United States v. Sadler

• Citation: 234 F.3d 368
• Decision Date: 13 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 00-1274,00-1274
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE, V. DARRYL SADLER, APPELLANT. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 368

234 F.3d 368 (8th Cir. 2000)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE,

V.

DARRYL SADLER, APPELLANT.

No. 00-1274

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: June 13, 2000

Filed: December 8, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Wollman, Chief Judge, McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge, and Panner, ¹ District Judge.

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.

Darryl Sadler appeals from a final judgment entered in the United States District Court ² for the Eastern District of Missouri upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of one count of armed bank robbery and one count of use of a firearm during that crime. See United States v. Sadler, No. 4:99CR00045CDP (E.D. Mo. Dec. 20, 1999). For reversal, Sadler argues that (1) the district court erred by denying his motion for judgment of acquittal based on insufficiency of the evidence; (2) the district court abused its discretion by refusing to admit hearsay testimony offered for its relevance to witness credibility under Fed. R. Evid. 401; and (3) the district court erred by reopening his sentence under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(c). For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the judgment of the district court in part and reverse in part and remand the case to the district court for resentencing.

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction in the district court was proper based upon 18 U.S.C. 3231. Jurisdiction in this court is proper based upon 28 U.S.C. 1291. The notice of appeal was timely filed pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 4(b) .

Background

The evidence introduced at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, indicated the following. On April 27, 1995, Darryl Sadler entered a Boatman's Bank location in St. Louis, Missouri, with another man. While the other individual asked for penny wrappers, Sadler pulled a handgun from inside his jacket, held it to the bank security guard's head, and instructed the guard and the bank tellers to lie on the floor. He leaned over and touched one teller lying on the ground, told her to be quiet, and removed a $20 bill from her hand. After receiving an emergency call, a police officer entered the bank, pointed his gun in the robbers' direction, and ordered them to stop. Two shots were fired at the police officer, hitting him in the back. Sadler ran out of the bank, continuing gunfire. Police apprehended the other man, who was later convicted. The bulletproof vest the police officer was wearing curtailed the severity of his injuries.

In May 1995, Sadler was taken into custody on state charges stemming from the bank robbery, which were subsequently dismissed. As he was being transferred from a holding cell into a courtroom, Sadler told Deputy Williams, the sheriff's deputy, that he was "the guy that shot the cop on Florissant." Williams did not mention Sadler's statement to anyone until two years later when Sadler made a similar statement while in custody on an unrelated charge. In December 1997, Sadler told Deputy Mopkins, Williams' partner in the transportation unit, that he was being held on a bogus charge and that the real reason he was in custody was that he had shot a police officer in a prior bank robbery. Mopkins did not take the statement seriously, so Sadler called out to the other deputy, Williams, and repeated that he had shot a police officer during a bank robbery. As a result of these statements, an investigation commenced.

Sadler was indicted in federal court on February 4, 1999, on two counts. Count I charged him with armed bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2113(a) and (d). Count II charged him with using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 924(c)(1) and (2).

Sadler was tried by a jury on September 28-29, 1999. At the two-day jury trial, the security guard, the bank teller Sadler spoke to during the robbery, and the wounded police officer each identified Sadler as one of the bank robbers. Sadler's former girlfriend testified that Sadler had left his residence early on the morning of the robbery and returned with his head shaved. When she asked him if he had cut his hair as a result of the bank robbery, he told her that he had been involved in the robbery, that he needed to change his look and hide from detectives driving around the neighborhood, and that he had killed a security guard while escaping. Sadler's attorney attempted to offer testimony from the attorney who represented Sadler in state court on the original bank robbery charges. The proposed testimony concerned Sadler's alleged professions of innocence made immediately prior to his first confession in 1995. The district court sustained the government's objection to this testimony as hearsay and irrelevant to whether the statement to the deputy occurred.

