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Reeves and five codenfendants in U.S. v. Reeves were convicted following a nine day trial of federal drug charges including conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, possession of more than 50 grams of crack cocaine, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The indictment followed nearly one year of investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency into the drug activities of individuals involved in drug distribution in the area of Baldwin County, Georgia. Agents used video surveillance and court ordered wiretaps to determine that numerous coconspirators were involved in large scale cocaine distribution network starting from a Mexican supplier of large quantities down to low level distributors of small quantities.

Reeves challenged his conspiracy conviction arguing that the facts showed he and his coconspirators were not part of a single criminal agreement but rather he just bought and sold cocaine in the ordinary course of several discrete agreements. The court rejected his arguments finding that he regularly purchased from one coconspirator and repeatedly sold to the same street-level distributors was more than adequate evidence for the jury to find a single overarching conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Reeves’ codefendant wife argued the evidence was insufficient to convict her of the conspiracy particularly because there was no evidence she personally distributed drugs. The court of appeals disagreed on the basis of the tape recorded telephone conversations presented at trial showing her knowledge of the cocaine conspiracy. Those conversations showed that a reasonable jury could find that the wife knew there was cocaine hidden in the house, that she agree to dispose of it after coconspirator was arrested, and that she tried to conceal the conspiracy by falsely tell the police that her codefendant husband lived at another address.

Another issue the wife raised was the admission of telephone recordings without proper authentication. The court of appeals found there was plenty of evidence establishing her voice on the recordings, including testifying on her own behalf in which she acknowledged speaking on the phone and identifying her own voice.

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The defendant in U.S. v. Salgado was indicted and convicted of the federal crimes of drug conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and possession with intent to distribute as least one kilogram of heroin. Prior to sentencing the presentence investigation report (psi) calculated his guidelines sentence range by grouping his convictions together under USSG § 3D1.2(c) because the drug conspiracy and distribution offenses were “the underlying offenses from which the laundered funds were derived.” The psi used the money laundering guideline, USSG § 2S1.1 to determine the defendant’s base offense level. To calculate the offense level under § 2S1.1, the psi set his base offense level using the guideline for the underlying conspiracy to distribute heroin. Under the facts of this case it came to a level 34. It then determined that certain enhancements applied under § 2S1.1, including a role enhancement, for his role in the heroin transactions that qualified him as a manager, leader or supervisor.

The issue in this appeal was not whether Salgado’s role in the heroin distribution conspiracy made him a manager, leader, or supervisor. Instead, the issue was whether the district court misapplied the guidelines by using Saldgado’s conduct in the underlying drug conspiracy to impose a role enhancement when calculating his offense level for money laundering under USSG § 2S1.1(a)(1).

According to §1B1.5(c), if the offense level adjustments is determined by reference to another guideline, the Chapter Three adjustments also are determined in respect to the referenced offense guideline “except as otherwise expressly provided.” This means that where a guideline determines a defendant’s offense level by reference to another offense, the Chapter Three adjustments are to be based on the guideline and rules for that other offense. But the 11th Circuit pointed out that this is a default rule because the “except as otherwise” provided language. Application note 2(c) of § 2S1.1 is one of the otherwise provided exceptions. It instructs courts that when setting an offense level under § 2S1.1(a)(1), a court should make Chapter Three adjustments based on the defendant’s conduct in the money laundering offense itself, and not based on his conduct in the offense from which the money that was laundered was obtained. This meant that when the district court calculated Salgado’s offense level under § 2S1.1(a)(1), it could base his role enhancement on conduct in the money laundering conspiracy but not on his conduct in the underlying drug offense.

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In U.S v. Campbell the defendant was indicted for conspiracy to possess and for possession with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana in violation of 46 U.S.C. § 70501 after he was arrested by Coast Guard on a vessel in international waters. The Coast Guard had earlier observed the vessel off the coast of Jamaica with three individuals aboard discarding dozens of bale in the water that the Coast Guard later determined were about 997 kilograms of marijuana. The Coast Guard determined the vessel lacked indicia of nationality because it lacked a flag, port, or registration number. The captain claimed the vessel was registered in Haiti. When the Coast Guard contacted the Republic of Haiti about whether the vessel was of Haitian nationality the response from Haiti was that it could neither confirm nor deny the registry. In a pretrial motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds, the defendant argued the certification of the Secretary of State to establish extraterritorial jurisdiction for prosecution violated the defendant’s right under the Confrontation Clause and there was insufficient evidence to prove that the defendant was aboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The defendant was convicted following a bench trial where he stipulated to the material facts.

