U.S. v. Carrion-Caliz

• Decision Date: 27 September 1991
• Docket Number: D,CARRION-CALI,No. 90-2809,90-2809
• Citation: 944 F.2d 220
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ramiroefendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 220

944 F.2d 220

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ramiro CARRION-CALIZ, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 90-2809.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Sept. 27, 1991.

On Suggestion for Rehearing

En Banc Nov. 21, 1991.

Roland E. Dahlin, Federal Public Defender, Daniel H. Wannamaker, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Houston, Tex., for defendant-appellant.

Jeffrey A. Babcock, Paula C. Offenhauser, Asst. U.S. Attys., Houston, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.

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

Before KING, JOHNSON, and EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judges.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge:

Ramiro Carrion-Caliz appeals from his conviction on three counts of violating the Hostage Taking Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1203, asserting that the Government failed to produce sufficient evidence to convict him. Carrion also argues that the district court erred by imposing a sentence greater than the statutory maximum sentence applicable to his offenses. While this Court will affirm Carrion's conviction, we remand the case for resentencing.

I. Facts and Procedural History

While in Guatemala City, Guatemala in early 1990, Carrion met Luisa Amanda Cuaresma and her family--her two young granddaughters, Leticia Mercedes and Ivania Del Carmen, and Luisa's niece, Maria Teresa Cuaresma. Luisa told Carrion that the four of them would like to go to the United States to visit Luisa's daughter, Lesbia Cuaresma-De Fatima, who lived in Miami, Florida. For a fee of $2,000 Carrion agreed to transport the four women to Brownsville, Texas. Carrion accompanied the family to Mexico City, where Luisa asked Carrion for help in securing additional funds from Lesbia in Miami. Carrion telephoned Lesbia, telling her that her family was "in his power" and instructed Lesbia to wire $650. Lesbia complied. Although Luisa had already paid Carrion the full $2,000 fee in Guatemala, Carrion kept $600 of the money Lesbia sent and gave Luisa only $50.

On March 18, 1990, Carrion and another individual named Santos helped the four family members cross the Rio Grande River into the United States. Upon their arrival in the United States, Maria Teresa was separated from the rest of the family and taken to Casa Romero in Brownsville, Texas. Santos took Luisa and her granddaughters to Carrion's home in Brownsville, where they remained for about eight days. Luisa testified--through an interpreter--that during that time she and her granddaughters stayed in a single small room and never left the house because Carrion had warned her and the girls that if they left they would be captured by immigration officials and deported. Luisa further testified that she was very nervous while in Carrion's hands, and her daughter, Lesbia, testified that Luisa appeared to have suffered a nervous breakdown of some sort during her ordeal. Finally, Luisa testified that she did not know where she was, did not know how to go anywhere in the United States, and did not have any money. Luisa speaks little or no English, and has had virtually no formal schooling.

Soon after secreting Luisa and the girls in his house, Carrion telephoned Lesbia again, informing her that her family had arrived safely in the United States but were still under his control. Over the next few days, Carrion made more telephone calls to Lesbia to demand more money, initially demanding $5,000 and then reducing his demand to $3,000. Carrion told Lesbia that if she did not send the money, Luisa and the girls would "disappear." Lesbia decided not to comply with Carrion's demands. Instead, she and her husband, Leonardo Lopez, travelled to Brownsville and informed authorities of the situation. Under the supervision of United States officials, Lesbia made arrangements to pay Carrion the amount he demanded. When Carrion showed up to collect the money, he was arrested. Luisa and her two granddaughters were released.

Carrion was indicted on fourteen counts: eleven counts involved crimes of illegally bringing aliens into the country and three counts involved hostage taking. The district court directed verdicts in favor of Carrion on two of the counts relating to illegal aliens, and the jury convicted Carrion on all of the remaining twelve counts, including the three counts of violating the Hostage Taking Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1203. ¹ The district court imposed sentences of 168 months on each of the twelve counts, all of the sentences to run concurrently. In addition, the district court imposed a five year term of supervised release and, for each count, a special assessment of $50. Carrion timely appeals both from his convictions under the Hostage Taking Act and from the sentence imposed by the district court.

