U.S. v. Emmanuel

• Decision Date: 21 April 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-10378.,07-10378.
• Citation: 565 F.3d 1324
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Shervin EMMANUEL, a.k.a. Black Boy, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

565 F.3d 1324

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Shervin EMMANUEL, a.k.a. Black Boy, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 07-10378.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

April 21, 2009.

Howard J. Schumacher, Law Offices of Howard J. Schumacher, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Phillip DiRosa, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Anne R. Schultz and Harriett R. Galvin, Asst. U.S. Attys., Miami, FL, for U.S.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before TJOFLAT and CARNES, Circuit Judges, and THRASH,^* District Judge.

THRASH, District Judge:

This is a drug case. The Appellant Shervin Emmanuel appeals his conviction for various drug trafficking offenses. For the reasons discussed below, we AFFIRM.

I. Background

This case arises out of the investigation and prosecution of the Austin Knowles drug trafficking organization in the Bahamas. The Drug Enforcement Unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force started investigating the organization in the early 1990s. (R. Vol. 3, at 294.) From the beginning, the Drug Enforcement Unit suspected that Emmanuel was a member of the organization, but did not initiate a full investigation of him until 2001. (Id.) In October 2001, Wayne Woodside, a sergeant in the Drug Enforcement Unit, sought permission from the Bahamian authorities to wiretap the telephones of Emmanuel and Austin Knowles, the head of the organization. (Id. at 300-06.) Sergeant Woodside made a written request for the wiretap to the Commander of the Drug Enforcement Unit. (Id. at 295.) The Commander reviewed Sergeant Woodside's request and forwarded it to the Assistant Commissioner of Crime, who also reviewed it and forwarded it to the Commissioner of Police. (Id.) The Commissioner of Police consulted with the Attorney General of the Bahamas and after the consultation, the Commissioner approved the wiretap request for a period of 14 days. (Id. at 296.)

The Commissioner re-authorized the wiretap on the telephones of Emmanuel and Austin Knowles from October 2001 to November 2002. (Id.) During this time, the officers in the wire section of the Drug Enforcement Unit conducted the wiretap from a secure wire room. (Id.) Only officers in the wire section had access to the wire room and access to the room was controlled with a key available only to Sergeant Woodside and a few other high level advisors. (Id.) Other officers in the Drug Enforcement Unit were allowed in the secure wire room, but only with permission of the Commander. (Id. at 296-97.)

When the Drug Enforcement Unit has information relevant to another jurisdiction, its practice is to share the information with that jurisdiction. (Id. at 309.) And so, in March or April 2002, Sergeant Woodside told agents from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration that the wiretaps had revealed information relevant to the United States. (Id. at 298.) Sergeant Woodside requested permission to invite the agents to the wire room and the Commander granted his request. (Id. at 297.) The DEA agents helped the Drug Enforcement Unit prepare transcripts of intercepted conversations, but were not otherwise involved in the wiretap interceptions. (Id. at 312-14.) The Bahamian investigation remained an "independent investigation of these individuals for violation of Bahamian law." (Id. at 298.)

The DEA began its investigation of the Austin Knowles organization in October 2001. (R. Vol. 6, at 1045.) The investigation began after the arrest of Gordon Hawton, who was caught trying to bring 60 kilograms of cocaine into the United States from the Bahamas. (Id. at 1045-46.) Hawton provided more information about the organization, including the names of several members. (Id. at 1047.) The DEA used the information to get a wiretap on the telephone of Ian Musgrove, another member of the organization who distributed the organization's drug shipments once they reached Florida. (Id.)

Information from the Bahamian and United States wiretaps provided the basis for a large-scale investigation of the organization. In July 2002, the Drug Enforcement Administration intercepted calls between Emmanuel and Musgrove. (R. Vol. 4, at 450-52.) In the calls, they discussed a past shipment of marijuana into the United States from the Bahamas. (R. Vol. 3, at 437-42; R. Vol. 4, at 447-48.) Musgrove was responsible for distributing the marijuana in Florida and collecting payment for Emmanuel. (Id.) In one conversation, Musgrove said that he had collected $60,000, but Emmanuel complained that he should have collected more. Emmanuel said that he needed the money to organize the distribution of drugs from Colombia. (Id. at 459, 463-65.) Using information from the calls, DEA agents stopped Musgrove at Miami International Airport, and seized $61,000 from him. (R. Vol. 3, at 333-34, 342-44.) Musgrove told the agents that he planned to deliver the money to Emmanuel in Jamaica. (R. Vol. 4, at 466-67.) Musgrove was allowed to fly to Jamaica, where he met Emmanuel and told him about the seizure. (Id.)

