U.S. v. Sealed Appellant 1, 08-30284.

Decision Date28 December 2009
Docket NumberNo. 08-30551.,No. 08-30284.,08-30284.,08-30551.
Citation591 F.3d 812
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SEALED APPELLANT 1; Sealed Appellant 2, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Michael Edward McMahon, Stephen Andrew Higginson, Asst. U.S. Attys., New Orleans, LA, for U.S.

Sandra C. Jenkins, Scheuermann & Jones, L.L.C., New Orleans, LA, for Sealed Appellant 1.

Joseph Philip Raspanti, Metairie, LA, for Sealed Appellant 2.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before GARWOOD, DAVIS, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

DENNIS, Circuit Judge:

This case concerns the transfer of two juveniles to adult status for criminal prosecution in federal court for multiple charges relating to several alleged carjackings in the New Orleans area. One of the juveniles, D.W. ("D.W.") was charged with crimes arising from one alleged carjacking committed when he was 14 years old and one alleged carjacking committed when he was 15 years old, and the district court ordered he be transferred to adult status for trial on all of the charges against him. The statute authorizing such transfer, however, is not capable of a construction that supports transfer of a fourteen-year-old charged with the crimes in this case. Because D.W. is statutorily ineligible for transfer to adult status for the charges arising from the alleged carjacking committed while he was 14, we REVERSE the district court's order of transfer as to these counts. We AFFIRM the district court's order transferring D.W. to adult status for prosecution on the charges stemming from the alleged carjacking committed after his fifteenth birthday. We AFFIRM the district court's order transferring J.S. ("J.S.") to adult status for trial on the charges stemming from two alleged carjackings, both committed after his fifteenth birthday, as well.

I. BACKGROUND

The three carjackings at issue in this case involved an overlapping set of assailants, some of them defendants in this case and some of them not, on three distinct days. The other two juveniles mentioned in the below recitation, T.P. ("T.P.") and J.D. ("J.D."), were also arrested and charged, but their case was severed from the case against D.W. and J.S. that is currently before us.1

On July 21, 2006, while standing near her car, Lillian Blood ("Blood"), an elderly woman living in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, was accosted by a black male, face covered in a white towel, who brandished a gun and demanded her car keys. Blood handed them over, and the perpetrator drove away. Approximately 90 minutes later, in the Carrollton area of Louisiana, Blood's car was involved in an accident; J.S., T.P., and D.W. jumped out and ran around the corner, where they threatened Alexandra Mompoint ("Mompoint") with a gun and stole her vehicle, driving it away from the scene. A neighbor, Michael Gaspard ("Gaspard"), who had witnessed the carjacking gave chase in his own car, and managed to stop the fleeing car by ramming the vehicle. Gaspard approached the vehicle but the driver shot at him, missing him, and then drove away. Other witnesses testified that about an hour after the second carjacking, three youths driving the stolen car engaged in a drive-by shooting in the Carrollton area of New Orleans, wounding three men (none of them fatally). Another witness told the police that T.P. handed a pistol to D.W. and that D.W. shot the men.

Two days after these events Mompoint and Gaspard identified T.P. as one of the carjackers from a photographic line-up; Gaspard also identified J.S. Eventually T.P. was apprehended in New Orleans while driving Mompoint's car. J.S.'s fingerprints were found in both cars. Blood samples from Mompoint's car matched DNA from T.P. and J.S. Neither car contained D.W.'s fingerprints; a juice bottle with his DNA on it was found in Mompoint's car at the time it was retrieved, a day after it was stolen.

On November 15, 2006, Bryan Lewis ("Lewis") was getting into his car outside his residence in New Orleans when he was approached by J.S., who was carrying a semi-automatic handgun. J.S. jumped in the car and drove off. The next day, November 16, the police received a tip that the car was parked in the Carrollton area of New Orleans. They set up surveillance and saw four African-American males, including J.S. approach the car. The police stopped them for interviews and noted that J.S. matched the physical description Lewis had provided to the police. That afternoon Lewis positively identified J.S. from a photo lineup.

