U.S. v. Turner

• Decision Date: 11 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-14388.,05-14388.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Trelliny T. TURNER, Defendant-Appellant.

474 F.3d 1265

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Trelliny T. TURNER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 05-14388.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

January 11, 2007.

John A. Beall, IV, Jonesboro, GA, for Turner.

Dean S. Daskal, Columbus, GA, for U.S.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Before CARNES, MARCUS and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Trelliny T. Turner appeals her convictions and 240-month sentence for multiple offenses arising out of her role in the theft of approximately $266,000 from a U.S. Post Office in Valdosta, Georgia on September 3, 2004. On appeal, Turner argues that the district court erred by admitting hearsay testimony, in violation of Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), and that her sentence, which was above the Sentencing Guidelines advisory range, was unreasonable. After thorough review, we affirm.

I.

The procedural history and relevant facts adduced at trial are these. On February 17, 2005, Turner and two co-defendants — William Broxton ("Broxton"), who was Turner's live-in boyfriend and the father of her youngest child, and his uncle, Robert Broxton — were charged in a multi-count superseding indictment. Turner was charged with the following crimes: conspiring to steal U.S. Mail, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1708 (Count One); theft of U.S. Mail, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1708 (Count Two); interstate transportation of stolen cash from Valdosta, Georgia, to Newark, New Jersey, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2314 (Count Three); engaging in conduct misleading to a law enforcement officer with the intent to hinder, delay, or prevent communication of information relating to the commission of a federal offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3) (Count Six); and two counts of money laundering, one arising out of the use of proceeds of the theft to purchase a Ford Explorer (Count Seven), and the other arising out of the use of proceeds of the theft to purchase a Chevy Suburban (Count Eight), both in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1957.¹ Turner and William Broxton were tried together, after which Turner was convicted by the jury of Counts One through Three, Six, and Eight, but acquitted on Count Seven, and William Broxton was convicted of Counts One through Five and Counts Seven through Ten.²

At trial, the government introduced the testimony of over forty witnesses, primarily consisting of law enforcement officers, Turner's co-workers, and salespersons from whom Turner or Broxton, or both, had purchased goods with large sums of cash in the weeks following the theft. The government also presented the testimony of two witnesses to whom Broxton had made statements admitting his involvement in the theft. During the direct testimony of both, they recounted to the jury extrajudicial statements in which Broxton incriminated not only himself, but also Turner, thereby giving rise to the substantial Bruton claim which forms the main issue on appeal.

The government's evidence established the following. At approximately 9:55 p.m. on Friday, September 3, 2004, two people entered a U.S. Post Office in Valdosta, Georgia. At that time, there was only one clerk on duty, Larry Templin, who recently had undergone eye surgery, was elderly, and otherwise did not have good eyesight. Templin observed one of the individuals enter the "registry cage," which is a locked area enclosed in wire-mesh, where registered mail and other valuable items are secured, while the other individual stood outside of the cage. Templin immediately exited the post office and called the police, but could not provide a meaningful description of the two individuals.

By the time the police arrived, the suspects were gone. The officers discovered that a rear door into the facility was unsecured but there was no sign of a forced entry. Thus, from the start, the police viewed the crime as an "inside job." The unsecured rear door led from a men's rest-room into the postal facility. The rest-room also had an exterior door to the outside loading dock behind the post office, as well as an interior door which provided access from the bathroom into the rest of the facility, and, most immediately, into an employee breakroom. The exterior door was always kept unlocked so that the rest-room could be used by postal-truck drivers who stopped at the facility's loading dock for pickups and deliveries. Notably, the interior door had a push-button combination lock, and the door was kept closed and locked when not in immediate use.

According to Templin, the three-digit code was widely known by postal employees who had used that bathroom or that entrance to gain entry into the facility. Indeed, the government presented the testimony of numerous co-workers who also testified that the combination was common knowledge among the postal employees.

