Murder and Meth in the High Desert

By Rick Wiley

Murder and Meth in the High Desert is the true story of the 1987 kidnapping and murder of police drug informant Denise Williams. The book follows the lives of the victim, the suspects, and the police officers who investigated the case.

One suspect is murdered prior to being convicted. One suspect pleads guilty, and the other stands trial for the murder. The book follows the trial and appeals of this suspect, with actual court testimony from some of the many court trials and hearings. Alan Creech, the lead detective on the Denise Williams case, becomes obsessed with solving the murder. The book describes the many twists and turns the case takes, including the theft of evidence and the attempted murder of a police service dog.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546238768

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© 2018 Rick Wiley All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/19/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3834-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3833-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3876-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018905035

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Dedication

About The Author

Chapter One: Nampa, Idaho 1987

Chapter Two: The Raid At The Farm

Chapter Three: The Kidnapping

Chapter Four: The Simonis Kidnapping

Chapter Five: Kidnappers Confession

Chapter Six: Holmes Is Released From Jail

Chapter Seven: Poisoning Of Police Service Dog Shane

Chapter Eight: The Search For Denise

Chapter Nine: The Missing Dope

Chapter Ten: The Wire Tap

Chapter Eleven: Finding Denise

Chapter Twelve: Wages Confession

Chapter Thirteen: The Trials Begin

Chapter Fourteen: The Riot

Chapter Fifteen: Maxwell Hoffman Jury Trial

Chapter Sixteen: Maxwell Hoffman Sentencing Hearing

Chapter Seventeen: Hoffman Biography

Chapter Eighteen: Ronald Wages Sentencing

Chapter Nineteen: Maxwell Hoffman Appeals

Chapter Twenty: Hoffman Evidentiary Hearing

Chapter Twenty One: The Plane Crash

Chapter Twenty Two: Maxwell Hoffman Appeals Continued

Epilogue

Appendix I: Jury Instructions for Hoffman First Degree Murder Trial

Alan Creech

Detective Alan Creech, lead investigator

of the Denise Williams homicide case.

• Front cover: The photos are 1987 Canyon County Jail booking photos of Maxwell Hoffman (top) and Richard Holmes (bottom).

• Back cover: 1987 photo of Denise Williams.

• Cover Background: Cave where Denise Williams was murdered.

• Author’s Note: This book was formulated from interviews of those involved along with researching court files, police reports, other non-fiction books, news releases, and audio tapes of conversations. A big part of the book is from the author’s memory of the case. In some instances conversations and thoughts of suspects, victims, and police officers were recreated after the research showed that this would be a logical conclusion given the research and the situation as it occurred. Biographies of Denise Williams, Richard Holmes, Ron Wages, Max Hoffman and Alan Creech were comprised from all of the information that was available on each person. The biographies have been placed in the book in locations that seemed appropriate after significant life changing events took place.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Owyhee County Sheriff Perry Grant

• Chief Deputy Lynn Bowman, Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office

• Bev White, Records Supervisor, Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office

• Nampa Police Chief Joe Huff

• Nampa Police Evidence Division - Tammy, Dan and especially Tom. They were able to locate evidence and reports from a crime that occurred 30 years ago. Because of the evidence practices that this case helped create, everything was found and in excellent shape.

• Biography information from Murder on Cell Block 9 by L. D. Webb

• Owyhee County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office

• Andy Creech, son of Alan Creech

• Laura Creech, wife of Alan Creech

• Kevin Dinius

• Connie Williams

• Special thanks to my publicist, Linda Cunningham. Her encouragement when this book was just a crazy idea helped keep me focused and on task.

• Most of all I want to thank my beautiful wife Pam for her understanding and help through this entire process.

FOREWORD

As I was gathering information and writing this book I realized that the drug subculture, even in 1987, was a place that changed from the 60’s counter culture love and peace generation into a violent world where people pay with their lives. I lived this case from 1987 to 1989 and at the time didn’t have the opportunity to look at it with the 20/20 hindsight I have today.

While the facts of the case were unfolding the officers worked each new piece of information expecting that it would lead to some kind of closure for everyone involved. With the focus totally on what was happening at the time we didn’t have a chance to step back and see the big picture that was being painted by the previous facts and we were unable to see ahead into the future.

