U.S. v. Logan, Docket No. 03-1290.
| Decision Date | 15 August 2005 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 03-1290. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Andre O. LOGAN, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
James E. Neuman, New York, New York (Richard E. Mischel, Mischel, Neuman & Horn, P.C., New York, New York, of counsel), for Defendant-Appellant.
Robert P. Storch, Senior Litigation Counsel, Albany, New York (Glenn T. Suddaby, United States Attorney, Kevin P. Dooley, Assistant United States Attorney, Northern District of New York, Albany, New York, of counsel), for Appellee.
Before: WALKER, Chief Judge, CARDAMONE, and HALL, Circuit Judges.
Early in the morning of August 11, 2001 several college students at the State University of New York at Cortland, New York (SUNY Cortland) broke into a fraternity house they had formerly occupied as student-tenants. Their mission was to burn the house down in retaliation for being evicted by the building's owner, who had since leased the house to a rival fraternity. They gained entrance by kicking in the back door and proceeded to spread gasoline through the building. They lit the gasoline with a match and fled, not realizing that one of the new tenants was asleep in an upstairs bedroom. Fortunately, the young student awoke in time to escape the ensuing fire without injury. The house, however, was destroyed.
This offense resulted in an indictment charging one of the perpetrators, Andre Logan (defendant or appellant), with arson and conspiracy to commit arson on property used in interstate commerce. After a trial before a jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (McAvoy, J.), Logan was convicted on the conspiracy count.
Logan challenges his conviction on two grounds. First, he contends that the admission of third-party testimony violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. Second, he asserts that he was not properly prosecuted in federal court in the first place. Arson is, after all, a quintessential state crime. To make it a federal crime, Congress exercised its power under the Commerce Clause by providing in 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) that "[w]hoever maliciously damages or destroys, or attempts to damage or destroy, by means of fire . . . any building . . . used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce shall be imprisoned for not less than 5 years and not more than 20 years." Interpreting this statute literally would make a federal crime of arson committed on any building used in a way that affects interstate commerce. The result would be that scarcely any such crime would escape federal prosecution. The Supreme Court laid this concern to rest when it limited the scope of the law to arson committed on any building used in interstate commerce for commercial purposes, including rental properties. We turn to a discussion of the background.
This case stems from a long-standing rivalry between two college fraternities — Delta Kappa Beta (Deltas) and Pi Kappa Phi (Kappas) — at SUNY Cortland. Defendant Andre Logan was a student at the college and a member of Delta Kappa Beta. The Deltas leased a fraternity house at 50 Tompkins Street in Cortland, New York, from its owner, William McDermott. The Deltas were not model tenants: they caused structural and interior damage to the house, failed to keep the premises clean, and did not pay the utility bills they incurred. The Deltas also failed to pay the rent agreed upon in the lease, and were responsible for the cancellation of the insurance on the building due to excessive claims. As a result of their conduct, in June 2001 McDermott demanded the Deltas vacate the premises. McDermott had meanwhile concluded a lease agreement with the Kappas the previous November.
Upon learning they were losing their fraternity house to the hated Kappas, several Deltas began threatening a variety of retributory acts against the Kappas and the house. A statement on the Deltas' alumni website threatened to burn the house down and commit acts of violence against the Kappas. Logan and other Deltas including Dumas Gabbriellini and Leo Gordon, discussed several possible courses of action, including destroying the house with chain saws, throwing fecal matter on the walls, and burning down the house. Gabbriellini told other Deltas that if it came to burning the house, he and Gordon would establish an alibi by purchasing tickets to a New York Mets baseball game, having their tickets punched at the gate, leaving the game and returning to Cortland, burning down the house, and then returning to New York before anyone realized they were gone. Shortly after the Kappas signed the lease, Logan told a group of Kappas that they wouldn't have the house long because "[i]t would burn down."
