U.S. v. Fields

• Decision Date: 13 December 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-3064,81-3064
• Citation: 689 F.2d 122
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony R. FIELDS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 122

689 F.2d 122

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony R. FIELDS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 81-3064.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued June 9, 1982.

Decided Sept. 14, 1982.

Certiorari Denied Dec. 13, 1982.

See 103 S.Ct. 573.

Pete Pappas, Indianapolis, Ind., for defendant-appellant.

Roger L. Duncan, Asst. U.S. Atty., Indianapolis, Ind., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before PELL and BAUER, Circuit Judges, and DECKER, ^* Senior District Judge, sitting by designation.

DECKER, Senior District Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Anthony R. Fields appeals from his conviction on three counts of knowingly acquiring and possessing food stamp coupons in a manner not authorized by law. 7 U.S.C. § 2024(b). Fields claims numerous errors by the district court, particularly with respect to his defense of entrapment. We affirm.

Anthony Fields is the proprietor of the D & P Variety Store in Indianapolis, Indiana. The D & P Variety Store sells neither food nor other retail merchandise, and is not authorized by the United States Department of Agriculture to accept food stamps. ¹ Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, see Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), the evidence established that on February 18, 1981, Robyn Stewart and Ernest Stanford, Jr., two federal undercover agents from the Department of Agriculture and the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, respectively, met with Fields outside of his store and offered to sell him a quantity of food stamps at a discount, which he could then redeem illegally for cash. It is undisputed that prior to the time of that meeting, the agents had no knowledge that Fields had actually dealt illegally in food stamps in the past. Fields' name arose in that connection, however, during an unrelated investigation by the Treasury Department into illegal firearms sales, when one of the subjects of that investigation, Eugene Carter, told undercover agents that he knew someone, Fields, who might be willing to deal illegally in food stamps. ²

Fields told Agents Stewart and Stanford that he was interested in dealing in the stamps and, when asked, indicated to them that he was willing to do so on a regular basis. Agent Stewart then proposed to sell Fields $2600.00 in food stamps for $1300.00. After Fields made a telephone call to check the serial numbers of the stamps against the food stamp alert bulletin (or "hot sheet"), and found that the stamps were "cool," he agreed to the purchase, and the parties completed the transaction.

On February 26, 1981, Agents Stewart and Stanford returned to the D & P Variety store with $1950.00 in food stamps. After some dickering about price, Fields purchased the stamps from the agents for $800.00. On March 26, 1981, the parties met again, and the agents sold Fields $1300.00 in food stamps for $530.00.

On April 24, 1981, the agents brought $17,225.00 in food stamps to Fields' store. Fields only agreed to purchase approximately $6100.00 in stamps, however, for $2000.00. While the money was on the counter and Fields was holding the bag containing the stamps, counting them, federal agents entered the store and arrested Fields.

The jury found Fields guilty of unlawful acquisition and possession of food stamps based on the transactions of February 26, March 26, and April 24, 1981, and found him not guilty of the same charges for the transaction of February 18. Fields claims that he was entrapped as to all four of the transactions. First he has argued that the district court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict on all counts because the evidence was insufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he was not entrapped, a fact which he claims was supported by the jury's acquittal for the February 18 transaction. He has also argued that the district court improperly instructed the jury on the entrapment defense; that the court erred in its responses to questions sent out by the jury during deliberations; and that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction for the April 24 transaction, when he and Stanford were interrupted before the transaction was completed. Finally, Fields claims that the district court's sentence of two concurrent three-year prison terms, followed by five years of probation, was improper in light of the three-month sentence given to Carter. The court will consider each of these arguments in turn.

I.

Fields' first claim is that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he was not entrapped by the government agents. At trial, Fields admitted to having participated in the transactions for which he was charged, but claimed that he was not at all predisposed to do so prior to being approached by the agents and he did so here only as a result of the government's inducement. In support of his claims, Fields testified that he had never dealt illegally in food stamps prior to February 18, 1981.