On March 17, 2007, J.D. approached a parked car in Jefferson Parish that was occupied by two teenagers, Bianca Garcia ("Garcia") and Patrick LeBlanc ("LeBlanc"). Garcia and LeBlanc told police that J.D. brandished a weapon and ordered them out of the car and drove off in it. He was followed by a dark-colored car from which he had exited near Garcia's house. Two days later, on March 19, 2007, the police recovered the stolen car. They found a fingerprint belonging to J.D. on a fast food box left inside the car. J.D. confessed to police and told them that D.W. had driven him to the location at which J.D. committed the carjacking and had followed him back to Orleans Parish afterwards. D.W.'s DNA was found on a plastic spoon in the car.

D.W., J.S., T.D. and T.P. were charged in a second superseding juvenile bill of information in federal court; the latter two defendants were later severed and are not part of this appeal. D.W. and J.S. were charged with conspiracy to commit the two July 21, 2006 carjackings in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 2119, and 5032; conspiracy to use and carry firearms during those carjackings in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924 and 5032; and the substantive counts for the carjackings in violation of §§ 2119 and 5032. D.W. was also charged with conspiracy to carry and use firearms during the March 17, 2007 carjacking and with the substantive count of that carjacking, and J.S. was charged with the November 15, 2006 carjacking. The Government moved under 18 U.S.C. § 5032 to transfer the proceedings on the charges to adult criminal prosecution. The district court held the required hearing and received post-hearing briefing from the parties, after which it ordered that the defendants be transferred to adult criminal prosecutions. J.S. and D.W. moved for a stay pending appeal, which the district court granted. J.S. and D.W. timely appealed.

II. ANALYSIS

18 U.S.C. § 5032 provides for federal jurisdiction over juveniles accused of certain crimes:

A juvenile alleged to have committed an act of juvenile delinquency ... shall not be proceeded against in any court of the United States unless the Attorney General, after investigation, certifies to the appropriate district court of the United States that (1) the juvenile court or other appropriate court of a State does not have jurisdiction or refuses to assume jurisdiction over said juvenile with respect to such alleged act of juvenile delinquency, (2) the State does not have available programs and services adequate for the needs of juveniles, or (3) the offense charged is a crime of violence that is a felony or [certain drug crimes not at issue in this case], and that there is a substantial Federal interest in the case or the offense to warrant the exercise of Federal jurisdiction.

The statute also provides for the transfer of certain juveniles to adult status, upon motion of the Attorney General, if such transfer would be "in the interest of justice." Specifically:

[W]ith respect to a juvenile fifteen years and older alleged to have committed an act after his fifteenth birthday which if committed by an adult would be a felony that is a crime of violence or an offense described in section 401 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. § 841), or section 1002(a), 1005, or 1009 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a), 955, 959), or section 922(x) of this title, or in section 924(b), (g), or (h) of this title, criminal prosecution on the basis of the alleged act may be begun by motion to transfer of the Attorney General in the appropriate district court of the United States, if such court finds, after hearing, such transfer would be in the interest of justice. In the application of the preceding sentence, if the crime of violence is an offense under section 113(a), 113(b), 113(c), 1111, 1113, or, if the juvenile possessed a firearm during the offense, section 2111, 2113, 2241(a), or 2241(c), "thirteen" shall be substituted for "fifteen" and "thirteenth" shall be substituted for "fifteenth."

18 U.S.C. § 5032. This court has jurisdiction over the interlocutory appeal of a district court's transfer order of a juvenile to adult status under the collateral order doctrine. United States v. Juvenile No. 1, 118 F.3d 298, 302 (5th Cir.1997).

We must address one preliminary matter before turning to the merits of the transfer decision made by the district court below, namely whether D.W. was eligible for transfer to adult status upon the Attorney General's motion for the carjackings allegedly committed on July 21, 2006, when he was only fourteen years old. It is elemental that "the starting point for interpreting a statute is the language of the statute itself." Consumer Prod. Safety Comm. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., 447 U.S. 102, 108, 100 S.Ct. 2051, 64 L.Ed.2d 766 (1980). 18 U.S.C. § 5032, reproduced above, begins by establishing the circumstances under which a juvenile fifteen years or older is eligible for a transfer hearing: when he is "alleged to have committed an act after his fifteenth birthday which if committed by an adult would be a felony that is a crime of violence or an offense described in section 401 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. § 841), or section 1002(a), 1005, or 1009 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a), 955, 959), or section 922(x) of this title, or in section 924(b), (g), or (h) of...

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