After weeks of delays, the narcotics and weapons trial of a Lakewood brother and sister began Thursday, with law-enforcement officers displaying the cache of drugs and weapons seized in a 2008 raid. Patrick Muldrow, 41, and his sister Robin Muldrow, 42, both of Martin Luther King Boulevard, are standing trial before Superior Court Judge James Den Uyl on narcotics and weapons charges that could land them in prison for life plus 183 years if they are convicted. Patrick Muldrow, who has argued with the judge on a number of occasions leading up to the trial, has absented himself from the proceeding, although his sister was present in court as the trial got under way.

Patrick Muldrow’s exchanges with the judge have been about whether he would attend the trial and what to wear if he did. At one point before jury selection, Muldrow told the judge he would only be present at trial if he was given an Armani suit and alligator shoes to wear.

During the first day of testimony — which was delayed for more than a week while the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office appealed a pretrial ruling in the case — investigators testified about what they found during a raid on Jan. 22, 2008, at an address on Clearstream Road in Jackson where Patrick Muldrow was known to stay.

Detective David Fox of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said he found bags of crack cocaine and powdered cocaine — along with cutting agents, scales, and packaging materials — in a cabinet in the kitchen. Also recovered was a white sack containing a loaded revolver and a triple-beam scale commonly used by drug dealers to weigh controlled substances, he said. In addition, two bullet-proof vests were found in a car parked on the property, he said.

Sgt. John Adams of the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department took the witness stand and displayed a cache of drugs, weapons and ammunition found in a trailer on the property the same day. Adams showed the jury several large plastic bags containing marijuana. a smaller bag of marijuana, bags of powdered and crack cocaine found in a camera bag, an assortment of ammunition, a loaded military assault-rifle clip, an M-14 assault rifle, a pellet gun and a starter pistol.

Adams also displayed for the jury a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, a .22-caliber revolver, a replica handgun, two rifles and three shotguns.

Among the ammunition found in the trailer were hollow-point bullets, which are designed to penetrate body armor, Adams explained, responding to a question by Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Michael Weatherstone.

Authorities have said previously that the raids that day netted more than a half-kilogram of cocaine and a pound of marijuana, with a total street value of more than $20,000. They said they also seized $6,300 in cash. APP