U.S. v. Rodriguez-Marrero
| Decision Date | 05 November 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-1707.,No. 02-1462.,No. 01-1647.,01-1647.,02-1462.,02-1707. |
| Citation | 390 F.3d 1 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. José RODRIGUEZ-MARRERO, Defendant, Appellant. United States of America, Appellee, v. Omar F. Genao-Sanchez, Defendant, Appellant. United States of America, Appellee, v. Luis Roldan-Cortes, Defendant, Appellant. |
Lydia Lizarribar-Masini, for appellant Omar Genao-Sanchez.
Raymond L. Sanchez Maceira, on brief, for appellant José Rodriguez-Marrero.
Linda George, for appellant Luis Roldan-Cortes.
Thomas F. Klumper, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom H.S. Garcia, United States Attorney, and Sonia I. Torres, Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief, for appellee.
Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.
The three defendants in this drug conspiracy case played key roles in a smuggling ring that imported large amounts of cocaine and marijuana into Puerto Rico between 1992 and 1996. After a trial that spanned nearly four weeks and involved more than forty witnesses for the government, a jury found each defendant guilty of a series of crimes, including the drug conspiracy and aiding and abetting murder. The district court sentenced each defendant to multiple life sentences.
The defendants raise a number of challenges to their convictions. In the end, we find that one challenge is meritorious—the argument of Omar Genao-Sanchez that the district court erred in admitting testimonial hearsay against him in violation of the recent Supreme Court decision in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), a case decided after the completion of this trial. Although we affirm Genao-Sanchez's drug conspiracy conviction, we conclude that the erroneous admission of the hearsay testimony was not harmless with respect to his convictions for conspiracy to commit murder and for aiding and abetting murder. Accordingly, we vacate those convictions. We affirm the convictions and sentences of the other defendants.
We present facts here in the light most favorable to the verdict to convey the background of the case. See United States v. Reeder, 170 F.3d 93, 97 (1st Cir.1999). We will provide additional facts where they are pertinent to the legal analysis of specific issues.
As noted, the defendants were members of a drug conspiracy that smuggled large amounts of cocaine and marijuana from South America into southwestern Puerto Rico for itself and other organizations. The drugs were dropped from airplanes at sea and retrieved by the defendants or transferred directly by boat from the defendants' foreign suppliers. The conspirators used a broad array of radios, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, night vision glasses, police scanners, modified cellphones and powerful speedboats to protect their shipments. They also stationed lookouts at various points on the water and near an airport used by the United States Customs Service to protect the loads from raids by law enforcement and rival drug gangs.
After the defendants brought the drugs on shore, the drugs were shipped by truck either to a secure storage location (frequently one of the conspirators' farms) or directly to the individual or organization who had hired the defendants. The individual conspirators received cash or a portion of the drug shipment as payment for their participation, and they distributed the drugs they received to local dealers at drug points throughout the area.
Raul Santodomingo-Romero ("Santodomingo") led the drug organization until he was arrested on money laundering charges in 1994; his second-in-command, Victor M. Valle-Lassalle, a/k/a "Manolo" ("Valle-Lassalle"), then took over.1 Defendant-appellant Luis Roldan-Cortes, a/k/a "Wisi" ("Roldan"), was Valle-Lassalle's right hand man and the godfather to his daughter. The two owned a drug distribution point, giving them the exclusive right to distribute drugs in the Ducos housing project in Aguadilla. Although Valle-Lassalle eventually ended this partnership because he thought that Roldan was unfairly excluding him from some of the side deals that Roldan was arranging, they continued to cooperate together in their smuggling venture. Roldan negotiated at least one drug shipment in the Dominican Republic and participated in the execution of a number of others. His specific responsibilities included loading and unloading and captaining the drug boats, coordinating "security" for the shipments, and inventorying and selling drugs to small distributors. He also helped to arrange the murder of a government informant, James Martin-Rodriguez, a/k/a "Kiri" ("Martin"), who was a member of the conspiracy until he began cooperating with federal investigators.
