your honor , at this time , we call the defendant , jorge laquidera , to the stand.-he was sworn in and took the witness chair.-they would have liked to put faron whitehead and some of the other members of the gang on the witness stand to give 'character witness ' evidence.-the problem was they were all in a great deal of trouble and were being held without bail pending the drug smuggling trial in laredo.-people who were accused of those kinds of crimes would n't make very believable character witnesses anyway.-so they let laquidera testify in his own defense .