U.S. v. Duran, 81-5759

• Decision Date: 30 September 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-5759,81-5759
• Citation: 687 F.2d 348
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Juan Carlos DURAN, Jorge Duran-Garcia, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 348

687 F.2d 348

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Juan Carlos DURAN, Jorge Duran-Garcia, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 81-5759.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Sept. 30, 1982.

Steven E. Kreisberg, Miami, Fla., for Duran.

Luis Cruz (Court-Appointed), Miami, Fla., for Duran-Garcia.

Michael W. Burnbaum, Asst. U. S. Atty., Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before HILL and CLARK, Circuit Judges, and SCOTT ^*, District Judge.

JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge:

On April 8, 1981, Juan Carlos Duran and his father Jorge Duran-Garcia were traveling together from Colombia to Miami, Florida with a single suitcase. ¹ Shortly after their arrival at the Miami International Airport, customs officials discovered approximately one kilogram of virtually pure cocaine carefully concealed in the inner panels of their suitcase. When questioned by Drug Enforcement Agents, Juan Carlos Duran stated that the suitcase was his and had been borrowed from a friend; however, the name of Jorge Duran-Garcia appeared on the attached luggage tag, and the clothes of both father and son were in the suitcase. As a result, both were charged in a three count indictment with importing a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a), 960(a)(1), and 18 U.S.C. § 2, possession with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2, and conspiring to import and possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, 952(a), 960(a)(1).

Juan Carlos Duran pled guilty to the conspiracy count and the remaining counts were dismissed. The district court chose to sentence him as an adult despite the fact that he was only eighteen years old at the time of sentencing. Duran was sentenced to six years in prison and now appeals his sentence under the Youth Corrections Act. 18 U.S.C. § 5005 et seq. Jorge Duran-Garcia was tried and convicted on all three counts. He also was sentenced to a six year prison term and now appeals the validity of his conviction, arguing that the Government failed to proffer sufficient evidence to prove that he knew his son was carrying cocaine in the suitcase. For the reasons developed below, we affirm both actions of the district court.

Essentially, Duran-Garcia maintains that his son was solely responsible for the drug transport. Indeed, at trial Duran testified that he had been hired by a man in Colombia to transport the cocaine to a contact in Miami. Duran further testified that his father was unaware of the suitcase's contents, and that he, and not his father, had written his father's name on the luggage tag in the event that the bag was lost. The Government, however, introduced much circumstantial evidence pointing to the fact that Duran-Garcia was at least a joint owner of the suitcase, and as such was presumed to know its contents. For example: the suitcase contained the clothing of both men, even though they intended to depart from Miami in different directions; both the permanent tag on the luggage as well as the temporary flight ticket bore the Duran-Garcia's name; ² all customs forms were signed by the father, and a hotel slip found among Duran-Garcia's belongings indicated that he had left a hotel in Barranquilla, Colombia the morning of his arrest with an empty suitcase. ³

At the conclusion of the Government's presentation, Duran-Garcia moved for a Judgment of Acquittal. The motion was denied and the defendant went on to present his own witnesses. ⁴ This may have been a tactical error because, in the view of the trial judge, "the defendant's credibility was badly shaken." Record, at 157. The trial therefore boiled down to a battle between the credibility of Duran-Garcia and his son, on one hand, and the Government's circumstantial evidence on the other. The jury chose not to believe the father and son, and convicted Duran-Garcia. Under the proper standard of review, this verdict must be upheld "if there is substantial evidence, taking the view most favorable to the government to support it." Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); see also Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 124, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 2911, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974). After carefully reviewing the trial record, in a light most favorable to the Government, we are convinced that sufficient evidence was introduced to support the jury's verdict. The conviction of Jorge Duran-Garcia therefore is affirmed.

A more difficult question arises with respect to the appeal of Juan Carlos Duran. At his sentencing hearing before the district court, Duran asked to be sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act. Because he was eighteen years old at the time of his offense and sentencing, the option of sentencing under the Act was open to the district judge. 18 U.S.C. § 5006(d) (defining a "youth offender" as a person under the age of twenty-two years at the time of conviction). However, sentencing under the Youth Corrections Act is not mandatory, 18 U.S.C. § 5010(d), and in rejecting the applicability of youth sentencing, the district judge stated:

The Defendant, having been adjudicated guilty pursuant to his plea of guilty, as to Count III, the Defendant having taken the stand and testified as to his guilt, the Court having reviewed the Presentence Report, together with the matters submitted, and heard allocution, the Court finds that in view of the amount of cocaine, purity of the cocaine, that it would not be appropriate to sentence the Defendant under the Youth Corrections Act....