In October 2002, Austin Knowles called Musgrove and told him to expect a shipment of cocaine. (R. Vol. 4, at 467-68.) Musgrove was responsible for distribution of the shipment once it reached Florida. He later received additional instructions regarding the shipment from Emmanuel. (Id. at 472.) The DEA learned more about this shipment from Kurt McBride. McBride had been involved in transporting drugs for the organization during the 1990s. By 2002, he was building boats. (R. Vol. 6, at 832-33.) In spring 2002, Austin Knowles recruited McBride to build two drug-smuggling boats for the shipment of cocaine. (Id. at 833-34.) Austin Knowles also told McBride that Emmanuel was his "right-hand man," that Emmanuel "was the one that handled the cocaine," and after this shipment, Emmanuel would take over as head of the organization. (Id. at 835-36, 873-75.)

On October 7, 2002, Austin Knowles asked McBride to take 300 kilograms of cocaine from the Bahamas to Florida. (Id. at 838-39, 845.) McBride agreed to transport the cocaine. On October 20, 2002, he left Florida and piloted one of the boats the Defense Rests, to the Bahamas. (Id. at 847, 863.) When the boat was close to the Bahamas, Austin Knowles called McBride and told him that there were mechanical problems with the boat that was supposed to meet him. (Id. at 848.) During this time, the Drug Enforcement Unit intercepted calls between Emmanuel and Austin Knowles in which they discussed engine and propeller problems on one of their boats, and whether they should ask McBride to meet their boat closer to the island. (R. Vol. 4, at 635-39.)

McBride eventually found the boat that had the cocaine and loaded the shipment into secret compartments on the Defense Rests. (R. Vol. 6, at 848-52.) In another intercepted phone call, Emmanuel directed an associate to go to a certain location and look out for law enforcement activity. (R. Vol. 5, at 678-79.) On the way back to the United States, McBride was stopped by Bahamian law enforcement agents. The Defense Rests was then towed by the United States Coast Guard to Florida. (R. Vol. 6, at 853-54.) After 397 kilograms of cocaine was found in the boat, McBride was arrested. (Id. at 855-56, 859, 1022-26.) The next day, Emmanuel was on the phone with Austin Knowles, and the two discussed McBride's arrest and seizure of the cocaine. (R. Vol. 5, at 690-92.)

Despite this seizure, the organization continued trafficking in cocaine. On October 30, 2002, Emmanuel and Austin Knowles talked about the logistics of a second shipment of cocaine. (R. Vol. 5, at 694-96.) Emmanuel also instructed an associate on how to bring a boat into Florida without attracting attention from law enforcement officers. (Id. at 698-700.) The second shipment of 340 kilograms of cocaine was made later that day. (R. Vol. 6, at 952.) Once in Florida, the shipment was divided up for delivery to various distributors, including 35 kilograms for "Shervin's people in Jamaica ...." (Id. at 965-66.)

The next shipment took place on November 18, 2002. For this shipment, Austin Knowles called Emmanuel to make sure that he would check the seaworthiness of the ship. (R. Vol. 5, at 705-08.) One of Emmanuel's associates reported to him that "everything cool" and that the cocaine had been loaded. (Id. at 709-13.) The next day, Emmanuel told another one of his associates that "his guys" had transferred the cocaine and that the shipment was "on their way" to Florida. (Id. at 714-16.) This time, however, law enforcement officers were able to stop the shipment and seized 370 kilograms of cocaine. (R. Vol. 6, at 1035-39, 1041-42.) After this seizure, one of Emmanuel's associates suggested that the seizures were because of a wiretap. (R. Vol. 5, at 717-19.) But Emmanuel disagreed, saying that his crew did not use telephones while they were making shipments. (Id. at 719.)

The wiretaps and seizures provided the United States government with significant evidence against the Austin Knowles organization. On December 12, 2002, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment against Emmanuel and other members of the Austin Knowles organization. Emmanuel was charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, attempting to import cocaine into the United States, possessing with intent to distribute cocaine while on board a vessel of the United States, and two counts of importing cocaine into the United States. Emmanuel was arrested on January 23, 2006.

Before his trial, Emmanuel filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained from the Bahamian wiretap. Emmanuel argued that the wiretap was illegal and that any evidence from the wiretap should be excluded. After conducting a hearing on the issue, the district court denied the motion. (R. Vol. 3, at 374.) On August 7, 2006, Emmanuel proceeded to a trial by jury. At trial, evidence was introduced from the Bahamian and DEA wiretaps. Three of Emmanuel's...