Ex-Football Player Case Jail Informant Details Alleged Murder Plot

A jailhouse informant testified Thursday that a Sylmar man had claimed he was paid $7,000 by members of a powerful San Fernando Valley drug ring to set up the killing of a former Cal State Northridge football player turned drug dealer.

Tracy Anderson, 24, was shot several times Sept. 25 outside his fiancee’s house in Pacoima, according to court testimony. Anderson was selected the most valuable defensive player on the CSUN football team last season, but authorities said the 6-foot-2, 240-pound player had begun selling drugs 2 years ago.

On trial for Anderson’s murder is Leroy Wheeler, 19, who police say is associated with a 200-member drug ring that has controlled the sale of rock cocaine in the northeast Valley for nearly a decade. Authorities say the organization is controlled by Jeffrey Bryant, 37, and his brother Stanley, 30, both of Pacoima.

Prison Gang

Two years ago, witnesses have testified, Anderson began selling drugs for the organization, which has been linked to the Black Guerrilla Family, a gang formed in California prisons and whose members are believed to operate drug rings throughout the state.

Anderson stopped working for the organization after a year and began selling drugs on his own, witnesses have said.

Informant Jose Maisonet, a convicted robber, testified that while he was in Los Angeles County Jail, Wheeler shared a cell with him and told him of his part in the scheme to murder Anderson, who was known as “Tank.”

“Leroy said he was paid $7,000 just to get Tank out of the house,” Maisonet testified.

Los Angeles Police Detective Bob Saurman testified that he seized $7,500 from Wheeler’s apartment while conducting a search soon after Anderson’s murder.

Maisonet testified that Wheeler told him Anderson “had spent $50,000 of the family’s money and he had to go.”

Meeting at House

Wheeler told Maisonet that he had arranged to meet Anderson at Anderson’s fiancee’s house in the 13000 block of Montford Street about noon Sept. 25 to buy a Ford Mustang that Anderson was selling.

Wheeler paid him for the car and as Anderson went outside to get the ownership papers and hand them over, he was shot, Maisonet testified.

Under guidelines issued by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner last week on the use of jailhouse informants, Maisonet was presented as a witness only after the case was reviewed by one of three directors of criminal prosecutions in Reiner’s office. Reiner established the guidelines after a jailhouse informant who frequently had been relied on by prosecutors demonstrated that he could convincingly fabricate confessions supposedly made by other prisoners.

Police believe there were at least two others involved in the murder and are looking for people who fled in a white Audi and a black Ford Escort, according to court records. Wheeler is not believed to be the gunman, according to Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Vojtecky.

Anderson’s fiancee, Myra James, testified Wednesday that there had been rumors that Stanley Bryant wanted to kill Anderson because Anderson would not resume selling drugs for the ring.

Successful as Dealer

Anderson had been successful as a drug dealer and had amassed considerable assets, according to police. Police said the assets included a Mercedes-Benz, a Corvette and $25,450, which Anderson kept in a safe-deposit box at a San Fernando bank.

According to court documents, the day after Anderson’s death, an unidentified man offered a bank teller $30,000 to gain access to the safe-deposit box.

Wheeler is also one of 10 people charged in a quadruple slaying Aug. 28 in Lake View Terrace. Police say the four killings are among eight murders believed to be linked to the Bryant organization.

Wheeler has pleaded not guilty to the four murders as well as to the murder of Anderson. The preliminary hearing on the Anderson murder is scheduled to continue Monday.