This court has recently held that where a defendant has introduced evidence of both government inducement and a lack of predisposition on the part of the defendant to commit the offense charged, the government must introduce "sufficient evidence from which a jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that (the) defendant was predisposed to commit the offenses." United States v. Hinkle, 637 F.2d 1154, 1158 (7th Cir. 1981). The term "predisposition" refers to whether the defendant had a readiness and willingness to commit the offenses charged, or whether the government "implant(ed) in the mind of an innocent person" the disposition to commit the offense. Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 442, 53 S.Ct. 210, 212, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932). See also Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 375, 78 S.Ct. 819, 822, 2 L.Ed.2d 848 (1958). Predisposition may be established by evidence of a defendant's personal background, and by evidence of a defendant's conduct before or after the commission of the offense. United States v. Carreon, 626 F.2d 528 (7th Cir. 1980); United States v. Townsend, 555 F.2d 152 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 897, 98 S.Ct. 277, 54 L.Ed.2d 184 (1977).

In this case, there was ample evidence of Fields' predisposition before, during and after the commission of the offenses for which he was convicted. At trial, Fields testified that prior to being approached by the agents, he dealt in illegal lottery tickets as a means of support. When the agents presented Fields with the opportunity to deal illegally in stamps, too, Fields immediately indicated his willingness to do so on a regular basis, provided that the stamps were not on the hot sheet. At the agents' first meeting with Fields, he gave them two phone numbers where he could be reached when the agents acquired more stamps. Moreover, Fields showed no reluctance about participating in the illegal transactions, as long as he was able to "milk" the stamps for all he could without getting caught. Each time he dealt with the agents, Fields negotiated a lower price for the stamps, explaining that he needed to pay off the individuals whose assistance was required to redeem the stamps, while keeping for himself a profit sufficient to justify his participation in the scheme. Such conduct on Fields' part, indicating his familiarity with the operation of a criminal enterprise and his willingness to participate in the stamp "scam," when combined with his illegal activities prior to the government's undercover investigation, constitutes sufficient evidence of Fields' predisposition to support a conviction. See Sherman v. United States, supra.

The Ninth Circuit has recently addressed the issues of entrapment and criminal predisposition in the context of the government's food stamp investigations. In United States v. Abushi, 682 F.2d 1289 (9th Cir. 1982), four individuals were convicted of illegally acquiring and redeeming food stamps after special agents of the Agriculture Department sold them several thousand dollars in food stamps in undercover transactions resembling those in issue here. Like Fields, defendants in Abushi claimed unsuccessfully at trial that they had been entrapped by the federal agents. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions, finding considerable evidence of predisposition similar to that presented here:

"(T)here is substantial evidence to establish the predisposition of all four appellants. They showed little, if any, real resistance to participation in the food stamp transactions when they were proposed by the government agents, nor were they concerned about the illegal nature of that activity.

....

"It is clear from (one agent's) testimony that all she needed to do to effectuate a given sale was to inform Abushi that she was carrying some stamps which she wanted to sell, and negotiate with him over the price."

At 1298. The Ninth Circuit's conclusion in Abushi is particularly appropriate in the case at bar:

"The appellants have not pointed to any evidence indicating a reluctance on their part to engage in the illegal activity. To the contrary, the record is replete with instances where the appellants appeared eager to negotiate then and in the future. Although the government made the initial contact with the appellants, this is merely evidence that the government furnished the opportunity for the commission of a crime, not that the appellants were entrapped. United States v. Glaeser, 550 F.2d 483, 487 (9th Cir. 1977)."

At 1298.

The court finds that there was sufficient evidence of predisposition in Mr. Fields' case for a rational factfinder to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Fields was not entrapped.

Addressing briefly Fields' suggestion that the jury's acquittal on the February 18 charges based on entrapment in some way requires a reversal of his conviction for the subsequent offenses, the court knows of no per se rule which provides that the taint of a first...