Sentencing Transcript at 5-6.

The Federal Youth Corrections Act is a comprehensive sentencing statute designed to provide flexibility in the treatment of youth offenders convicted in federal court. ⁵ The thrust of the legislation is to place more of an emphasis on rehabilitation than generally is provided under adult sentencing procedures. See Ralston v. Robinson, 454 U.S. 201, 102 S.Ct. 233, 237-38, 70 L.Ed.2d 345 (1982); Durst v. United States, 434 U.S. 542, 545-46, 98 S.Ct. 849, 851-52, 55 L.Ed.2d 14 (1978). See generally Dorszynski v. United States, 418 U.S. 424, 431-36, 94 S.Ct. 3042, 3046-49, 41 L.Ed.2d 855 (1974). To achieve this objective, the Act affords a district judge two additional sentencing options when the convicted offender is under twenty-two years of age. ⁶ The judge may either commit the youth to the custody of the Attorney General for treatment under the Act pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 5010(b) and (c), or the youth may be placed on probation as prescribed in 18 U.S.C. § 5010(a). In addition, the Act also provides that a district judge may reject sentencing under the Act with respect to a particular youth offender. This third option is incorporated in section 5010(d) and reads as follows:

If the court shall find that the youth offender will not derive benefit from treatment under subsection (b) or (c), then the court may sentence the youth offender under any other applicable penalty provision.

18 U.S.C. § 5010(d).

Although the Act contemplates that the unfettered discretion of a sentencing judge is to be preserved, section 5010(d) has been construed to require an express finding that a particular youth offender would not benefit under the Act before alternative sentencing routes are pursued. Dorszynski, supra; United States v. Tobias, 662 F.2d 381 (5th Cir. 1981); Hoyt v. United States, 502 F.2d 562, 563 (5th Cir. 1974). ⁷ This requirement is necessary to "insure that the sentencing judge exercised his discretion in choosing not to commit a youth offender to treatment under the Act." Dorszynski, 418 U.S. at 443, 94 S.Ct. at 3052. However, because the Act was not designed to circumscribe the sentencing discretion, ⁸ a judge is not required to give reasons supporting his decision not to employ the Act. Walls v. United States, 544 F.2d 236, 237 (5th Cir. 1976); e.g., United States v. Hall, 525 F.2d 970 (5th Cir. 1976). Thus, the Supreme Court concluded in Dorszynski that

(l)iteral compliance with the Act can be satisfied by any expression that makes clear the sentencing judge considered the alternative of sentencing under the Act and decided that the youth offender would not derive benefit from treatment under the Act.

418 U.S. at 444, 94 S.Ct. at 3053.

We are persuaded that the court's statement indicating that youth sentencing would not be appropriate for Duran satisfies this minimum standard of compliance. Although the court's no benefit finding probably should have been made with greater clarity and directness, see Hoyt v. United States, 502 F.2d 562, 563 (5th Cir. 1974), we, somewhat reluctantly, are bound to uphold the legitimacy of its finding on the basis of United States v. Hall, 525 F.2d 970 (5th Cir. 1976). In Hall, a similar perfunctory statement was held by the former Fifth Circuit to satisfy the requirement of a no benefit finding under section 5010(d) of the Act. 525 F.2d at 972. ⁹ The only distinction between the perfunctory finding in Hall and the statement of inappropriateness in the present case is that in sentencing Duran the court went one step further. In an attempt to justify its rejection of the youth sentencing option, the court suggests that the nature of Duran's offense (the amount and purity of the cocaine) was one of the factors in its no benefit finding.

Undue reliance on the nature of the defendant's crime can be improper justification for a no benefit finding. See, e.g., United States v. Tobias, 662 F.2d 381, 388 (5th Cir. 1981); United States v. Hartford, 489 F.2d 652, 655 (5th Cir. 1974). This is because when determining whether a youth may benefit from the Act, the focus of the inquiry should not be on the crime committed, but rather on the individualized record of the defendant. Id. The crime may be relevant to the extent that it reflects on the character of the defendant, c.f. United States v....