In the first issue raised, defendant argued the admission of the certification of the Secretary of State without the ability to cross examine a Haitian witness violated his right under the Confrontation Clause. The Eleventh Circuit found the stateless nature of the vessel was not an element of the offense to be proved at trial and the admission of the certification did not violate his right to confront the witnesses at trial. The Confrontation Clause does not bar the admission of hearsay to make a pretrial determination of jurisdiction when it is not an element of the offense. The Confrontation Clause protects a defendant’s right to confront testimony offered against him to establish guilt, and the Supreme Court has never extended the reach of the Confrontation Clause “beyond the confines of a trial.

In the second issue the defendant argued that the Fifth and Sixth Amendments require a jury to determine whether extraterritorial jurisdiction exists. The Eleventh Circuit rejected this argument in find that the issue of jurisdiction was preliminary to trial because the issue whether the boat was seized within the prescribed limit did not affect the right of the court to hold the person for trial. It only affect the question of guilt or innocence.

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The defendant in U.S. v. Harris was convicted of three counts of a Hobbs act robbery and four counts relating to possession and use of firearms during those robberies. Under federal sentencing laws, his prior convictions for violent crimes resulted in a life sentence of imprisonment and a consecutive sentence of 57 years. In this appeal Harris challenges the imposition of a mandatory life sentence without a finding by a jury as to the fact of his prior convictions. He argued that this is inconsistent with Alleyne v. U. S. He also challenged the constitutionality of 18 USC § 3559(c) which provides for a mandatory life sentence for persons convicted of certain felonies. He argued that the statute impermissibly removes the sentencing discretion from the courts and delegates it to the executive branch.

Following a 3-day trial the defendant was convicted of three Hobbs act robberies and for using a firearm during those robberies. Because he had prior felony convictions for robbery with a firearm and a battery and law enforcement officer, the defendant qualified for the career offender enhancement under sentencing guidelines § 4B1.1. Also, under 18 USC 3559(c), a defendant convicted of a serious violent felony and previously been convicted of a combination of two or more serious violent felonies or serious drug offenses is subject to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Because the defendant met those criteria, the district court imposed of the statute early mandated life sentence and also impose a consecutive 57 year sentence.

On appeal the defendant argued that his mandatory life sentence is inconsistent with the U.S. constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Alleyne. He argued that the Supreme Court stated in Alleyne that any fact that increases the penalty for that crime is an element that must be submitted to the jury and found beyond a reasonable doubt. The court rejected this argument based on the Apprendi decision, which held that “other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury in proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” The Supreme Court in Alleyne did not address the specific question at issue here: whether a sentence can be increased because of prior convictions without a jury finding the fact of those convictions. That issue is still governed by Almendarez-Torres v. U. S. which states that the fact of a prior conviction is not an element that must be found by a jury. Applying the Apprendi and Amendarez-Torres decisions, the 11th Circuit held that the district court did not commit error by imposing a mandatory life sentence without any jury findings about the existence of the defendant’s prior convictions.

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In U.S. v. Mathauda the defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in violation of federal criminal law. The case arose from his operation and of a business offering fraudulent business opportunities. From a call room in Costa Rica, the defendant would entice victims by advertising business opportunities in the United States. Toll free numbers connected people to the call center where promotional materials were sent and interested persons were connected with the co-conspirators posing as references who claimed to make money through the defendants companies. The defendant made millions of dollars from victims.

The one issue that the court considered an appeal was whether the district court erred in adding a two level sentence enhancement and for violation of a prior court order. Prior to the criminal case, the defendant was the subject of a civil action brought by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC complaint alleged he was involved in unfair and deceptive acts and commercial practices. After the complaint was served on the defendant, he received a copy of a temporary restraining order. In response he hired an attorney to represent him in the case and in the meantime you continue to operate his conspiracy. Unknown to the defendant his attorney did nothing about the FTC case and had a default judgment was entered against him.

At sentencing, the presentence investigation report and recommended a two-level enhancement against a defendant, based on a knowing violation of a prior the judicial order. The defendant objected and claiming that he retained counsel and did not know his attorney failed to respond and that a default judgment had eventually been entered against him. He did not know that he had been judicially ordered to cease his fraudulent activity. The government argued that the enhancement was proper up because the defendant was willfully lying to the court’s order and that willful blindness to an order constitutes knowledge of the order.

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The defendant in U.S. v. Yeary was convicted of the federal crimes of conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute and with possessing multiple firearms. This appeal centers around the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence under the Fourth Amendment, which was seized by police in three warrantless searches of his residences on three different occasions. In the first search law enforcement officers came to a condominium he shared with his girlfriend with a warrant for his arrest. When the girlfriend opened the door, the agents saw the defendant behind the girlfriend and noticed a black handgun on a table next to the defendant. The defendant was arrested and removed from the house. When asked if others were in the house, the girlfriend said there were two other people so the officers did a protective sweep of the house where they discovered drugs and firearms in plain view. The court of appeals upheld the search on the grounds that the search was a valid protective sweep based on the girlfriend’s statements that other individuals may be in the house because they had a reasonable basis to conduct a limited protective sweep. During that sweep deputies discovered contraband in plain view and on this basis the search was valid.

The second search took place while the defendant was on bond under house arrest pending trial on felony charges in Palm Beach county circuit court. A condition of his house arrest was that his residence could be searched at any time without prior notice and without warrant. When law enforcement received an anonymous tip that he was still selling drugs out of his residence, officers went to his residence and conducted a search leading to the discovery of drugs and a firearm. The court upheld the search of these from on the grounds that he agreed to a warrantless search of his residence as a condition of his house arrest bond. The constitutionality of the search depends on the validity of the defendant’s consent. Under the totality of the circumstances the evidence is clear that defendant knowingly consented to the search of his house and agreed to the condition that he would allow his house to be searched 24 hours a day. He acknowledged this condition prior to signing a waiver of any objections to a warrantless search. The court found his consent was no different than any other voluntary consent search.

The third search took place after a warrant was issued for his arrest for the Federal indictment. Law enforcement agents went to the defendant’s residence where they found his girlfriend. She gave them permission to enter the house and inside the residence the officers found drugs and more weapons. The court upheld the search on the grounds of the voluntary consent given by the girlfriend. The evidence showed that law enforcement officers believed that the girlfriend had authority to give the consent to search and reason to believe her consent was given freely and voluntarily.

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In U.S. v. Ransfer, the defendants were convicted of a Hobbs Act violations, and the use and carrying of firearms during the commission of a violent crime. The first issue the defendants raised in challenging these federal criminal convictions was the admission of evidence resulting from the installation and use of a GPS tracking device without a warrant. It used to determine the location of a Ford expedition that was used in the commission of several robberies. The defendants relied on U.S. vs. Jones, a 2012 Supreme Court case stating that installing a GPS tracking devise on a vehicle and tracking the vehicle’s movement was a search under the fourth amendment and required a warrant. The police installed the tracking device on May 27, 2011, before the Jones decision was issued in 2012. Prior to the Jones decision the prevailing law in the 11th circuit said that law enforcement officers did not violate the Fourth amendment by placing a tracking device on vehicle parked in a public place and to track the vehicles moment on public roads if the officers that reasonable suspicion to initiate surveillance of the vehicle. The Eleventh Circuit found that the officers were in good faith and it was reasonable for the officers to rely on long standing precedent in attaching the GPS without a warrant by installing electronic tracking device of vehicle without a warrant. Because there was clear precedent in the 11th circuit stating that the police did not violate the fourth amendment, the search was not subject to the exclusionary rule.

In their second issue, the defendants challenged the lead an officer’s testimony on grounds that it was hearsay. The officer testified about the identities and their suspicious activities from information learned from out of court sources. The court concluded that his testimony was based on his investigation review of a complex investigation in which he supervised a months-long endeavor to identify and locate the perpetrators of this series of armed robberies. His statements were not offered to rehabilitate any witness. Instead he was merely providing a summary of the investigation and his background information shed light on why the officer conducted the investigation in the manner that he get even if it was an error it was not reversible because the evidence about which he testified was otherwise admissible on the record.

The defendants challenge the convictions on the basis of sufficiency of the evidence. All of the convictions were affirmed except for the robbery of a specific CVS for one defendants, which was reversed. The court found the evidence was insufficient to prove one of the defendants was involved in this particular robbery because the evidence supporting his conviction in the other robberies was absent here. There was no evidence he was ever in the CVS or that he did anything prior to or during the robbery to further the crime.

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In U.S. v. Edwin Aguilar-Ibarra the defendant was convicted of a conspiracy to commit a Hobbs Act robbery, which is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 1951. The facts of this conviction arose from a robbery of a Florida warehouse by four masked man brandishing pistols. The intruders bound gagged and force the warehouse employee into a warehouse into a back office where they assaulted him the assailants took off with one million dollars’ worth of cellular phones. The defendant’s presentence investigation report recommended a two-level of his sentencing guideline section 2B3.1(b)(3)(A) because the robbery victim sustained bodily injury. The presentence investigation report recommended the enhancement because the warehouse employee went to the hospital suffering minor injuries as a result of the assault.

