Smith v. United States
| Decision Date | 07 June 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:20-cv-00791,Crim. Case No. 3:15-cr-00147-3,3:20-cv-00791 |
| Parties | Rodrecus SMITH, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee |
Henry Alan Martin, Michael C. Holley, Federal Public Defender's Office, Nashville, TN, for Plaintiff.
Brent Adams Hannafan, U.S. Attorney's Office, Philip H. Wehby, Office of the United States Attorney, Nashville, TN, for Defendant.
Three days into his trial on charges relating to a Hobbs Act robbery and the resultant murder of Mario McKnight, Rodrecus Smith pled guilty to all of the charges against him in the Third Superseding Indictment (Doc. No. 570). Contending primarily that his trial lawyers were ineffective in many ways because, among other things, they: (1) did not understand or adequately explain to him the interstate nexus requirement of Hobbs Act robbery; (2) persuaded him to plead guilty without the requisite nexus; and (3) had him admit "damning" allegations regarding his intent, Smith, through appointed counsel, filed a "Supplemental Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Sentence in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 2255" (Doc. No. 6). That Motion and Smith's pro se Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Sentence (Doc. No. 1), raising claims under Rehaif v. United States, ––– U.S. ––––, 139 S. Ct. 2191, 204 L.Ed.2d 594 (2019) and United States v. Davis, ––– U.S. ––––, 139 S. Ct. 2319, 204 L.Ed.2d 757 (2019), have been fully briefed by the parties. (Doc. Nos. 2, 6, 16, 21). For the reasons that follow, both motions will be denied without a hearing.
Initially charged with six others in a fourteen-count Superseding Indictment, Smith was charged in the Third Superseding Indictment with six counts. Specifically, he was charged with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery (Count One); Hobbs Act robbery (Count Two); using, carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence resulting in death (Count Three); being a felon in possession of ammunition (Count Four); and two counts of intimidating a witness, or attempting to do so (Counts Five and Six). All of those charges stemmed from the robbery of a participant in an illegal dice game.
In 2013, Timothy Oglesby regularly ran high-stakes dice games outside his home on Argyle Avenue in the Edgehill area of Nashville, Tennessee. It was common knowledge in the area that drug traffickers used illegal drug proceeds to gamble in those games. Smith had previously been at some of those games. However, in mid-October, 2013, Oglesby asked Smith not to come around anymore because some of the participants were concerned about Smith's reputation as an armed robber.
On October 30, 2013, Maurice Payne participated in one of Oglesby's dice games, winning $5,000 in cash. Towards the end of the game, Smith and two friends arrived, but the friends decided to go Halloween shopping, and left the area. After the dice game broke up, Smith, armed with a large MAC or TEK style firearm,2 robbed Payne of his winnings, which Payne had thrown on the ground in response to Smith's robbery demands. Smith also pointed the weapon at other people present, warning that he would shoot them if they interfered with the ongoing robbery.
As the robbery was unfolding, Martin Frierson was across the street in a commercial dry-cleaning van that he used to pick up and deliver laundry to people in the area. McKnight was there to pick-up dry cleaning from Frierson but, seeing the robbery in progress, jumped into the van and told Frierson to drive off. As the van was passing by, Smith opened fire. McKnight, who was lying on the floor of the van, was struck.
Frierson heard McKnight exclaim that he had been shot, drove a few blocks, pulled over, called 911, and attended to McKnight's wound. Despite Frierson's efforts and those of responding emergency medical personnel, McKnight died from a bullet that struck his spleen, nicked his spine, and ruptured his aorta
.
Smith fled by jumping into the back seat of a Nissan Murano driven by co-defendant Martez Parham. Later that evening Parham drove Smith to a gas station in Green Hills, where he got into a vehicle occupied by several others and disappeared.
In November 2013, Smith called Oglesby several times in an effort to keep him from cooperating with the authorities. In the initial calls, Smith told Oglesby to "keep it real," which Oglesby understood to be an instruction not to provide information to law enforcement. After these calls, Smith learned Oglesby had identified him in a photo spread, and told Oglesby that he would kill Oglesby, Payne, and Frierson in order to prevent Oglesby and the others from providing information about the robbery and homicide. Later, Smith told Oglesby that he would not kill him if Oglesby would kill Frierson and Payne.
