . . . People are roaming around the street killing each other and they (police) are all camped out at the gun show arresting people.”

On July 25, 1985, just over a month after he was put on probation, Pomona police officers went back to Harris’ home, accompanied by Los Angeles police officers, and found two loaded AR-15 assault weapons and 12 boxes of ammunition, according to court documents. Harris was again charged with illegally possessing firearms and with child endangerment, because his children allegedly had easy access to the guns.

Harris posted bail and remained free as the case worked its way through the Superior Court system.

Federal Involvement

In the meantime, Los Angeles police and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents began taking a closer look at Harris.

In 1985, gangs in Los Angeles were beginning to use assault weapons in street killings. In mid-April, 1986, police got a tip that “an individual by the name of Bill was selling fully automatic weapons to (Rolling 30s Crips) street gang members, as well as handguns,” according to a search warrant affidavit on file in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

The affidavit, signed by Los Angeles Police Detective Jaime Samaniego, stated further that, “Your affiant learned through departmental channels that ‘Bill’ is Willie Ed Harris.”

On April 29, 1986, detectives from the LAPD Gang Activities Section arrested Harris for allegedly selling an informant a Mac-10 assault pistol equipped with an illegal silencer, according to court documents.

At the same time, police found an AR-15 assault rifle under Harris’ house and seized two boxes of bullets with explosive tips and nearly 1,000 rounds of other ammunition from inside the home, according to court documents.

Harris told police that he had bought the Mac-10 assault pistol at a gun show.

“Defendant stated that (he) had sold numerous weapons at gun shows,” says a police report on file in Superior Court. “Defendant stated that he made extra money by buying and selling weapons. He sold weapons to anyone, including (narcotics) dealers.”

Denies Gang Link

Harris told The Times that he did buy the Mac-10 and the silencer at a gun show and that he sold them to an acquaintance nicknamed “Way Out” who turned out to be working with the police. But he denied allegations that he sold weapons to gang members or drug dealers.

The LAPD subsequently turned over its case against Harris to agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Ken Cates, who is now working for U.S. Customs, was a federal firearms agent on the Harris case more than two years ago.

“My partner and I were working gangs,” Cates recalled. “We identified him (Harris) as an individual who in our estimation bought . . . quantities of guns and then . . . sold them to black youth gang members.”

Serial numbers on handgun boxes that had been seized from Harris were traced by firearms agents to a federally licensed gun dealer in Highland Park.

Strange Combination

James Glen Boyd and Willie Ed Harris would seem to be an odd couple to form a partnership of any kind.

Harris, 46, is black, over 6 feet tall and overweight. One of his eyes stares off into the distance as he talks. Harris says he suffers from high blood pressure, gout and diabetes. And there are the multiple felony convictions.

Boyd, 52 at the time of the investigation, was described as white, tall and handsome with gray hair. A firearms agent said he looked like actor Peter Graves of “Mission Impossible.” And whereas Harris was a convicted felon, Boyd had been a Los Angeles County sheriff’s reserve deputy since 1968--a position with all the authority of a regular peace officer. He resigned in 1986--in April, the same month that Harris was arrested with the Mac-10 and silencer.

Boyd did not operate a regular gun shop. Instead, he sold weapons out of his home in Highland Park and at weekend gun shows.

Harris says he met Boyd at a gun show and began to peddle weapons for him on consignment.

“Any weapon that Willie Harris could acquire,” Cates said, “he would sell it to anybody who wanted to buy it.”

Falsified Forms

During their investigation, firearms agents discovered 64 federal weapons purchase forms that Harris and Boyd allegedly falsified apparently to conceal the fact that Boyd was delivering weapons to a felon.

In the meantime, federal agents also discovered that during 1985 and 1986, Boyd was falsifying firearms forms to sell large numbers of handguns to Nestor Atacador, a citizen of the Philippines, who was smuggling the weapons out of the country in microwave ovens for resale on the black market in the Philippines and other countries, according to court documents and interviews.

Six of the handguns turned up in Japan on June 6, 1986, according to court documents.

An informant told federal agents that Atacador met Boyd in a bar, but Cates says he believes the two became acquainted at a gun show while Atacador was looking for weapons.

On Oct. 31, 1986, a federal grand jury indicted Atacador for allegedly attempting to smuggle 41 pistols out of the country and on nine counts of allegedly falsifying federal firearm documents.

With Atacador under indictment, federal agents continued to put together their case against Boyd.

But in December, 1986, Atacador jumped his $50,000 bond and disappeared. He remains at large.

Still trying to build their case against Boyd, federal prosecutors struck a deal with Harris in January, 1987, to gain his cooperation. In exchange for his promise to testify against Boyd, prosecutors agreed to reduce pending charges against Harris.

Death Ends Inquiry

But none of this would prove to be enough to put Boyd in prison.

As federal agents in Los Angeles worked on their case against him, the gun dealer moved to rural Virginia and bought an old colonial style home.

Then, some time after the deal with Harris was made, firearms agents in Virginia called Los Angeles. Boyd was dead. Natural causes. Case closed.

On July 9, 1987, Harris, who remained free, was finally tried on the charges of possessing the two assault rifles discovered in his home by Pomona police two years before.

Harris pleaded guilty to one felony count of being a felon in possession of a gun. He was sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer to three years in state prison, but Ringer suspended the sentence and instead placed Harris on three years supervised probation. Again, a condition of probation was that Harris was not to possess firearms. Harris was also given 180 days in jail.

“You’ll do 180 days in County Jail,” said Ringer. “No work furlough. No work release. No county parole.”

But Ringer stayed the jail time for a month to give Harris time to straighten out his personal affairs and on Aug. 4 the judge granted a motion to modify the sentence to 120 days at a private halfway house to be served Wednesdays through Saturdays at Harris’ expense.

Still in Business

Harris served the halfway house time but, according to a federal search warrant affidavit filed last January, has continued to deal in firearms. The affidavit says that Harris drives a 1988 Lincoln Town Car as well as a 1988 Mustang and sometimes conducts his weapons business by car phone.

The affidavit maintains that Harris used a woman acquaintance--sometimes paying her with cocaine--to buy handguns for him. The woman apparently was able to pass the state-required criminal background check that is made before a handgun can be legally purchased.

The federal affidavit alleges that when Harris and his female companion were apprehended with three brand new handguns on March 7, 1988, Harris admitted the weapons had been purchased for a known narcotics dealer.

“Harris added that he was supposed to telephone (the drug dealer) on his car phone once he got the firearms and then meet him to make delivery,” says the affidavit. “Harris stated that (the drug dealer) had already paid him for these firearms and that he had sold (the drug dealer) other firearms in the recent past.”

Drug Dealer Arrested

Harris then led federal agents to the narcotics dealer, according to the affidavit, and delivered the handguns to him while agents waited nearby to arrest the dealer on firearms charges.

The affidavit alleges that Harris continued to arrange purchases and sales of guns through last fall and winter and finally on Jan. 23, firearms agents searched his home with a federal warrant.

The results must have been disappointing to the agents. They found a couple of hundred rounds of ammunition, several gun bags and cases, a couple of holsters, but no guns.

Still, the agents apparently think they have enough on Harris to make a federal firearms case stick. They turned their information over to a federal prosecutor this month for consideration as a grand jury case.

Harris, in the meantime, is still free.

He sat on the front porch of his home one recent morning, one eye on a reporter and the other askew, gazing off it seemed toward the traffic rolling by on Redondo Boulevard.

“The feds have been trying to build a case on me,” he said. “They’ve been trying to nail me with something.”

But Harris insists that he is innocent and says he doesn’t mess with guns anymore.