Defendant-appellant Omar Genao-Sanchez, a/k/a "Omi" ("Genao"), was a drug courier for one of the conspirators, David Rafael Ramos-Rivera, a/k/a "Pecas" ("Ramos") when he (Genao) was sixteen years old. He later became a member of the conspiracy himself after meeting the other members at Santodomingo's farm. Genao attended meetings at which Valle-Lassalle negotiated drug shipments, helped to bring loads to shore, and, according to the government, participated in the murder of Carlos Roberto Rodriguez Torres, a/k/a "Robert Caballo" ("Caballo"). Although Caballo was an active member of the conspiracy, having participated in smuggling operations, Valle-Lassalle decided to kill him when Caballo threatened to tell members of a Colombian drug cartel that Valle-Lassalle had stolen cocaine from them.
José Rodriguez-Marrero, a/k/a "Zurdo" ("Rodriguez"), the last of the three appellants, joined the conspiracy when Valle-Lassalle offered to let him participate in some drug shipments if he helped to murder Edward Llaurador Rodriguez ("Llaurador"), another co-conspirator turned government informant. Although the government did not introduce evidence that Rodriguez participated in any shipments, its witnesses testified that Rodriguez was present when Valle-Lassalle negotiated shipments and that he would have participated in two shipments if the police had not forestalled them. The first of these shipments was supposed to be a two thousand pound load of cocaine that Valle-Lassalle negotiated in May 1997 with another smuggler, Angela Ayala. This shipment was canceled when Ayala was arrested. The second involved six hundred kilograms of cocaine that were supposed to have been smuggled on behalf of another smuggler, Henry Pamias, a/k/a "Macho from Cataño" ("Pamias"). That shipment was canceled because Valle-Lassalle was arrested on weapons charges.
Javier E. Soto-Alarcon, a/k/a "Chester" ("Soto"), was a mid-level leader in the conspiracy who joined the drug gang after he started dating Valle-Lassalle's sister. Soto participated in a number of drug loads and in Llaurador's murder. After Soto's wife (he had since ended his relationship with Valle-Lassalle's sister) was shot in a drug-related attack, Soto decided to turn himself in to the authorities. He agreed to cooperate with the government, allowing it to record his conversations, helping government agents to infiltrate the organization, and testifying against the others at trial.
Ramos was a member of the conspiracy before he was arrested and decided to become a government informant. He helped to smuggle a number of large loads of marijuana and cocaine and sold some of the cocaine at a drug point in the Montana housing project in Aguadilla. He also participated in Martin's murder.
Other members of the drug conspiracy included José Hernandez-Jimenez, a/k/a "Chelo" ("Hernandez"), who was murdered by a rival drug gang, and Nicholas Peña Gonzalez ("Peña") and Anibal Pagan-Cerezo, a/k/a "El Cojo" ("Pagan"), who were indicted along with the defendants here and pled guilty.
The drug gang protected its distribution empire with force, killing or seriously wounding suspected informants and rival gang members. Three of those murders played important roles in the conspiracy trial because they were charged as substantive crimes and as overt acts in furtherance of the drug conspiracy.
On November 16, 1992, Martin was arrested with fifteen bales of cocaine belonging to the drug ring. This was the second time that he was arrested for a drug crime, and he agreed to cooperate with the United States Customs Service. Suspecting that Martin had become an informant, Santodomingo and Valle-Lassalle decided to have him murdered in a parking lot at the Ducos housing project. On May 20, 1993, after receiving a phone call from Roldan alerting him to Martin's arrival at the scene, Santodomingo dropped Ramos off at the housing project, where Ramos joined Roldan and Pagan. Roldan identified Martin as the intended murder victim, and told Ramos and Pagan that Martin was at the housing project that day because he was expecting to pick up some money owed to him for drugs. Martin approached the group, and Ramos and Pagan walked off to a corner of the parking lot. After speaking with Roldan for a short while, Martin walked back to his automobile. As he was about to put the keys in the door, Pagan walked up and shot him three times. Ramos then joined the attack, and the two shot Martin until Pagan ran out of bullets. The coroner's report stated that Martin had seventeen bullet wounds in his body.
In February, 1996, five members of the drug organization stole approximately thirty kilograms of cocaine that they were smuggling into Puerto Rico on behalf of a Colombian drug operation. Believing that Caballo had threatened to inform the Colombians about the theft, Valle-Lassalle arranged to have him killed. According to the...
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