With an FBI agent nearby, an employee of developer Jay Odom
told a state investigator that he worked with an architect to ensure
the "largest" airplane could fit inside a building at Destin Airport
being built by Northwest Florida State College.
"Was that because
it was your understanding that some of the Destin Jet business would be
conducted inside of the building?" investigator Jim Anderson asked.
"Yes," replied the employee, Jason Carter.
The Aug. 26 interview, released Tuesday as part of the discovery in the criminal case against ex-House Speaker Ray Sansom, underscores what others connected to the project have said in
recent sworn testimony.
Odom initially denied he had any plans to use the college building,
but in court papers his lawyer acknowledges that was the case, though
said Odom had every right to seek a lease with the college.
Odom
has been indicted along with Sansom and ex-college president Bob
Richburg. The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 29, though defense
attorneys on Wednesday will seek to have the case dismissed.
Carter said Odom's company was asked by architect Jim Dowling
about what type of activities would go on in the college building and
suggested the plan was for some aircraft storage along with maintenance
and repair.
Anderson asked Carter about a Dec. 4, 2008, e-mail
Dowling sent the college confirming that the "user" of the
15,000-square-foot staging area inside the college building would store
"multiple aircraft" there.
Carter said he wasn't sure who the
"user" was, but when Anderson asked follow up questions, he indicated
it was Destin Jet. "My memory of our conversation," Carter said of
Dowling, "was that there would be the possibility that multiple
aircraft could be stored there."
The FBI has been sitting in on
some of the interviews, collecting its own string for an investigation
of some sort. The agent questioned Carter before the audio recording
was made.
Listen to the audio here.
Related posts: