U.S. v. Ramos-Cardenas

Decision Date09 April 2008
Docket NumberNo. 06-51383.,06-51383.
Citation524 F.3d 600
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jesus Ignacio RAMOS-CARDENAS; Jorge Alberto Aguirre-Melecio; Guillermo Lopez-Quezada; Roman Arguelles-Aguirre; Francisco Melecio-Arguelles; Ramon Obregon-Lopez; Jose Melecio-Arguelles; Juan Pedro Hurtado-Garcia; Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles; Francisco Javier Aguirre-Melecio; Jaime Suarez-De La Rosa, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Roberto L. Rodriguez, Law Offices of Roberto L. Rodriguez, Eagle Pass, TX, for Francisco Melecio-Arguelles.

Alberto M. Ramon, Law Offices of Alberto M. Ramon, Eagle Pass, TX, for Obregon-Lopez.

M. Dinorah Diaz, Law Offices of M. Dinora Diaz, San Antonio, TX, for Jose Melecio-Arguelles.

Javier F. Riojas (argued), Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Eagle Pass, TX, for Hurtado-Garcia.

Jason M. Davis (argued), Thompson & Knight, Austin, TX, for Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles.

Alfred Van Sumpter, Law Office of Alfred V. Sumpter, Del Rio, TX, for Ramos-Cardenas.

Leon Schydlower, El Paso, TX, for Suarez-De La Rosa.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before KING, STEWART and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Defendants-appellants Jesus Ignacio Ramos-Cardenas, Jorge Alberto Aguirre-Melecio, Guillermo Lopez-Quezada, Roman Arguelles-Aguirre, Francisco Melecio-Arguelles, Ramon Obregon-Lopez, Jose Melecio-Arguelles, Juan Pedro Hurtado-Garcia, Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles, Francisco Javier Aguirre-Melecio, and Jaime Suarez-De La Rosa appeal their convictions for possession of one hundred or more kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute and conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In the early morning hours of November 30, 2005, United States Border Patrol Agent Santiago Gonzalez, Jr., spotted two groups of individuals—among them the appellants in this case—walking northbound on U.S. Highway 90 in southwest Texas. Agent Gonzalez's vantage point was about a mile away, and he was using a forward looking infrared scope ("FLIR"), an imaging device that detects body heat in the dark. He spotted the first group, consisting of nine individuals, at about 3:30 a.m. Agent Gonzalez saw these individuals cross a fence and pass what appeared to be two to four backpacks over it, although the limitations of infrared vision prevented Agent Gonzalez from clearly observing the precise number or type of bags that were present. He also saw what appeared to be one of the individuals putting on a backpack. This first group sat down in a brushy area near a roadside park. The second group, consisting of four individuals, appeared at about 5:00 a.m. Due to the effect of the rough terrain on the FLIR, Agent Gonzalez could not tell whether these individuals were also carrying bags. It was around this time that Agent Gonzalez alerted other agents, who came to the scene.

Shortly after 7:00 a.m., Agent Gonzalez saw one of the men, Francisco Alejandro Huerta-Adriano, emerge from the brush, walk southbound, and approach a white Ford Expedition SUV driven by Daniel Bennett Diaz. Huerta-Adriano got into the driver's seat of the SUV, and Diaz moved to the passenger seat. Twelve men then approached the SUV in short succession before the SUV drove off. While there was not enough daylight for Agent Gonzalez to see details using the FLIR, Diaz later testified that it was light enough for him to see the faces of the twelve men as they loaded bags of marijuana into the SUV.

After the SUV had been loaded, the agents who had been summoned by Agent Gonzalez pursued the SUV and chased down the twelve men who remained on foot. Agents Rush Carter and John Pierce arrested the men on foot, and Agent Carter later testified that it was then light enough for him to see and recognize individual faces. Agents Shane Jahn and Juan Camacho apprehended Diaz and Huerta-Adriano after the SUV careened off the road and through a fence. The SUV contained approximately 197.54 kilograms of marijuana, packed in potato sacks.1

All fourteen men were taken into custody and transferred to Drug Enforcement Administration officers. Officer Jose Rendon photographed the men, read them their rights, and took their personal histories. Two men, Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles and Guillermo Antelmo Quintana-Beltran (a defendant below who is not a party to this appeal), gave inculpatory statements to the authorities. All fourteen men were later indicted on charges of possession of one hundred or more kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B), and conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B), and 846. Diaz and Huerta-Adriano pleaded guilty before trial, which, for the remaining twelve defendants, began on May 16, 2006.

At trial, Diaz testified for the government and identified the defendants as the individuals who had loaded the marijuana into the SUV. Diaz also testified that he had entered into a plea agreement with the government, and that he hoped to receive a reduced sentence because of his assistance.2 Agent Gonzalez, Officer Rendon, and other agents and officers related the events leading up to and including the apprehension of the defendants and their transfer to DEA custody.

In addition, Officers Mark Arredondo and Ronaldo Saenz testified to Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles and Quintana-Beltran's post-arrest statements, as these confessing defendants did not testify. Before trial, the remaining nonconfessing defendants filed a motion to sever their cases from the two who had given statements to the authorities. The district court denied this motion, but granted a motion in limine to exclude the statements as to the nonconfessing defendants. A subsequent motion to suppress the statements entirely was denied. Instead, each statement was redacted so as to avoid implicating anyone other than the speaker, and Officers Arredondo and Saenz were instructed not to use any plural pronouns, such as "we" or "they," when relating the statements to the jury. However, Officer Arredondo twice testified to Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles's statement in the plural, stating that Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles told him that "he arrived in Acuna a week before they crossed." (Emphasis added). This drew objections from the other defendants, and the district court cautioned the jury to disregard that portion of Officer Arredondo's testimony. The other defendants moved for a mistrial, but this motion was denied, and testimony continued without incident. The district court also included an instruction in the general charge that any out-of-court statement claimed to have been made by a defendant "should not be considered in any way whatsoever as evidence with respect to any other defendant on trial." At the close of the government's case, the district court denied the defendants' motion for a judgment of acquittal.

During deliberations, the jury sent out a note to the district court asking, "Why is Daniel Bennett Diaz the only name on the indictment and not the names of the defendants?" Following a discussion with all counsel about how to respond to the note,3 the district court provided the jury with the indictment listing all the defendants' names, accompanied by the following instruction:

When an indictment is prepared, all named defendants appear in the style or the name of the case, such as United States of America versus John Doe number 1, John Doe number 2, John Doe number 3, and [ ] Jane Doe number 4.

The courts often shorten this title so that it reads United States of America against John Doe number 1, et al. "Et al." represents the other defendants in the indictment.

In this case, Daniel Bennett Diaz was the first defendant listed in the indictment. His guilt has already been established by virtue of his plea of guilty.

The second defendant in the indictment, Francisco Alejandro Huerta-Adriano, had also pled guilty.

The fact that Mr. Diaz's name appears [ ] on the name of the case should not affect your judgment in any way. Your job is to determine whether the Government has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendants 3 through 14, as listed in the indictment, committed the crimes charged in the indictment . . . .

Only Gabriel Melecio-Arguelles objected to this solution. In its general charge to the jury, the district court also included an instruction that an accomplice's guilty plea "is not evidence of the guilt of any other person."

On May 19, 2006, after about three hours of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts for all of the defendants on both counts charged in the indictment. The district court imposed sentences to run concurrently for both counts ranging from sixty to sixty-three months in prison, with either four or five years of supervised release. Each defendant was also charged a $200 special assessment. The district court entered judgments as to each defendant individually, and each defendant herein filed a timely notice of appeal.

II. DISCUSSION
A.

The following defendants challenge their convictions on sufficiency of the evidence grounds: Ramon Obregon-Lopez, Francisco Melecio-Arguelles, Guillermo Lopez-Quezada Jorge Alberto Aguirre-Melecio, Roman Arguelles-Aguirre, Jaime Suarez-De La Rosa, Francisco Javier Aguirre-Melecio, and Jesus Ignacio Ramos-Cardenas. In addition, Juan Pedro Hurtado-Garcia and Jose Melecio-Arguelles argue that the district court erroneously denied their motions for a new trial because, the...

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