NOT GUILTY
WOMAN CHARGED WITH SMUGGLING DRUGS INTO AIRPORT TELLS OF HER ORDEAL, TIME IN JAIL, BEING CLEARED
MEDIA » An Upper Darby mother is a free woman, acquitted Oct. 27 by jurors who believed she’d been duped by a Jamaican sweetheart when authorities at the Philadelphia International Airport found 9.2 pounds of cocaine in 10 cans of instant chocolate drink in her suitcase.
“I am still trying to recover,” said Tiwanda White, 40, Wednesday, as she was joined by defense attorneys Enrique Latoison and Laura Laszewski at their Front Street law office as they rehashed the case that made for shocking headlines at the time of her arrest in May, 2016. “It has changed my life in almost every aspect.”
A jury of eight women and four men deliberated about two hours Thursday, Oct. 26, and about 10 minutes Friday morning, Oct. 27, before returning the not guilty verdict on charges of possession with the intent to manufacture or deliver; possession of a controlled substance; and conspiracy to possession with the intent to manufacture or deliver, according to Latoison.
White, a caseworker for the Department of Human Services with an exuberant personality, did not testify during the trial, which opened Wednesday, Oct. 25, before Common Pleas Court Judge James P. Bradley.
Looking back, White said she was coming off three days of fun in Montego Bay when her life turned upside down – an ordeal she recounted during a 43-minute interrogation by a pair of Homeland Security agents hours after her return to Philadelphia, on the evening of May 24, 2016.
The interrogation was recorded on video, which both the prosecution and defense used, in part, to bolster their case. Assistant District Attorney Michelle ThurstlicO’Neill described White as seemingly unconcerned in the video, combining her demeanor with other circumstantial elements like paying in cash for her ticket for a last-minute trip, to portray her as a professional drugrunning mule, to show her as a willing participant in the smuggling of cocaine valued at as much as $500,000.
Even Laszewski admitted Wednesday that White’s spontaneous trip “would be a red flag, 100 percent.”
In contrast, Latoison argued in court that the video helped show his client was tricked and unaware of the contents of the sealed cans, which White freely admitted packing into her suitcase. Never once did she try to distance herself from that suitcase, he said.
“She was the sacrificial lamb,” Latoison said Wednesday.
In court, Latoison went as far as calling White “an idiot,” due to her gullibility. He asked jurors not to become “inflamed” by the prosecution’s interpretation of details, or the 10 cans the D.A.’s office had on display in Courtroom 5.
Care package
Over the course of a two-hour interview Wednesday, White was friendly and chatty. She shared details of her life ranging from the most intimate, like matters involving feminine body functions while in jail, to the most whimsical, like sharing a birthday with Madonna.
Over the long weekend of May 20-23 in 2016, White said she reconnected in Montego Bay with a man she knew as “Ras,” a handsome taxi-driver with long corn rows she met during a previous trip in January.
The trip was supposed to have included White’s older sister, who at the time had recently been diagnosed with cancer. When her sister said she wasn’t up for it, White decided to go solo, booking a suite at the El Greco hotel for about $70 a night through Trip Advisor.
White has a longtime boyfriend, but described their relationship as on-again, off-again. Together, they earn a six-figure income, and White drives a Mercedes. He is a native of Jamaica, and has family who reside there. She’s said she has traveled to the island many times over the last six years.