The Ghantt Gang, or The Beverly Hillbillies Revisited
ImNot911
From The Charlotte Observer:
Is this the gang that couldn't think straight?
By TOMMY TOMLINSON
Columnist
First up before the judge was Kelly Campbell, the one who had just
bought the new minivan and was shopping around to get liposuction for
her rear end.
``You're not employed and have no assets,'' said federal magistrate Carl
Horn, looking over Campbell's application for a court-appointed lawyer.
``You do have $5,000 in cash, is that right?''
``Unless they confiscated it,'' Campbell said. ``They probably took
it.''
``They'' being the FBI, and for at least that one moment Monday
afternoon Kelly Campbell was pretty sharp, because the FBI took it all
-- everything that these six people in federal court had bought, leased
and stashed away in five months of high rolling that would make Richie
Rich blush.
The feds say these six were involved with David Scott Ghantt, and were
sharing the loot from Ghantt's $17 million armored-car-company heist in
Charlotte this past October. Ghantt was captured Sunday in Mexico.
As of now all these are just allegations contained in court documents.
But those documents paint a picture of people who were middle-class (at
best) most of their lives, then suddenly were sprouting money like pole
beans.
There is no evidence that this money was interest from their mutual
funds.
The judge turned to Steve Chambers, a burly guy in a green polo shirt
and Reeboks held together by shiny silver shackles.
The FBI says Steve and his wife, Michelle, have been busy the past five
months. They moved from a mobile home to a $600,000 house on Cramer
Mountain. When you make a $400,000 down payment, it's easy to move right
in.
This past November, the FBI says, Michelle walked into a Wachovia in
Belmont to make a deposit -- $200,000 in $20s, $50s and $100s. For some
strange reason, the bank was suspicious.
So they spent some of their cash. According to court records, Steve
decided not to buy a $150,000 Rolex for his wife, but he did spring for
a $43,000 diamond ring. They bought a new BMW and a $10,000 pool table
and they took a trip to Atlantic City. Michelle got breast implants.
Monday afternoon, Steve Chambers said all his family owned was a
double-wide with eight acres in Lincoln County.
``Is there any intent to seize that property?'' Horn asked.
``We have seized that property,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney David
Keesler.
Horn turned to Chambers: ``You just became eligible for a
court-appointed lawyer. Congratulations.''
Then there was Eric Payne, who bought a new Harley and a new Chevy
pickup four months ago, but didn't have a dime to his name Monday. ``I'm
supposed to start a new job with somebody this morning,'' Payne said.
``I don't know how I stand with him.''
And there were Spike Grant and Mike McKinney, two tall, slender men who
-- according to the court records -- were planning to visit Ghantt in
Mexico, ``presumably'' to kill him.
Grant told the judge he had less than $100 in his checking account.
McKinney revealed two possessions: a house where he lives with his
little sister, and a horseback-riding Ku Klux Klansman tattooed on his
neck.
There is no polite way to say this: These folks are not exactly the
brightest bulbs in the chandelier.
If the court records are right, they drove around Gaston County in new
cars and trucks, buying a house and a furniture store, wearing Rolexes
and diamond rings, making bank deposits with the Loomis Fargo straps
still wrapped around the bundles of bills.
They might as well have painted those fancy cars with neon letters: FBI
LOOK HERE.
The FBI looked, all right, and it took everything, and as the six high
rollers were led from court Monday, not a one of them with enough money
to afford a lawyer, they looked bewildered and spent.
One of the FBI's wiretaps caught a conversation between David Ghantt and
Kelly Campbell, the one who bought the minivan and shopped for the
liposuction.
``During the conversation Campbell stated that she thought being a rich
woman would make her happy,'' the FBI report says. ``But now she is not
sure.''
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Tommy's phone: 358-5227. Fax: 358-5037. Address: P.O. Box 30308,
Charlotte, NC 28230. E-mail: