U.S. v. Caraway

• Decision Date: 28 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-3229.,07-3229.
• Citation: 534 F.3d 1290
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Thomas Guy CARAWAY, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

534 F.3d 1290

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Thomas Guy CARAWAY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 07-3229.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

July 28, 2008.

Ronald E. Wurtz, Assistant Federal Public Defender, (David J. Phillips, Federal Public Defender, with him on the briefs), Topeka, KS, for Defendant-Appellant.

James A. Brown, Assistant United States Attorney, (Eric F. Melgren, United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Topeka, KS, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before HARTZ, Circuit Judge, McWILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge, and HOLMES, Circuit Judge.

HARTZ, Circuit Judge.

Thomas Guy Caraway was convicted by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas of causing an explosive device to be delivered by U.S. Mail and of possession of an explosive device during and in relation to a crime of violence. He challenges his convictions on the grounds of insufficient evidence to support the verdict and improper admission of evidence-namely, (1) testimony about a witness's prior statement, (2) a written copy of the prior statement, and (3) testimony that a bomb-construction manual had been found on his property. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we hold that there was no reversible error and affirm his conviction.

I. BACKGROUND

On January 29, 2004, a rural mail carrier delivered a package to the home of Daniel "Spud" Owens in Washington, Kansas. Because the package was too large for the mailbox, the carrier left it in Owens's pickup truck. The next day, Owens's son, Daniel, found the package in the truck and brought it into the living room. Although the package was addressed to his father, Daniel, who had turned 13 two days before, thought that it could be a birthday present for him. He and his father opened the cardboard packaging and removed what appeared to be a toolbox. They set the toolbox on the couch and opened its latches. The box exploded, propelling shotgun pellets in all directions. Daniel was hit in the shoulder, and Owens was hit with 14 or 15 pellets in his left hand.

Inspection later revealed that the device had the following components: First were two improvised shotgun barrels, each holding a 12-gauge shotgun shell, welded onto a metal plate on the bottom of the device. The rear of each barrel was covered by a threaded-on end cap with a hole large enough to accommodate the passage of a firing pin. The firing pin was cocked and held in place by a spring. When the spring was released, the firing pin would strike the shell and fire it. One of the firing pins was equipped with a washer, so that when the pin was released, the washer would hit a toggle switch, flipping the switch to complete an electrical circuit connected to four batteries. The batteries lit a model-rocket ignitor inside a bag of gun powder within a PVC pipe, which would explode upon ignition. As a final touch, a bottle of gasoline in the device was apparently intended to cause a fire after the explosion. Luckily, only one shotgun shell fired when the box was opened, and explosives experts safely dismantled the rest of the device.

From the postal sticker on the package in which the device was shipped, investigators determined that it had been mailed the day before from Wamego, Kansas. The postal clerk in Wamego who had accepted the package recalled that it had been wrapped in paper and tied with string and that the string had to be removed before it could be mailed. He also remembered that the "to" and "from" addresses had been reversed and had to be corrected. He described the sender as a man of average build in his early twenties with light brown hair. A computer record of the transaction showed that the postage had been paid with a $20 bill.

Mr. Caraway became a suspect in the investigation when investigators learned that his ex-wife Denise, who had left him about seven months before, had become involved in a relationship with Owens, Mr. Caraway's former best friend. On February 6, 2004, investigators conducted a search of Mr. Caraway's property in Delia, Kansas. They discovered about a dozen items that resembled items recovered from the explosive device.

The day after the search, postal inspectors interviewed Mr. Caraway's son, Shawn Caraway, who had been living with Mr. Caraway in Delia. Shawn, about 22 years old at the time, told the inspectors that he had seen the device sitting on the coffee table in their living room. He gave them a description of the device and also drew a diagram of it, but he denied having mailed it, a position he maintained for nearly the next three years. On October 26, 2006, however, Shawn told investigators that his father had given him a package and a $20 bill and asked him to mail the package at the Wamego post office. He said that his sister, Jessica Caraway, had given him a ride to the post office. Jessica had previously denied knowing who mailed the bomb, but a week after Shawn told the inspectors that he had mailed the package, she gave a written statement to postal inspectors that she had driven Shawn to the Wamego post office.