The defendant did not file the objections within the 14 days required by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32 (f)(1). The defense attorney objected to the enhancement at sentencing arguing there was no evidence the employee sustain bodily injuries and claimed the enhancement had not been applied that the co-conspirators sentencing. At sentencing the probation officer confirmed that the co-conspirators did receive the enhancement at their respective sentencing hearings.

On appeal the defendant argued that the district court erred in rejecting his objection to the bodily injury enhancement as untimely. The defendant claimed that the time limit was an applicable here because he and the government agreed the enhancement should not apply. In any event, the court exercised its discretion to waive the timeliness requirement by reconsidering and ruling on the merits of the objection.

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The Defendants in U.S. v Sterling appealed their federal criminal convictions for 1) armed bank robbery, 2) use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime violence, and 3) possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. On appeal the defendant’s challenged the admission of their prior convictions admitted pursuant to Rule 404(b). The facts of the robbery reveal that a masked man vaulted over the teller counter at a bank in Smyrna, Georgia and robbed the bank using a silver handgun. The man exited the band and disappeared from the view of witnesses. Another man was seen removing a piece of paper covering the license tag of a vehicle while leaning over the trunk. Later the police found a car matching the description of the getaway car driven by one of the defendants but the suspected bank robber was found. After the vehicle was towed and impounded by a towing company, the tow truck driver saw a man matching the bank robber’s description lying on the flatbed next to the open backseat door of the car. In the trunk, police found a bag with clothing matching the description of the bank robber’s clothing as well as a silver firearm.

The 404b evidence stemmed from a bank robbery in 1995 where both defendants were convicted of the robbery. The Court applies a 3-part test to determine the admissibility of evidence or prior crimes under Rule 404(b):

1. The evidence must be relevant to an issue other than the defendant’s character.

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In U.S. v Martinez the Defendant appealed her federal criminal conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) for knowingly transmitting a threatening communication. The threat came when a talk show host at a Ft. Lauderdale radio station received an anonymous email that expressing support for the second amendment gun rights, and the anonymous sender said he was planning something big around a government building, a post office “maybe even a school, I’m going to walk in and teach all the government hacks working there what the 2nd amendment is all about..” Several hours later an anonymous woman called the station telling them that her husband sent the email, that he was mentally ill, and that he was now planning to open fire at a nearby school. The anonymous woman implored the station to broadcast a plea asking her husband not to carry out the shooting. The phone call resulted in a lockdown of all Broward County schools. After investigators discovered the anonymous calls were sent by the defendant, she was indicted for making a threat in violation of § 875(c). She pleaded guilty reserving the right to appeal her challenges to the statute.

Martinez claimed the indictment was insufficient because it did not allege Martinez subjectively convey a threat to injure others. She argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Virginia v. Black drew the distinction between true threats and First Amendment protected speech based upon the speaker’s subjective intent, and therefore a conviction required proof the defendant subjectively intended to make a threat. In Black, the Supreme Court addressed a state statute making it a crime to burn a cross with the intent of intimidating any person or group. Martinez argued that Black imported a subjective-intent analysis into the true threats doctrine. In rejecting Martinez’ argument the Eleventh Circuit found that prior to Virginia v. Black, the Supreme Court did not require a subjective analysis for true threats, rather the threats are evaluated on a the objective characteristics of the speech and the context in which it was made. Most federal courts defined true threats according to an objective standard. The Eleventh Circuit found that the Supreme Court’s decision in Virginia v. Black was based on the overbreadth of a specific statute and not whether all threats are determined by a subjective or objective analysis. The Eleventh Circuit concluded that to be convicted under § 875, Martinez need not subjectively intent to her statement to be a threat.

Martinez also argued that § 875(c) was unconstitutionally overbroad because it did not require the Government to prove the speaker subjectively intended her statements to constitute a threat. The Eleventh Circuit found no merit in this challenge. The actus reus of the statute is transmitting a true threat and a true threat is determined from the position of an objective, reasonable person. Section 875(c) is silent as to mens rea and does not require and showing of specific intent. The statute is a general intent offense that requires the government to show the defendant 1) transmitted a communication knowingly, and 2) that the communication would be construed by a reasonable person as a serious expression of an intent to inflict harm. It does not require the Government to prove a defendant specifically intended his or her statements to be threatening.

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