U.S. v. Ronda
| Decision Date | 13 July 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-16180.,No. 03-15640.,No. 04-15006.,No. 04-15062.,No. 04-14959.,03-15640.,04-14959.,04-15006.,04-15062.,04-16180. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Oscar RONDA, Jesus Aguero, a.k.a. Jessie, Arturo Beguiristain, Jorge Castello, Jorge Garcia, Israel Gonzalez, Jose Quintero, a.k.a. Pepe, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
G. Richard Strafer, G. Richard Strafer, P.A., Marisa Tinkler Mendez (Court-Appointed), Marisa Tinkler Mendez, P.A., Janice Burton Sharpstein (Court-Appointed), Jorden & Burt, LLP, Miami, FL, for Defendants-Appellants.
Dawn Bowen, Anne R. Schultz and Harriett R. Galvin, Asst. U.S. Attys., Miami, FL, for U.S.
Marcia J. Silvers, Miami, FL, Jay R. Moskowitz (Court-Appointed), Sands & Moskowitz, P.A., Samuel J. Rabin, Jr. (Court-Appointed), Samuel J. Rabin, P.A., Miami, FL, for Defendants-Appellants in 04-16180.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before TJOFLAT and HULL, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI*, Judge.
This is a consolidated criminal appeal of the convictions and sentences of seven former Miami police officers. In the first trial, Appellants Oscar Ronda ("Ronda"), Jesus Aguero ("Aguero"), Arturo Beguiristain ("Beguiristain"), and Jorge Castello ("Castello") were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(b)(3) and 371, and obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3). The jury hung with respect to Appellants Jorge Garcia ("Garcia"), Israel Gonzalez ("Gonzalez"), and Jose Quintero ("Quintero").
Upon retrial, Appellants Garcia, Gonzalez and Quintero were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(b)(3) and 371. The second jury also found Appellants Garcia and Gonzalez guilty of obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3), and perjury before a federal grand jury, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623.
Appellants challenge their convictions on numerous grounds and appeal their sentences under United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). After review and oral argument, we affirm each Appellant's convictions and sentences.
Between 1995 and 1997, the seven Appellants were members of the Miami Police Department, where they worked for the Street Narcotics Unit and/or the Crime Suppression Team. Appellants were responsible for the detection of firearms violations, drug trafficking, and street-level crimes against property and individuals.
Each Appellant was involved in at least one of four police shootings. These four shootings are referred to by the name of the location where the shooting occurred: I-395, 43rd Street, Coconut Grove, and N.W. 7th Court.1 The evidence at trial showed that Appellants illegally fabricated evidence to make the shootings appear justified, by planting guns at the scenes of the shootings and/or by making false and misleading statements to investigators.
We outline the evidence of the shootings and Appellants' efforts to mislead the ensuing investigations.
On November 7, 1995, Appellants Aguero, Beguiristain, Gonzalez, and Garcia were engaged in plainclothes activity in downtown Miami. They were accompanied by non-party Officers Sampson, Mervolion, and Hames. Additional officers arrived at the scene later, as described below.
(1) Officers Kill Two Suspects
The officers noticed a car occupied by four black men and suspected the men were involved in a recent "smash and grab" robbery. Seeing the car on the on-ramp near I-395, Appellant Beguiristain rammed into it with his patrol car. This disabled the suspects' car and forced the car onto I-395.
Two of the suspects, Derrick Wiltshire ("Wiltshire") and Antonio Young ("Young"), exited the car and began to flee. The two climbed over the highway guardrail, dangled themselves down from the rail, and dropped onto Miami Avenue, where they began to run from the scene.
As Young and Wiltshire fled, Appellants Aguero and Gonzalez and non-party Officers Mervolion and Hames shot them repeatedly.2 Young died on Miami Avenue of multiple gunshot wounds in the back. Though Wiltshire had been shot, he fled to a nearby alley, chased by Officers Davis and Bell, two additional police officers who arrived at the scene quickly after hearing of the car crash and chase. Wiltshire died in the alley from multiple gunshot wounds after a brief struggle with Officer Bell.
At trial, Officers Mervolion and Hames (who both pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and testified for the government) testified that neither Young nor Wiltshire was armed and that the suspects never fired upon the officers. Non-party Officers Davis, Bell, and Sampson also testified that neither Young nor Wiltshire had a gun and that they did not see a gun near either victim's body immediately after the shootings. At least two civilian witnesses observed that neither Young nor Wiltshire appeared to be armed. No guns were found in the victims' car.