On November 8, 2006, Mr. Caraway was charged in a three-count indictment with causing an explosive device to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, with intent to kill or injure another, see 18 U.S.C. § 1716(a) and (j)(2); conspiracy to mail an explosive device, see id. §§ 371, 1716(a) and (j)(2); and possession of an explosive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, see id. § 924(c)(1)(A) and (B)(ii). The conspiracy charge was dismissed before trial. A jury found Mr. Caraway guilty of both remaining counts, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

Mr. Caraway argues that his conviction must be reversed because the evidence at trial was insufficient to support the jury's verdict. We review sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenges de novo, viewing all evidence in the light most favorable to the government. United States v. Lamy, 521 F.3d 1257, 1267 (10th Cir.2008). We will affirm the jury's verdict "unless no reasonable jury, when presented with the evidence introduced at trial together with the reasonable inferences therefrom, could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). "While the evidence supporting the conviction must be substantial and do more than raise a mere suspicion of guilt, it need not conclusively exclude every other reasonable hypothesis and it need not negate all possibilities except guilt." United States v. Burkley, 513 F.3d 1183, 1188-89 (10th Cir.2008) (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted).

Several witnesses testified that Mr. Caraway had a difficult time with his wife's departure. His daughter Jessica testified that he was "mad" when Denise left and that he called her a "bitch." R. Vol. 5 at 415. Shawn said that his father was initially hurt and surprised and then was "very obsessed" for several months. Id. Supp. Vol. 2 at 112. Mark Hight, a friend of Mr. Caraway's, described him as "depressed" and "possibly suicidal" after Denise left. Id. Vol. 6 at 514. Denise testified that her ex-husband called her "all the time" after she left him and that he was "very insistent" in urging her to return. Id. Vol. 5 at 469.

Abundant evidence was presented that Mr. Caraway had made threats against Owens and Denise. Shawn testified that his father had said that Denise "should get what's coming to her," that she "should die for what she did," and that he was going to "take her out." Id. Supp. Vol. 2 at 16. Shawn also said that his father, referring to both Denise and Owens, had said that he was going to "blow them up." Id. at 19. Jessica testified that her father had made threats against Denise, such as that he would "put a cap in [her] ass," id. Vol. 5 at 417, and made "joking" threats against Owens, saying that he would "stomp a mud hole in his head" or "take Spud down," id. at 418. She said that the threats against her mother had continued until the time of the explosion. Denise testified that Mr. Caraway had once told her that "I ought to just put a cap in your ass," id. at 474, and once told one of their children that he could blow up her car. And Owens testified that two or three months before the device exploded at his house, Mr. Caraway had called him, quizzed him about Denise, and said something like "[you] better not do this." Id. at 401-02.

The prosecution also offered evidence that Mr. Caraway had the technical ability and experience to build the device. Several witnesses testified that Mr. Caraway was a very good mechanic, a "jack-of-all-trades," Id. Supp. Vol. 2 at 25, who knew how to weld and who was capable of fixing nearly anything on a vehicle. Shawn testified that his father had made firecrackers; Denise said that he had made pop-bottle bombs and once blew up a washer or a dryer. Both Shawn and Jessica recounted hearing loud bangs or explosions at the Delia property in 2003 and the beginning of 2004. Hight testified that he had found a book in Mr. Caraway's workshop that explained how to construct an explosive device using barrels for single-shot 12- and 20-gauge shotguns.

In addition, there was substantial physical evidence suggesting a connection between the explosive device and Mr. Caraway. When investigators searched the Caraway property, they found a number of items that resembled those found in the device, including duct tape, red tape, white PVC pipe of 1-inch diameter, shotgun pellets, shotgun shell casings, blue and black wires, springs, Triple Seven-brand gun powder, and toggle switches. Investigators also recovered next to an empty paper dispenser a scrap of greenish paper that was of about the same color and thickness as the greenish paper used to wrap the package. Shawn testified that he and his father had used the paper when they painted cars and that rolls of the paper had been present before the property was searched. He did not...