Sais may go back to jail
Conviced drug dealer accused of violating parole

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Jason Sais, a convicted narcotics dealer once dubbed Gallup’s Grim Reaper, may be going back to prison.

Sais, 42, was arrested for parole violations at his Socorro home July 25, following a slew of drug-trafficking convictions from 2002 that resulted in a nine-year sentence, of which four years were discounted as “time served.”

His probation officer, Charles Rutta, testified during a parole violation hearing in Gallup Sept. 26 that Sais had failed to report on time, prompting a spontaneous visit to Sais’ Socorro home. Rutta said it took upwards of five minutes for Sais to answer the door when he arrived at 8 a.m.

Once inside, Rutta said he found marijuana inside a dresser drawer, two used syringes in a coat pocket, a pipe with burnt residue inside a laundry hamper and a plastic baggy containing trace amounts of white powder in the toilet. He also found a device labeled the “Whizzinator,” which purports to filter urine in order to subvert a drug test.

District Attorney Karl Gillson and Assistant District Attorney John Bernitz submitted all the found items as evidence, a move to which defense attorney Richard Wade repeatedly objected, citing the prosecution’s failure to prove a tamper-free chain of custody, although the evidence arrived in sealed evidence bags previously kept under lock and key with Magdalena Marshal Larry Cearly, according to Cearly. District Judge Louise Depauli Jr. allowed the evidence.

Forensic Scientist Laura Hernandez, whose job is to analyze evidence for drug content at the New Mexico Department of Public Safety’s Southern Forensic Lab in Las Cruces, testified that all of the evidence contained illegal substances. The “foliage” found in the dresser proved to be marijuana, she said. The pipe contained burnt cocaine residue; and the syringes showed a presence of cocaine, according to Hernandez’s testimony.

Because of scheduling conflicts, the hearing was recessed and slated for continuation on Nov. 6. Depauli released Sais, allowing him to go home, where he is facing further criminal charges for the aforementioned items, according to Soccoro Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Berry.

Sais’ nickname came about after the overdose death of 18-year-old Robert Rosales III in 2002, a man who Sais allegedly used to sell cocaine. Rosales was confronted by police and he ingested two “eight-balls” of cocaine and died. Sais’ file at Gallup District Court is better than 3-inches thick; he has an extensive criminal background.

Perhaps as a result of his many and varied felony charges filed in Gallup, charges going back to 1996, Sais is known among law-enforcement personnel to have a menacing knowledge of the judicial system. Many off-duty, uniformed officers from both McKinley County Sheriff’s Department and Gallup Police Department stood at the back of the courtroom during Sais’ parole violation hearing in order to show their interest.