Testimony continues today.
Larssen testifies he didn't know about drugs
- The Herald-Zeitung
A Canyon Lake man in risk of losing his property and retirement income took the stand Wednesday in his own defense.
A Comal County jury heard the story of Roy Larssen, the owner of a Canyon Lake convenience store seized in 2008 after sheriff’s deputies arrested a man leasing the store on a possession of marijuana charge.
The Comal County District Attorney’s Office hopes to seize Larssen’s Potters Creek store at 2881 Potters Creek Road in Canyon Lake.
Larssen ran the convenience store with his wife for more than 10 years before health complications and age forced them to search for a new owner.
Sam Ledbetter entered into a lease-to-own agreement for the property in 1997 and ran it until March 2008, when he was arrested on marijuana charges.
The Comal County Sheriff’s Office seized more than four pounds of marijuana from Potters Creek.
The jury of seven women and five men was selected Monday. They heard their second full day of testimony Wednesday.
Ledbetter was brought from Comal County Jail to take the stand. Chief Civil Prosecutor Jennifer Tharp asked him if Larssen had any knowledge of Ledbetter selling or smoking marijuana out of the store.
“It’s not a big secret what I do,” Ledbetter said. “I’m a pot smoker and a beer drinker since I got out of the military at 18 or 19. Pretty much everyone knew what I was doing.”
He testified Larssen must have known he was selling marijuana out of Potters Creek.
“People would come to the store and tell me Roy Larssen told them not to come here,” he said.
Larssen countered Ledbetter’s statements when his attorney, Mike Morris, called him to the stand. Morris asked Larssen if he knew Ledbetter was selling marijuana.
“I can only be like everybody else and think that he was,” Larssen responded. “I never seen him smoke it though. ... I never smelt it on him. ... I knew of nothing.”
Any knowledge he had of Ledbetter’s actions came from law enforcement asking him questions, he said.
“Several policemen asked me if I knew anything and I told them all I knew,” he said.
In a recorded call between Sheriff’s Office warrants clerk Teresa Simpson and Larssen, Simpson asked him if he knew “of anyone out there selling drugs.”
“Oh, of course,” Larssen replied, “you know Sammy (Ledbetter).”
Larssen told the jury the rent he and his wife were collecting from the property was the couple’s retirement fund.
“I get about $600 from Social Security,” he said. “Norma (Larssen) gets about $500. ... It was over half of our retirement money.”
The state rested its case but did not close Wednesday. The trial is set to continue at 9 a.m. today.