In September 2017 I returned to the scene of the kidnapping and to the murder scene for the first time since 1988. I was first surprised on how little the landscape had changed. The trees, sagebrush and rocks seemed untouched after 30 years. It seemed that the desert was frozen in time and I almost expected for some evidence of the crime to still be there which needed to be photographed and collected. I even thought that there should be a monument, plaque or something to commemorate the happening of so long ago. I found myself looking at the ground like everyone had so many years ago looking for that key piece of evidence that would unlock the case. I remembered my K-9 partner, Alzado, and how he had loved the time spent in the desert looking in every ravine, behind every rock, under every tree - him not knowing the gravity of the situation. It was a hard reality when I realized that my dog had been dead for 20 years and that I was 20 years closer to meeting my maker.

The research took me to a dark place that I had not forgotten but had pushed aside. This is a place where drug users, drug dealers, cops and informants all play a role. The drug users are the customers, the drug dealers are the suppliers and the cops are trying to work the supply side of the problem. The informants are usually playing all three roles trying to keep everyone from finding out what they are actually doing on all sides. Law Enforcement will tell you that there are many reasons people become informants which is a true statement but someone who has no firsthand knowledge of drug use is not of much use. Dope users by the very nature of their drug use, are not reliable but we still call them reliable confidential informants.

I remember when I was transferred out of the narcotics unit and how I thought that no one would be able to take my place because of the expertise I had developed. Within a week the unit was functioning at the same level or above as before I left. Working dope becomes almost as intoxicating for the cops as it does for the dopers. Looking back I should have transferred much sooner than I did for my own sanity. Narcs have what we called intergalactic status meaning that we went to where the case took us. City limits, county lines, state lines and even international borders meant nothing: we went wherever and whenever we wanted. Narcs worked the cases we wanted and for as long as we wanted and then moved on to the next case.

The Denise Williams case was extremely different. This case was priority number one for not only the narcotics officers but the entire Nampa Police Department.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the memory of Alan Creech. Alan was the detective that lived this case for two years of his life. I was there and witnessed the stress he was under and the strength he showed during that time of our lives.

Alan became Nampa Police Chief in 2000 and began a process of community policing that was his passion. Through all of this Alan stayed strong in his faith and raised three fine children, one of which is currently a lieutenant in a neighboring Sheriff’s Office.

Alan was tragically killed in a private plane crash in 2002 while searching for a place to take children from his church on an outing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rick Wiley began his law enforcement career in 1969 working with the Idaho State Narcotics Bureau. In 1970, Rick went to work for the Payette City Police Department. First working an undercover narcotics operation and then to the patrol division. Rick attended the eighth session of the Idaho Police Officers Academy graduating in September of 1971.

In May of 1973, Rick became a Nampa City Police Officer. Several months later Alan Creech was hired at Nampa PD and a lasting friendship was borne out of them being rookie officers together.

Rick was promoted to corporal in 1975, to sergeant in 1979 and to lieutenant in 1982. During his years at Nampa Police, Rick served as a patrol officer, firearms instructor, SWAT team leader, narcotics unit supervisor, canine handler/instructor and patrol watch commander.

While at Nampa Police, Rick attended specialized training academies in narcotics investigations, SWAT team tactics and management and police service dog handling and training. Rick has been certified as an expert witness in federal court in police tactics, canine deployment and canine training management.

In October of 2006, Rick retired from the Nampa Police Department after thirty-three years of service. Rick then went to work at the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office part time working 20 hours per week as a patrol deputy and canine handler/trainer. Rick finally retired from police work in January of 2017. After 46 years of writing police reports some of the text in this book reads like a

police report.

CHAPTER ONE: NAMPA, IDAHO 1987

Carol Denise Williams was born February 14, 1960 in Nampa, Idaho to Bill and Lois Fisher. She never took to being called Carol and much preferred her middle name of Denise. She was the class clown and loved to make people laugh. She lived in Nampa with her parents and three sisters until she was 12 years old. In 1972 the family moved to Canada because her dad got a better job. Several years later Denise met and fell in love with a Canadian policeman. They were soon married and living on their own. She enjoyed her freedom and liked the work her husband was doing. Being somewhat of a thrill seeker, Denise began doing some undercover narcotics work with him and became very involved in the work her husband was doing. He also taught her a lot of martial arts self-defense tactics so that she could protect herself during the undercover work. They had two children; Laurissa born in 1981 and David born in 1982. With the birth of their children, Denise became a stay at home mother and gave up the exciting life of undercover narc work.

Denise’s mother, father and three sisters moved back to Nampa in 1979 because her mother was diagnosed with cancer and they felt she could get better health care in the United States. With her family back in Nampa the marriage went bad and Denise filed for divorce and moved back to Nampa with her two children in 1983.