In March 2014, Smith was charged in state court with robbery and homicide. He was not apprehended until he was found by the United States Marshal's Fugitive Task Force on June 18, 2014, hiding in a closet in a room containing a small child. The state charges were dropped in favor of federal charges.
In July 2018, Smith was in the Robertson County Detention Facility awaiting trial on the federal charges. While there, he made multiple recorded jail calls in an effort to convince potential witnesses from testifying. Three-way calls were placed through his sister, during which Smith asked Oglesby's son, Floyd Hughes, to tell his father to "fall back" and "keep this shit real." Smith also called Marco Lewis'3 wife and told her to tell her husband to "keep that shit real," "keep that shit loyal man," and to "keep that shit 100."
As noted at the outset, Smith pled guilty mid-trial. At the sentencing hearing on October 24, 2019, the Government sought the life sentence that the advisory Guidelines suggested for a defendant with an offense level of 43, and a criminal history category VI. Smith argued that a downward variance to sentence in the neighborhood of twenty years would be appropriate because he had no idea McKnight was in the van, and he had been subjected to physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father while a child. Ultimately, the Court sentenced Smith to 408 months' (34 years) imprisonment, as follows: 240 months on Counts One, Two, Five and Six, to run concurrently with each other; 120 months on Count Three, to run consecutively to all other counts; and 48 months on Count Four, also to run consecutively to Counts One, Two, Five and Six.
The Government's theory at trial was that Smith committed a Hobbs Act robbery because Payne was a drug dealer who was gambling drug proceeds and would have reinvested his winnings to purchase more drugs. It is this supposedly ill-conceived theory that serve as the basis for the bulk of Smith's claims in his supplemental motion to vacate. First, however, the Court considers the motion filed by Smith pro se.
In his pro se motion, Smith makes three arguments: (1) Hobbs Act robbery is not a predicate crime of violence under Davis for purposes of Section 924(c) ; (2) he lacked the requisite knowledge under Rehaif for purposes of his felon in possession of ammunition conviction; and (3) counsel were ineffective because they "forced" him to plead guilty. None of these arguments have merit.
The Supreme Court in Davis dealt with the residual clause of Section 924(c), which includes felonies "that by [their] nature, involv[e] a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense." 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3)(B). This is distinct from the elements (or use of force) clause that increases punishment for a felony offense that "has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another." Id. The Supreme Court found the residual clause of section 924(c) unconstitutional, just as it had with the residual clause defining "crime of violence" under the Immigration and Nationality Act in Sessions v. Dimaya, ––– U.S. ––––, 138 S. Ct. 1204, 200 L.Ed.2d 549 (2018), and just as it had with the residual clause under the Armed Career Criminal Act in Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 591, 135 S.Ct. 2551, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015). None of this helps Smith, however.
Smith was charged with, and pled guilty to, Hobbs Act robbery. That crime "still qualifies as a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)(A), which was unaffected by Davis." Bright v. United States, No. 20-6089, 2021 WL 1100448, at *1 (6th Cir. Feb. 4, 2021) (citing United States v. Gooch, 850 F.3d 285, 292 (6th Cir. 2017) ). In other words, the Davis "decision left § 924(c)(3)(A)'s elements clause definition of ‘crime of violence’ intact." United States v. Holmes, 797 F. App'x 912, 918 (6th Cir. 2019) ; see also, Porter v. United States, 959 F.3d 800, 802 (6th Cir. 2020) ().
In Rehaif, the Supreme Court held that "the word ‘knowingly’ [in Section 922(g) ] applies both to the defendant's conduct and to the defendant's status" as a prohibited person. 139 S. Ct. at 2194. That is, the Government "must show that the defendant knew he possessed a firearm and also that he knew he had the relevant status when he possessed it," id., such as being a convicted felon.
Rehaif was decided between the time that Smith pled guilty and his sentencing. However, after the Court acknowledged that decision at the sentencing hearing, the following exchanges between the Court and Smith occurred:
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