II. Discussion

A. Carrion's Conviction for Hostage Taking

1. Standard of Review

When presented with a claim that the evidence was insufficient to support a criminal conviction, this Court reviews the judgment of the district court to determine whether, viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788-89, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); United States v. Hopkins, 916 F.2d 207, 212 (5th Cir.1990). While an inquiry into the sufficiency of the evidence ordinarily is fairly straightforward, this case presents a particular difficulty: no court has yet identified the essential elements of a conviction for hostage taking.

2. The Hostage Taking Act

The Hostage Taking Act, adopted by Congress in 1984, provides:

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third person or a governmental organization to do or to abstain from any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the person detained, or attempts to do so, shall be punished by imprisonment by any term of years or life.

18 U.S.C.A. § 1203(a) (West Supp.1991). Thus, by the plain terms of the statute, a conviction under the Hostage Taking Act requires the Government to show that the defendant 1) seized or detained another person, 2) threatened to kill, injure, or continue to detain that person, 3) with the purpose of compelling a third person or governmental entity to act in some way, or to refrain from acting in some way.

There is little question here that the evidence against Carrion was sufficient to establish the second and third of these elements. Taken in the light most favorable to the Government, the evidence showed that when Carrion spoke to Lesbia, he told her that Luisa and her family were in his power, and that they would disappear if Lesbia did not pay him the money he demanded. Plainly, the jury could have found that he threatened to injure or to kill Luisa and the girls in order to compel Lesbia to pay him. The only real question concerns the first element of the offense: did Carrion "seize" or "detain" Luisa and the girls within the meaning of the Act? Answering this question is complicated by the fact that the Act itself does not indicate what it means by "seize" or "detain." Moreover, there is precious little legislative history, and even less case law, to aid in construing the Hostage Taking Act. Accordingly, the Court will look to an analogous statute--the federal kidnapping statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1201--and the jurisprudence that has developed under it, to guide our construction of the Hostage Taking Act.

3. Similarities Between the Hostage Taking Act and the Federal Kidnapping Statute

Initially, we note that the federal kidnapping statute and the Hostage Taking Act are quite similar, so that it is reasonable to look to one for help in deciphering the other. The two acts are codified together in Chapter 55 of Title 18, and they contain similar language. Like the Hostage Taking Act, which makes it illegal to "seize" or "detain" another person, the kidnapping statute makes it illegal, among other things, to "seize" or "confine" another person. 18 U.S.C. §§ 1201(a), 1203(a). This similarity in the language of the statutes pervades the cases as well; when interpreting the kidnapping statute the Supreme Court, this Court, and others have repeatedly used the term "detention" as a synonym for, or in place of, the term "confinement." See, e.g., Chatwin v. United States, 326 U.S. 455, 464, 66 S.Ct. 233, 237, 90 L.Ed. 198 (1946) ("involuntariness of seizure and detention ... is the very essence of the crime of kidnapping"); United States v. Johnson, 514 F.2d 92, 94-95 (5th Cir.1975) (evidence showed involuntary "detention"); United States v. Young, 512 F.2d 321, 323 (4th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 956, 96 S.Ct. 1432, 47 L.Ed.2d 362 (1976) (involuntary "detention" key element of kidnapping); Gawne v. United States, 409 F.2d 1399, 1403 (9th Cir.1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 943, 90 S.Ct. 956, 25 L.Ed.2d 123 (1970) (same).

In addition to their similar language, both statutes punish similar conduct. While kidnapping might be more commonly associated with attempts to force individuals to pay ransom, and hostage taking with attempts to influence the behavior of governments (or governmental organizations), the two statutes overlap to a considerable degree. The Hostage Taking Act, by its plain language, applies to attempts to coerce both individuals and governments to act or refrain from acting in some way specified by the hostage takers. Similarly, the Supreme Court has held that the language of the kidnapping statute is broad enough to cover kidnappings undertaken out of non-pecuniary motives. E.g. Gooch v. United States, 297 U.S. 124, 126-29, 56 S.Ct. 395, 396-97, 80 L.Ed. 522 (1936) (inclusion of words "or otherwise" in kidnapping statute signals Congressional intent to give act broad application); United States v. Healy, 376 U.S. 75, 81, 84...