When Denise came back to Nampa she fell in with the proverbial bad crowd and was using marijuana and LSD on a regular basis. She had a boyfriend, Sam Longstreet, who was heavily involved in harder drugs and he introduced Denise to methamphetamine whose street name is meth or crank.

In 1987 meth was replacing cocaine as the drug of choice for most of the users in the Treasure Valley; a term applied to the greater Boise area. This would include the Southwest Idaho cities of Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and Caldwell. Meth became available through the same Mexican dope dealers that had been smuggling cocaine, marijuana, and heroin for the past 20 years. In the early years it was mostly a family business. Later the families gave way to the Hispanic gangs that became the cartels of the later years. In 1987 the Canyon County area, on the West end of the Treasure Valley, was a mostly agricultural area with hundreds of Mexican workers - some of which were illegal immigrants. In the early 60s and 70s some of these immigrants took advantage of their yearly trips from Mexico to supplement their income by bringing illegal drugs that were readily available in Mexico. These illegal immigrants became the smuggling base for the Mexican gangs that began in the 1970’s.

The Boise and Meridian area of the Treasure Valley was more metropolitan having a lot more money to spend on illegal drugs. As far back as the 1960’s most of the heroin and marijuana that ended up in Boise and Meridian were first filtered through the farming communities of Nampa and Caldwell. The usual drug traffic pattern would be that a Boise resident, usually white, would have some sort of a connection with a Nampa or Caldwell resident, usually Mexican. The white guy would travel the 15 or 20 miles west from Boise and meet up with his Mexican connection to score whatever drugs were available. The white guy would then go back to Boise where he would sell the drugs at a profit. This pattern of drug trafficking still exists today in 2018.

It was a hard sell for a father of a young farm labor worker to tell his son that smuggling drugs was wrong when the boy could look down the street and see the drug dealers getting rich. The boy would work twelve to fourteen hours a day at backbreaking farm labor for minimum wage or less. The drug dealing counterparts would sleep until noon then go out and party all night with lots of girls, fancy cars and money. Because of this dynamic drug smuggling and dealing flourished with methamphetamine being readily available.

In the 1980s the Mexican cartels had to rely on the drug lords from Columbia for their cocaine. These cartels from Columbia sold to the Mexicans who smuggled it into the western U.S. The Columbians were extremely violent and would at times be hard to deal with and they were the only source for cocaine.

The process of ephedrine reduction into methamphetamine was discovered and improved upon by the Mexican cartels. With an easy supply of ephedrine in Mexico, mega labs could turn out pounds of meth on a daily basis.

Meth was cheaper than cocaine and gave a much longer and more intense high. The users soon were giving up cocaine and switching to meth. Methamphetamine had been around for years, mostly an outlaw motorcycle gang manufactured drug. The chemical process called P2P used by the bike gangs was very complicated and required the use of ether which was very explosive. Many of the backyard chemists lost their lives when their makeshift labs exploded. Ephedrine reduction was much simpler and less volatile.

The Mexican dealers rarely used any of the drugs seeing them only as a way to make money, while the white dealers were heavy users if not addicts. These guys would use as much dope as they sold and being high all of the time made them a much easier target for law enforcement. When one midlevel dealer is busted every low level user and dealer is standing up ready to take his place. The drug trade is our American free enterprise system working at its finest. Where there is a demand someone will step up and fill the void. Where there is a demand for something illegal and there are huge profits to be made, someone will step up and take the risk.

Denise’s boyfriend, Sam Longstreet, was a local drug user and sometimes dealer. He was usually supplied with meth by a local dealer, Richard Holmes. Richard operated out of a double wide mobile home next to his shop at 2324 Caldwell Blvd., Nampa, Idaho. Richard Holmes and Sam Longstreet were not strangers to local law enforcement. Sam was a pain in the ass small time dope user and petty criminal who had been on the radar of Nampa Police officers for years. Richard was considered a midlevel dope dealer ex-con who had been to prison for burglary. Richard Holmes’ place, known as the farm, was a well-known hang out for drug users who worked on cars in the shop, smoked pot, and shot or snorted meth. Richard was a suspect in the murder of Randy Fowler whose body was found lying on the ice at Lake Lowell in January of 1987. The rumor was that Fowler had been killed because he owed Richard a $60 drug debt. It was told that Fowler was shot at the farm and then his body was taken to Lake Lowell by the Shafer boys who were lifelong friends of Richard Holmes. The Shafer boys threw the body out on the ice of the frozen lake where it was found the next day. Holmes had some loose connections with local Hispanic gang members who sold him most of the meth and cocaine that he then resold at a profit. Richard also made regular trips to California where he would smuggle marijuana, cocaine and LSD back to the farm where it was sold. The California marijuana was of much better quality than the local pot which was most often home grown or brought in from Mexico. Richard had the reputation on the street as having some killer weed.