(2) Officers Plant Guns
Additional officers arrived at the scene after the shootings, including Appellants Beguiristain and Quintero. Despite the fact that neither Young nor Wiltshire had been armed, Beguiristain and Quintero each informed their superiors that they had found a gun near the suspects. Appellant Beguiristain handed over a gun he claimed to have found next to Young's body.3 Appellant Quintero produced a gun that he claimed to have found in the alley where Wiltshire died.4
Evidence at trial, in particular the testimony of Officers Mervolion and Hames, revealed that the two guns "found" near the bodies of Young and Wiltshire were in fact planted by the officers in order to justify the shootings of Young and Wiltshire. Officer Hames testified that immediately after the shooting, Appellant Beguiristain informed him that Appellant Quintero was on his way with a gun. Officer Mervolion testified that either Appellant Aguero or Appellant Garcia had said that he was "going to the station," and that Mervolion had understood the speaker to mean that he intended to obtain a weapon to plant at the scene.
(3) Officers Make False Statements
As a matter of department policy, the homicide unit of the Miami Police Department investigates all deaths involving police officers and all shootings by police officers, whether or not the shooting victim dies. Similarly, the Miami Police Department's internal affairs unit (rather than its homicide unit) investigates every situation where a Miami police officer discharges his weapon but the shot does not strike anyone. Appellants, as Miami police officers, knew that the I-395 shootings would be investigated.
According to Officers Mervolion and Hames, the day after the shootings, Appellant Aguero organized a lunch meeting so that the officers could "get on the same page" before giving statements to investigators. Along with Officers Mervolion and Hames, Appellants Aguero, Beguiristain, Garcia, and Gonzalez attended this meeting. Officer Hames testified at trial that at the meeting, Hames proposed to the officers that they all state that Young and Wiltshire were holding guns in their right hands when they jumped from the expressway and fled from arrest.
The Miami Police Department's homicide unit did in fact open an investigation on the day of the I-395 shootings. On November 8, 1995, the day after the shootings, Appellants Beguiristain and Quintero each gave a sworn statement to Miami Police Department investigators. In his sworn statement, Appellant Beguiristain stated that when he approached Young after Young had been shot, Beguiristain found him "in pain" and "moving around." Beguiristain swore that he found a nine millimeter pistol lying next to Young, and that Beguiristain picked it up "[b]ecause the guy was still moving." In his sworn statement, Appellant Quintero stated that after arriving at the scene of the I-395 shootings, he entered the alley where Wiltshire had scuffled with Officer Bell and found a gun under a nearby bush.
Appellants Aguero, Garcia, and Gonzalez gave sworn statements to Miami Police Department investigators on November 14, 1995. In their sworn statements, Appellants Aguero and Garcia asserted that the I-395 suspects killed by the officers were armed with guns in their right hands and that the officers did not fire upon the suspects until the suspects aimed their guns at the officers. In his sworn statement, Appellant Gonzalez stated that he saw one of the fleeing suspects holding a gun in his right hand.5
As is standard practice in the Miami Police Department, the homicide unit's report on the I-395 shootings was forwarded to the Florida State Attorney's Office. The State Attorney's Office initiated a judicial inquest into the deaths of Young and Wiltshire.6 During the course of that investigation, some of the officers involved in the I-395 shootings gave sworn depositions in Florida state court.
On April 2, 1996, Appellants Beguiristain and Quintero gave sworn testimony in the state judicial proceeding. In his sworn testimony, Appellant Beguiristain testified that after Young had been shot on November 7, 1995, Beguiristain found a nine millimeter pistol lying next to Young, and that Beguiristain picked it up because "[Young] was still moving around" and "I didn't want him to grab the gun." In his sworn testimony, Appellant Quintero averred that he found a "blue steel Browning" pistol in the alley where Officer Bell had struggled with Wiltshire.
In 1998, the State of Florida charged Jerry Miller, one of the I-395 suspects who was not shot by the officers, with armed battery and aggravated assault of a police officer. On October 30, 1998, Appellant Garcia gave a sworn deposition in Miller's criminal case in Florida state court. In his sworn testimony, Appellant Garcia reiterated that Young and Wiltshire had guns.
In 2000,...
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