Drug Ring Leader Found Guilty in Murder of N.Y. Rookie Officer

The leader of a violent crack ring was found guilty Monday of ordering the murder of a rookie police officer who was guarding the firebombed house of a witness in a drug case.

Howard (Pappy) Mason, 31, faces mandatory life in prison without parole for a slaying that had come to symbolize the battle against illegal drugs.

Jurors in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn deliberated 13 hours over three days before finding Mason guilty on all 11 drug-conspiracy charges, including one specifying that he ordered the February, 1988, murder of Officer Edward Byrne, 22.

The officer’s killing became an issue in last year’s presidential campaign. Byrne’s parents gave their dead son’s police badge to then-Vice President Bush during a campaign appearance, and Bush cited the slaying as an example of why he believed the death penalty was needed.

Mason boycotted most of his trial and remained in a courthouse holding cell, presumably watching on closed-circuit television.

Four other people were convicted in state court earlier this year of carrying out the murder and have been sentenced to the maximum of 25 years to life in prison.

“This accounts for all the people who had a hand in the brutal murder,” U.S. Atty. Andrew J. Maloney said of Mason’s conviction.

State authorities let Mason be tried in federal court because New York state rules of evidence restricting testimony by co-defendants made conviction in state court less likely.