FROM NAMPA PD CASE NUMBER 121187

On July 15, 1987 Nampa PD dispatch received a call from a neighbor of Denise Williams who lived at 312 21st Ave. South in Nampa that there were what appeared to be marijuana plants growing on the back porch of the house. Nampa PD narcotics officer Alan Creech was assigned to follow up on the report. Detective Creech and an investigator from the state police investigation unit then went to 312 21st Ave. So.

Denise was advised of her Miranda Rights and then interviewed by Detective Creech. Denise Williams freely gave up two marijuana plants about 12 inches tall. Because of the small size of the plants and because Denise had been cooperative, Detective Creech issued her a misdemeanor summons for possession of marijuana. During their discussion the detectives noticed a photo of a man in uniform on a shelf in the house. Denise informed the officers that it was a photo of her ex-husband who was a police officer in Canada. Denise explained to the officers that she had helped out with some narcotics investigations while she was married and living in Canada. Some discussion about Denise becoming an informant to make some extra money took place. Denise ultimately pled guilty to the possession of marijuana charge and paid her fine.

About a week after pleading guilty, Denise Williams met with Detective Creech and agreed to become an informant. She was fingerprinted, photographed, and given a lengthy contract which she studied and then signed. The contract included provisions where she agreed to wear a body transmitter and have conversations recorded between her and drug dealer suspects. Denise Williams was given confidential informant number 170.

CHAPTER TWO: THE RAID AT THE FARM

NAMPA PD CASE NUMBER 121407

September 10, 1987: Denise Williams, now acting as NPD informant designated as confidential informant 170 (CI 170), met with Lt. Frizzell at Nampa PD in the detective bureau office. She arrived at 1:00 pm for the pre-arranged meeting. Denise told Frizzell that she could go to Richard Holmes’ residence at 2324 Caldwell Boulevard and make a purchase of cocaine and LSD from Richard. Denise said that she had been to the farm on two occasions with her boyfriend Sam Longstreet and his friend Jimmy Slawson. Denise also said she was present when Sam and Jimmy bought meth from Richard Holmes. Lt. Frizzell discussed the amount she could buy and Denise said it would raise some suspicion if she purchased a large amount. Lt. Frizzell contacted the Idaho State Police (ISP) Investigation Unit and requested assistance from them in making the controlled buy and the arrests of the suspects after the buy.

Jackie Ailer and Walt Richard of the ISP arrived at Nampa PD at 2:30 pm and met with Denise and Lt. Frizzell. Jackie did a full search of Denise to assure that she was not in possession of any contraband. Denise was fitted with a body wire that was taped under her bra with the wire antenna over her right shoulder. Two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00) consisting of 10 twenty dollar bills and 5 ten dollar bills were given to Denise. The face of each bill was photocopied to record the serial numbers. A raid team including Nampa PD Officers Kath, Grossman, Bowman, Hupe and Wiley, Canyon County Deputy Walthall, along with ISP Officers Ailer and Walt Richard was called together by Lt. Frizzell. Lt. Frizzell advised the raid team the plan was to do a Buy/Bust. This meant that as soon as the buy went down, the raid team would move in and secure the informant along with everyone else that was on the premises. Anyone that could be charged would be taken to Nampa PD along with the informant. It was important to make everyone believe that the informant was being arrested to keep her identity as an informant secret.

Denise then got into her car and drove to the farm. Walt Richard and Jackie Ailer of the state police monitored and recorded the transmissions from the body wire on the devise in their vehicle from the nearby K-Mart parking lot. The rest of the raid team staged behind the K-Mart building.

The following recording was made September 10, 1987 at 2324 Caldwell Boulevard, Nampa, Idaho:

Denise was heard saying: Hi Richard.

A male voice later identified as Richard Holmes said: Hi there.

Denise: What is going on?

Richard: Nothing much.

Female identified as Debra Holmes: What have you been up to?

Denise: Babysitting mostly.

Debra: You seen Sam?

Denise: Yes, he came over last night. We are planning on partying tonight. How much for a gram of coke?

Richard: One twenty.

Denise: Need some acid too.

Richard: Five bucks a hit.

Denise: OK give me four hits of acid and a gram of Coke.

Richard: Get her a gram out of the bedroom.

Debra: OK.

Richard: There is the four hits.

Denise: OK that is