Suspect in ecstacy case killed Saturday

In a morbid turn of events, one of the 14 people indicted on charges of smuggling ecstasy to be distributed in Bloomington, was found stabbed to death in Indianapolis Saturday morning. Layton Chambers, a 22-year-old Bloomington resident, was found dead at the intersection of Bluff Road and Pleasant Run North Drive, on the South Side of Indianapolis. \nIn a federal indictment, filed June 5 by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet, Chambers was one of 14 people charged with conspiracy to import and distribute ecstasy. The indictment claims Chambers acted as a drug courier for Brent Killinger, Kip Presslaff and Brandon Wackowski, who collectively purchased ecstasy from a Dutch man named Koen Michael Frans Van Riemsdjik Kreenen in Amsterdam.\nIn a sworn affidavit, Mike George, a special agent with the United States Customs Service, said Jay Brown, 23, Kristian Walter, 26, and Samuel Cruz, 23, were collectively carrying 11,081 tablets of ecstasy, weighing 6.6 pounds when they arrived from Amsterdam at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Oct. 2, 2001. Customs agents discovered the tablets strapped to their legs with tape and ace bandage. Brown and Cruz admitted in a written statement that they had been recruited to smuggle the drug into the U.S. for $10,000. \nAccording to the office of the Registrar, at least eight of the 14 defendants have been enrolled either currently or in the past at IU. However, the Registrar has no record indicating that Chambers was ever enrolled as an IU student.\nOn June 18, eight of the 14 defendants stood mute to the charges in a U.S. District Court in Detroit, prompting Judge Bernard Friedman to enter pleas of not-guilty on their behalf.\nLt. Jerry Minger declined to comment on the specifics of IUPD's role in the investigation, stating only that the department had been contacted by U.S. customs agents due to the involvement of IU students. Minger said the department's role was marginal. \nU.S. Assistant Attorney Ron Waterstreet was unavailable for comment.