Linda Kathleen Combs, a distribution clerk who worked the shift with Turner beginning at 11:00 p.m. on the night of the theft, testified that during the shift, Turner appeared nervous and asked Combs an unusual series of questions such as what the postal inspectors' success rate was in solving such cases, and whether the inspectors could access bank accounts and financial records in the course of their investigation. Combs also testified that everyone knew the combination to open the interior door. A few days after the theft, Combs and several co-workers, including Turner, were discussing the fact that the authorities were investigating the crime as an "inside job." During the conversation, there was some talk about how everyone in the facility knew the combination to open the door, to which Turner volunteered that she did not know the combination and did not want to know it.

David Ike Dempsey, another distribution clerk, also worked with Turner the night of the theft. He perceived her as "jumpy" when he arrived for his shift that night. Notably, Dempsey also testified — contrary to Turner's statement to Combs and Turner's own trial testimony where she denied knowing the code — that, on numerous occasions, he had seen the defendant go into the bathroom from the breakroom and then reenter using the combination.

Templin described how at the time of the theft, Turner had worked for the Postal Service in Valdosta for about nine years. From time to time, including a few times during the preceding month of August 2004, Turner had worked in the registry cage. On the day of the theft, Turner was scheduled to relieve Templin at 11:00 p.m. and work until 7:00 a.m. Templin also stated that the work schedules were posted and accessible to all employees.

An inventory of the robbery scene later revealed that 28 of some 30 bags were missing from the registry cage. The bags that were placed in the cage generally contained cash, money orders, and checks from postal patrons as well as check-lists and bank-deposit slips. Because the robbery occurred on a Friday, which was payday for many customers, and because it was the third day of the month, when many government checks, including Social Security checks, are received and money orders are purchased, the deposits were much larger than usual. In all, more than $266,000 was taken from the Post Office.

The trial evidence also established that Turner and William Broxton had been in a relationship for some period of time, and were living together at the time of the crimes. Turner's gross income for the prior year was $36,796, and she had filed a personal bankruptcy petition only a few months before the theft. Broxton had occasional employment as a day laborer with a temporary employment agency in Valdosta and very limited earnings — his W2 form reflected that he earned only $4,500 for the entire previous year. The third co-defendant, Robert Broxton, is William Broxton's uncle who lived in New Jersey with his girlfriend, Brenda Lynch. Robert Broxton traveled from New Jersey to Valdosta shortly before the postal theft occurred.

In the early morning of September 4th, the day after the late-night theft, Robert Broxton called Brenda Lynch and said that he, William Broxton, and Turner were driving that morning from Valdosta to Lynch's house in New Jersey. Lynch testified that Turner and the Broxtons arrived at her house early on Sunday morning, after a drive of about 16 hours, accompanied by Turner's infant (William Broxton's child). Turner stayed for only a brief time, leaving the same morning to drive back to Valdosta in order to be able to report to work the following night.

On the day after arriving in New Jersey, William Broxton went to a car dealership in Orange, New Jersey, accompanied by Brenda Lynch, and made the first of a number of large cash purchases, paying $18,500 in cash for a Ford Explorer. According to the salesman, Richard Adetule, Broxton obtained the cash from a plastic garbage bag, and gave a $100 cash tip to Adetule. Broxton titled the car in Brenda Lynch's name.

Sometime in the next week, Broxton returned to Valdosta. On September 16, 2004, according to his probation officer, Jennifer Wallace, Broxton used a money order to pay a $645 court-ordered fine. On the same day, Broxton went to Zales Jewelers, where he was assisted by Joshua Dillow who testified that Broxton paid cash for a diamond engagement ring costing $3,000, and that he was accompanied by a black woman whom Dillow could not positively identify as Turner. The government also presented evidence of Broxton's numerous cash purchases in the weeks following the theft, including the purchase of a speaker box, an amplifier, a car CD player for $500, and a new window on the Ford Explorer for $250.

On September 22nd, while driving the Ford Explorer, Broxton, whose driver's license had been revoked, was stopped for an improperly displayed tag. Broxton told the officer, Michael Weldon of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office, that his wife was following behind him. In response...