The Kappas took occupancy of the house in July 2001. On August 3, 2001 Cortland police found a smashed Molotov cocktail in the street in front of Logan's home at 24 Clayton Avenue that appeared to have been thrown from Logan's house. Police also found puddles of lighter fluid on defendant's property, but Logan denied having any knowledge of the Molotov cocktail or the puddles. The next day, Logan and two other Deltas forcibly entered the fraternity house at four o'clock in the morning and woke the sleeping Kappas by marching through the house singing fraternity songs. Following this incident, the Kappas installed new locks, deadbolts, and bars on the doors.
On the evening of August 10, 2001 several Kappas left the fraternity house and went to a neighborhood bar called the Dark Horse. Only one Kappa, Matthew Rich, remained in the house, sleeping. Around one o'clock on the morning of August 11, Rich was awoken by a crash. He stayed in his room and listened as he heard footsteps moving throughout the house. The footsteps left the house a few minutes later and Rich opened his bedroom door. He was confronted with flames and smoke. He escaped from the building and ran to the Dark Horse bar to find his friends. Rich summoned help from a police officer near the bar, but by the time he returned to the house it was engulfed in flames. Investigators subsequently determined that the fire had been deliberately set, caused by igniting a combustible liquid in several areas of the building.
Police interviewed Logan later that day. He admitted that he and the other Deltas had been upset about losing their fraternity house to the Kappas but denied any role in the arson. He insisted that on the night of August 10 he was visiting a friend. Logan stated that after having a late dinner at a Wendy's restaurant, he went to the Dark Horse bar sometime after one o'clock in the morning and first learned of the fire when he arrived at the bar. The next day Logan told his friend Joseph Hage that he had been involved in discussions with Gabbriellini and Gordon about destroying or mutilating the house, and that Gabbriellini and Gordon planned to use a Mets game as an alibi. Logan told police about his involvement with Gordon and Gabbriellini on August 15, 2001.
In the morning of August 16, shortly after making this statement, defendant told police that he had not been entirely forthcoming and wanted to tell the truth. Logan admitted that he knew Gordon and Gabbriellini were planning to set fire to the house and that they were planning to establish an alibi by having their tickets punched at a Mets game and then driving back to Cortland. He told the investigators that after going to the Wendy's restaurant he went to the fraternity house at about one o'clock in the morning and found Gordon and Gabbriellini there. He said that Gabbriellini kicked in the back door and the three men entered the house. As they walked through the house, Gordon and Gabbriellini spread gasoline in several of the rooms. Gordon lit a match and ignited the gasoline, at which point the three left the house and Logan went to the Dark Horse bar. Logan added that he thought the house was empty and did not know Rich was inside, and that he never planned to participate in the arson.
The day after he took Logan's statement, Cortland Police Sergeant Paul Sandy traveled to Staten Island to interview Gordon at Gordon's parents' home. Gordon denied having any knowledge of the fire. He declared that he and Gabbriellini were at a Mets game on the night of August 10, and that after the game they went to a Staten Island bar called Joy's. When Sergeant Sandy informed Gordon that Logan had already given a statement implicating Gordon and that the police had reason to believe their story about attending the Mets game had been concocted as an alibi, Gordon's father demanded to speak to an attorney and ended the interview. Sergeant Sandy then traveled to Westchester County to interview Gabbriellini at his home. Gabbriellini gave the same story as Gordon, and said that Logan was lying because Logan was a "punk" whose "credibility wasn't worth anything."
Logan was tried in the Northern District of New York on charges of committing arson on property "used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce" in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) and conspiracy to commit arson in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(n). At trial the government produced defendant's statements to the police; the evidence of the Molotov cocktail and lighter fluid found at his house; and the testimony of several Kappas and Deltas regarding Logan's prior statements about burning or mutilating the house, threats of violence against the Kappas, and the alibi Gordon and Gabbriellini proposed to use in order to avoid detection. The government also called Sergeant Sandy to testify regarding the investigation and the alibi statements Gordon and Gabbriellini made when he questioned them. Defendant's ...
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