U.S. v. Edmond, s. 90-3211
| Decision Date | 19 July 1995 |
| Docket Number | 93-3114,90-3218,91-3146,93-3116,90-3219,93-3119,90-3213,Nos. 90-3211,90-3214,90-3212,90-3220,91-3147,90-3241,93-3117,90-3217,93-3120,90-3215,90-3216,93-3118,93-3115,s. 90-3211 |
| Parties | , 42 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 119 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Rayful EDMOND, III, Appellant. , and 93-3121. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 89cr00162-01).
Elise Haldane, appointed by this Court, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant James Antonio Jones.
Neil Jaffee, Asst. Federal Public Defender, argued the cause, for appellant Keith E. Cooper. With him on the briefs was A.J. Kramer, Federal Public Defender.
Jensen E. Barber, appointed by this Court, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant Emanuel W. Sutton.
Leroy Nesbitt, appointed by this Court, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant Tony Lewis.
Daniel E. Ellenbogen, appointed by this Court, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant Rayful Edmond, III.
Joseph R. Conte, appointed by this Court, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant Jerry R. Millington.
Robert E. Sanders, appointed by this Court, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant Armaretta B. Perry.
David B. Smith, appointed by this Court, filed the briefs, for appellant David W. McCraw.
G. Godwin Oyewole, appointed by this Court, filed the briefs, for appellant Bernice H. McCraw.
Steven R. Kiersh, appointed by this Court, filed the briefs, for appellant Melvin D. Butler.
Leonard L. Long, appointed by this Court, filed the briefs, for appellant John Monford.
Elizabeth H. Danello, Asst. U.S. Atty., argued the cause, for appellee. With her on the brief were Eric H. Holder, Jr., U.S. Atty., and John R. Fisher, Asst. U.S. Atty.
Before: EDWARDS, Chief Judge; and SILBERMAN and SENTELLE, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed PER CURIAM.
Eleven defendants appeal judgments of conviction on charges relating to the operation of a large-scale cocaine distribution conspiracy allegedly run by appellant Rayful Edmond, III from 1985 until Edmond's arrest in April 1989. A 43-count superseding indictment filed on June 20, 1989, charged appellants, along with 18 others, with a variety of drug-related charges, including conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and more than 50 grams of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Secs. 841(a) and 846 (1988). In addition, the indictment charged Edmond with leading a continuing criminal enterprise ("CCE") involving at least 150 kilograms of cocaine and at least 1.5 kilograms of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Secs. 848(b) and 853. The indictment also charged appellants Edmond, James Antonio Jones, and Jerry Millington with offenses involving firearms and violence, including homicide. Finally, the indictment sought forfeiture of certain assets owned by the co-conspirators, including four residences, a Chevrolet Corvette, a Jaguar XJS convertible, and a Mercedes-Benz 190E, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. Sec. 853(a)(1) and (a)(2).
On August 9, 1989, the District Court severed the counts of the indictment alleging crimes of violence and firearms offenses from the conspiracy and drug-related charges. As to the latter charges, the court split the defendants into two groups for trial. This appeal arises from the first drug conspiracy trial.
At trial, the Government presented evidence that Edmond led a group of family members and friends who conspired to distribute large amounts of cocaine in the northeast Washington neighborhood where many of them lived and where Edmond grew up. Those involved in the conspiracy were Edmond; his friends, Melvin Butler and Tony Lewis; Edmond's half-brother, Emanuel Sutton ("Mangie"); his half-sister, Bernice Hillman McCraw ("Niecy"), and her husband, David McCraw; Edmond's cousin John Monford ("Johnny"); Edmond's aunt Armaretta Perry; and Edmond's sister's boyfriend, Jerry Millington; along with James Antonio Jones ("Tonio"), Keith Cooper ("Cheese"), and others not involved in this appeal.
According to the Government's evidence, the conspiracy involved a multi-layered operation. Its focus was a two-block area of Morton Place and Orleans Place, N.E., known as "the Strip," which served as an open-air market for cocaine powder and cocaine base, supplied by the Edmond organization from early 1986 through at least 1988. In operating the drug business, sellers, paid by the day or week, worked in eight-hour shifts. Demand for drugs along the Strip was so intense during this period that sellers sometimes sold out their supplies within minutes. Individuals dubbed "lieutenants" of the organization, including Cooper and Sutton, supplied sellers, including at least one juvenile, with bundles of cocaine, collected money from them, and shouted warnings when police entered the area. These lieutenants, along with Millington, Jones, and Monford, supervised the Strip, controlling the supply of cocaine and overseeing sellers.
The Government presented evidence that the lieutenants stored drug supplies in abandoned houses at 653 Orleans Place, 656 Orleans Place, and 642 Morton Place in northeast Washington, D.C. Police who executed search warrants at those addresses in early 1988 discovered a total of 300 grams of cocaine and 400 grams of cocaine base, thousands of dollars in cash, and nine firearms. After one search, police saw Jones and Millington watching four other persons clean up an apartment in the 656 Orleans Place house. During a February 18, 1988, search, police observed Cooper, who had been supplying sellers in the 600 block of Orleans Place when police arrived, throw down $1,400 in cash. Police recovered 100 $25 bags of cocaine in a plumbing pipe in the basement of the house as a result of that search.
To supply the Strip, several associates of Edmond, including David and Bernice Hillman McCraw and Armaretta Perry, packaged cocaine at various sites, including the McCraw apartment. Once packaged, the cocaine was stored at various homes, including the apartment of Millington and his girlfriend, Edmond's sister Rachelle Edmond, in Suitland, Maryland; and the apartment of David McCraw's friend James Minor, who McCraw had recruited into the organization. The organization also stored drugs at the Edmond family home at 407 M Street, N.E., Edmond's residence until he graduated from high school and a hub for the conspiracy. Edmond's aunt, Armaretta Perry, resided in and controlled the house which contained more than 200 grams of cocaine when police searched it on February 5, 1988.
Kathy Sellers, a school friend of Edmond and former girlfriend of Jones, who had been heavily involved in the Edmond organization, cooperated with the Government's investigation. She testified that drugs were hand carried from storage houses to the Strip. At the direction of Millington, Sellers began picking up bags of cocaine in the fall of 1987, sometimes at Millington's home. Later, she received drugs from David McCraw. After receiving the drugs, she drove to the Strip and delivered the supply to Millington, Cooper, Monford, Jones, and others. She made such deliveries until the early summer of 1988, receiving $800 per week from Millington as compensation. David McCraw also delivered drugs after receiving them at James Minor's apartment building. Minor himself later accompanied McCraw in bringing cocaine to Sellers's apartment and, after Sellers stopped making deliveries, directly to the Strip. In making such deliveries, the two parked a few blocks from the Strip, then found a "lieutenant," such as Jones or Cooper, who would send a runner to the car to pick up the contraband.
The Government presented evidence that the Edmond organization also acted as a drug wholesaler. On December 11 and 15, 1987, an undercover officer purchased half-ounces of cocaine near 407 M Street from a juvenile, Harry "Whitey" Sullivan, whom Emanuel Sutton identified as an associate of Edmond. On October 28, 1988, Sutton himself promised to sell the officer a kilogram of cocaine for $22,000. On December 14, 1988, David McCraw sold an ounce of cocaine to the same officer. Stevenson McArthur, a drug dealer, testified that he bought three half-kilograms of cocaine from Edmond for $10,000 each in 1987 and 1988.
Regarding the proceeds from drug sales, the Government's evidence indicated that Kathy Sellers picked up money from sales on the Strip, collecting amounts ranging from $400 to $10,000 from Cooper, Monford, and others, and delivering the cash to Millington or holding it at her own apartment. At Millington's house in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Sellers saw Edmond's mother, Constance Perry, count thousands of dollars with a money-counting machine. In April 1989, police found two money-counting machines, along with Cooper's personal papers, in a residence at 25 19th Street, S.E. When police searched the Edmond home in February 1988, they found more than $27,000 in cash. Further, Edmond's childhood friend, Royal Brooks, twice picked up money from Millington's house at Edmond's request, and once stored between $2 million and $3 million for Edmond.
According to the Government, the Edmond organization received the cocaine that fueled its activities from Colombia through a series of transactions with Melvin Butler in California. The Government presented evidence that Edmond associates Royal Brooks, Alta Rae Zanville, Tony Lewis, and Edmond himself, made trips from Washington to Los Angeles in 1988 to arrange for, and pay for, shipments of cocaine to Washington. On a trip taken January 11, 1988, Edmond, Brooks, and others flew from...
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