The jury found Sadler guilty on both counts. Sadler moved for a judgment of acquittal and the district court denied the motion. Sadler was sentenced on December 20, 1999, to consecutive prison terms of 168 months on Count I and 60 months on Count II, five years of supervised release, and special assessments totaling $100.00. At the sentencing hearing, the district court refused to upwardly depart from the Sentencing Guidelines. On December 21, 1999, Sadler filed a notice of appeal, and the United States filed a motion to set aside the sentence, alleging error based on this court's interpretation in United States v. Triplett, 104 F.3d 1074 (8th Cir. 1997), of the commentary to U.S.S.G. 2K2.4 (holding that the district court erred by failing to compare the results of two alternative sentence calculations prior to sentencing). Pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(c), the district court granted the government's motion and vacated Sadler's original sentence. Sadler was resentenced at a hearing on December 30, 1999. Applying a different calculation method, the district court sentenced Sadler to 240 months on Count I and 60 months on Count II, resulting in an increase of 72 months of imprisonment compared with his original sentence. This appeal followed.

Discussion

Sufficiency of the Evidence

Sadler first argues that the district court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal because the evidence was insufficient for a rational trier of fact to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard of review is very narrow, and the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. See United States v. Smith, 104 F.3d 145, 147 (8th Cir.1997); United States v. Cunningham, 83 F.3d 218, 222 (8th Cir.1996); United States v. Johnson, 56 F.3d 947, 956 (8th Cir.1995). The government receives the benefit of all reasonable inferences that could logically be drawn from the evidence. See Cunningham, 83 F.3d at 222. As long as any interpretation of the evidence, regardless of countervailing evidence, would allow a reasonable-minded juror to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the verdict will be upheld. See United States v. White, 81 F.3d 80, 82 (8th Cir.1996); United States v. Armstrong, 16 F.3d 289, 292 (8th Cir.1994). Furthermore, it is permissible for a verdict to rely either completely or partially on circumstantial evidence. See United States v. Alvarado-Sandoval, 997 F.2d 491, 493 (8th Cir.1993).

Sadler contends that the witness testimony presented against him was insufficient for any reasonable juror to conclude his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet the prosecution offered eyewitness identification from a bank teller and a security guard present during the robbery, as well as testimonial evidence from Sadler's ex-girlfriend and two deputy sheriffs linking Sadler to the crime through his incriminatory statements. Sadler had an opportunity to expose any deficiencies in this evidence through cross-examination. The jury had the responsibility to evaluate the facts and assess credibility. See United States v. Jackson, 204 F.3d 812, 814 (8th Cir. 2000). Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence presented and the inferences springing from it are sufficient to support a jury's finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. As a result, we affirm the jury's verdict.

Exclusion of Witness Testimony

Sadler also contests the exclusion of defense witness testimony during his trial. Counsel attempted to introduce testimony from the attorney who represented Sadler in state court to show that Sadler protested his innocence moments before his alleged confession to the sheriff's deputy in 1995. The district court's evidentiary rulings are reviewed for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Oseby, 148 F.3d 1016, 1025 (8th Cir. 1998). The statements in question constitute hearsay under Fed. R. Evid. 801(c), because they were "offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted," namely, that Sadler was in fact innocent. Sadler argues that the statements were offered not to prove the truth of their content, but to implicate the credibility of the deputy's testimony about Sadler's confession. As such, Sadler contends that the statements should have been admitted under Fed. R. Evid. 402 as relevant because they tend to make a fact of consequence to the determination, the alleged confession, less probable. See Fed. R. Evid. 401. However, the proffered testimony would only have its desired effect if in fact the statements were true. Consequently, there is no way to avoid the categorization of the statements as hearsay. The district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the defense witness testimony.

Sadler does not argue any hearsay exception, but his arguments imply that the excluded testimony consists of exculpatory prior statements which are consistent with his not guilty plea, used to rebut the sheriff deputy's testimony, and therefore not considered hearsay under Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(1)(B). However, Sadler may not rely on this definition because he did not testify at the trial and was not subject to...