U.S. v. Davila

• Decision Date: 30 August 2006
• Docket Number: Docket No. 05-2545-cr.
• Citation: 461 F.3d 298
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Noel DAVILA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

461 F.3d 298

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Noel DAVILA, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 05-2545-cr.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: March 21, 2006.

Decided: August 30, 2006.

Stephen B. Reynolds, Assistant United States Attorney (Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and William J. Nardini, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), Bridgeport, CT, for Appellee.

Timothy P. Pothin, Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante, P.C., New Haven, CT, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before LEVAL and B.D. PARKER, Circuit Judges, and SESSIONS, District Judge.^*

WILLIAM K. SESSIONS III, District Judge.

Noel Davila appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Ellen Bree Burns, Judge). Following a jury trial, Davila was found guilty of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and delivering a threat to injure through the U.S. mail. The charges stemmed from a hoax anthrax mailing that Davila, a prison inmate, created and caused to be sent to the State's Attorney's Office in Bridgeport, Connecticut. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that none of the arguments raised in Davila's appeal warrants reversal of his conviction, and we affirm the judgment of the district court.

Background

A. Procedural history

In September 2002, Davila was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and delivering a threat to injure through the U.S. mail, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2332a and 876(c). Count One of the indictment charged that Davila had violated section 2332a by threatening the use of a biological agent, toxin, or vector against members and employees of the Connecticut State's Attorney's Office at Bridgeport. It also alleged that the threat affected interstate commerce and that the threatened use would have affected interstate commerce. Count Two charged that Davila had violated section 876(c) by causing to be delivered to the State's Attorney's Office an envelope containing a white powdery substance represented to be anthrax, along with a letter, which together threatened to injure the person of another.

Davila pled not guilty to both counts of the indictment, and a jury trial was held from June 21 to 28, 2004. Davila moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the government's evidence, and the court reserved decision. After the jury returned a verdict of guilty on both counts, Davila moved for a new trial and filed a supplemental motion for a judgment of acquittal. The court denied Davila's motions in unpublished written rulings dated March 23, 2005.

On May 11, 2005, the district court sentenced Davila to a term of imprisonment of 360 months on Count One and 60 months on Count Two. The court noted that the length of the sentence was affected by Davila's status as a career offender, and it also emphasized his violent criminal history and his pattern of disobedience during incarceration. The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently with each other and with the state sentence that Davila was already serving. In light of the pre-existing state sentence, the sentence in this case had the effect of adding approximately 17 years to Davila's term of incarceration.

Davila filed a timely notice of appeal on May 18, 2005.

B. The evidence at trial

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and drawing all reasonable inferences in the government's favor, the following facts were established at Davila's trial. In August 2002, Davila was incarcerated at the Cheshire Correctional Institution in Connecticut. He had made comments to other inmates indicating that he held a grudge against a particular state prosecutor in Bridgeport who had handled cases against him, and he had previously filed a grievance and a lawsuit against that prosecutor. Both the grievance and the lawsuit had been dismissed for lack of merit.

On or about August 18, 2002, Davila wrote a note containing the words "ANTRAX" [sic] and "AKA Bin Laden." He folded the note to create a makeshift envelope and placed into it a small quantity of baby powder that had been acquired from the prison commissary. Davila placed the folded note, along with another piece of paper containing writing in a foreign language, into an envelope that was pre-printed with a notation designed to inform the recipient that it had been sent by a correctional inmate. He addressed the envelope to "STATE ATT. SUPERIOR COURT 1061 MAIN ST. BRIDGEPORT CT. 06604." In the space for the return address, he wrote the name "H. Gordon," an inmate number, and the prison's street address. He also included the notation "Legal Mail" in an apparent effort to avoid inspection by prison officials. Davila then gave the envelope to another inmate to place in the mail.

On August 20, 2002, Davila's envelope arrived at the State's Attorney's Office in Bridgeport. It was delivered to the front office, which was occupied by a clerical supervisor, Ruthann Haug, and two other employees, Annette Stufan and Michelle Martino. Haug opened the envelope and found the "ANTRAX" note, the foreign writing, and the powder. She exclaimed about the powder to Stufan and Martino, and the three employees immediately left the room and notified their supervisors. Upon learning of Haug's discovery, another employee, Inspector Bill Hughes, came into the office and examined the envelope, causing the powder to spill onto a desk. At that point, Hughes left the room, and the Connecticut State Police were contacted. A full-scale hazardous materials response ensued, with emergency personnel in protective gear arriving to inspect and seal off the area. The front office area of the building was closed for approximately two and a half days until test results were obtained showing that the powder did not contain anthrax or other pathogens.

Even though they were aware that the letter bore the return address of a prison inmate, Haug, Stufan, and Martino were concerned about their exposure to the powder, and they took a number of precautionary measures. Haug removed and bagged her clothes, wiped down the inside of her car with alcohol, and stayed in her house while she awaited the test results out of fear that she might infect others. Martino showered, washed her clothes, and remained away from work for a few days; she testified that she was fearful about the possibility of infecting her children. Stufan went home, called a doctor, and began taking the antibiotic Cipro.

The government also presented evidence regarding how interstate commerce would have been affected if Davila had actually sent anthrax. A postal manager testified that the mail facility in Wallingford, CT, would have been partially shut down, that interstate mail would have been delayed, and that mail would have been diverted to other facilities outside of Connecticut. He based these predictions on an actual incident in which anthrax-contaminated mail had passed through the Wallingford facility, causing a partial shutdown for a number of weeks. In addition, an official from the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified that if Davila's letter had contained anthrax, the government would have used interstate highways to transport drugs by truck to Connecticut from a national strategic stockpile located outside of Connecticut.

Discussion

Davila appeals the district court's denial of his motions for a judgment of acquittal, citing four alleged errors. He argues that the statutes under which he was convicted criminalized only threats of future action and that his conduct did not fall within this definition; that the letter was insufficiently credible to constitute a "true threat"; that the government failed to establish a sufficient link with interstate commerce, as required by section 2332a; and that the indictment failed to allege that his letter was addressed to a "person," as required by section 876(c).

We review the denial of a judgment of acquittal de novo. United States v. Holland, 381 F.3d 80, 86 (2d Cir.2004). We consider the sufficiency of the evidence according to the same standard that guided the district court: viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and drawing all reasonable inferences in the government's favor, we must determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Reyes, 302 F.3d 48, 52 (2d Cir.2002).

A. Whether sections 2332a and 876(c) criminalize only threats of future action

Davila's first argument is one of statutory interpretation. He reads the phrases "threatens ... to use" and "threat to injure" in sections 2332a and 876(c) as restricting the scope of those statutes to threats by an individual to engage in future harmful acts. His letter did not constitute such a threat, he argues, because it merely created the false impression that a harmful act had already been committed.

At the time that Davila sent his letter in 2002, section 2332a provided that anyone who

without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction ... (2) against any person within the United States, and the results of such use affect interstate commerce or, in the case of a threat, attempt, or conspiracy, would have affected interstate or foreign commerce ... shall be [guilty of a crime].

18 U.S.C. § 2332a(a) (emphasis added). Section 876(c) provided:

Whoever knowingly [deposits to be mailed or causes to be mailed] any communication ... addressed to any other person and containing ... any threat to injure the person of the addressee or of another, shall be [guilty of a crime].

18 U.S.C. § 876(c) (emphasis added). Davila argues that the use of the words "threat" and "threaten," combined with the infinitives "to use" and "to injure," limits the scope of both statutes to threats of future conduct on the part of...