U.S. v. Hutchinson
| Decision Date | 27 July 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 07-1234.,No. 07-1230.,No. 07-1264.,No. 07-1204.,07-1204.,07-1230.,07-1234.,07-1264. |
| Citation | 573 F.3d 1011 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Alvin HUTCHINSON, a/k/a Big Al, Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lee Arthur Thompson, a/k/a "LT", Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Junior Ray Montoya, Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William L. Gladney, a/k/a "L", Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Before GORSUCH, McKAY, and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges.
Denver's Alpine Rose Motel was something of a "drive-thru" crack market. Customers needed only to pull their cars into the parking lot to receive window-side service from one of the motel's resident drug runners. A runner would take the customer's order, proceed to different motel rooms occupied by crack dealers until he found sufficient quantities to fill the order, and then make the delivery. So-called enforcers helped keep the peace among the motel's residents. Two leaders of the operation replenished the various dealers' drug supply on a daily basis and mediated disputes. A peculiar sort of community spirit evolved, with a Mother's Day "crack scramble" and an Easter egg hunt with rocks of crack substituted for eggs. The business model proved highly successful—some 100 customers visited each day at the height of the motel's crack dealing operation in the summer of 2004.
The government brought a variety of charges against several of those involved in the Alpine Rose operation, including counts under the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act. Eventually, the district court held four trials that resulted in the conviction of the defendants-appellants now before us: Alvin Hutchinson, Lee Arthur Thompson, Junior Ray Montoya, and William L. Gladney. Each of these individuals raises different challenges to his conviction or sentence, ranging from contesting the adequacy of the district court's jury instructions to disputing that court's compliance with the Speedy Trial Act. In the main, we affirm the district court's disposition of these complex matters.
Viewed, as it must be, in the light most favorable to the government as the prevailing party, the evidence shows that the Alpine Rose motel was a hub of drug activity for years, but that business really ratcheted up in 2004 when Lee Arthur Thompson and Alvin Hutchinson moved in. Mr. Thompson, known to the residents of the Alpine Rose as "LT," was a crack supplier who made two regular, daily deliveries of product to the motel. Mr. Thompson's best customer was Mr. Hutchinson, a prolific dealer at the Alpine Rose. But the relationship between Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson was more than that of just seller and buyer. One resident of the motel familiar with drug operation described Mr. Hutchinson as Mr. Thompson's "right-hand man," H. Vol. XXIII at 404;1 another described Mr. Hutchinson's role by saying "[h]e was right under [Mr. Thompson]," H. Vol. XXII at 195. Together, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson acted as authority figures, directing the drug trade at the Alpine Rose. Other individuals never gave orders to Mr. Thompson or Mr. Hutchinson. Even the owner of the motel, Jorge Banuelos, a drug addict who purchased from Mr. Thompson, followed orders given by Mr. Thompson, his tenant.
Other Alpine Rose residents, following the lead of Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson, performed a variety of roles. Some, the dealers, received drugs from Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson and resold them to street-level customers. Others including Junior Ray Montoya, were runners who worked on behalf of the dealers as a sort of car-side waiter service, taking orders from customers sitting in their cars in the motel's parking lot, retrieving drugs from dealers located in the motel's various rooms, and then delivering the drugs to the waiting customers. In return for their labor, runners were entitled to keep a small piece of the delivered drug. Other individuals at the motel, widely known as enforcers, ensured that motel residents abided Mr. Thompson's and Mr. Hutchinson's directions.
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson exercised significant control over the lives of the motel's residents. They decided who could live at the motel and who could not. They oversaw day-to-day aspects of the drug trade, and they mediated customer complaints. For example, when a customer complained that Mr. Montoya had tried to cheat him in a crack purchase, the customer complained to Mr. Thompson; Mr. Thompson rebuked Mr. Montoya; and Mr. Thompson then gave the customer twice the crack he sought to settle the dispute.
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson ruled in large measure through the threat and use of violence. By way of illustration, Mr. Hutchinson arranged for several enforcers to beat up a runner named Marlo Johnson because Mr. Johnson slapped one of the dealer's sons. On a different occasion, Mr. Thompson directed a group of enforcers to attack Paul Rose, another motel resident, because he borrowed money from one of Mr. Thompson's girlfriends against Mr. Thompson's wishes. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson also used violence against the outside world: they enlisted residents of the motel to use violence on their behalf to collect debts, and armed their lieutenants to drive away from the Alpine Rose rival drug dealers who threatened their commercial dominance of the area's drug trade.
Despite the occasional use of violence against and among residents, a kind of community spirit developed at the Alpine Rose. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson organized cookouts, inviting all of those involved in the drug business at the motel to attend. At these gatherings, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson provided food for everyone and gave away drugs as prizes. Mr. Thompson organized a "crack scramble" on Mother's Day, throwing crack from a balcony onto the parking lot for the mothers in attendance to grab. H. Vol. XXII at 151. Mr. Thompson also organized an Easter egg hunt, though with the traditional egg replaced by a "big rock of crack cocaine." Id. at 154. One resident who attended these parties compared the atmosphere to a "company picnic." H. Vol. XXIII at 416. Mr. Hutchinson held frequent 6 a.m. meetings in his room. Dubbed "Sunrise at Al's," these meetings were attended by, in one resident's words, "[e]verybody at the motel." H. Vol. XXII at 155-56. Mr. Hutchinson supplied food, and the residents would discuss business and play dice games, with crack as the prize. Residents regularly visited each other's rooms to share food, play games, and take drugs together. As one dealer described the atmosphere at the Alpine Rose, residents H. Vol. XXIII at 374.
The residents also helped each other avoid the police. Mr. Thompson, Mr. Hutchinson, and a few other residents had surveillance devices that transmitted live footage of the parking lot and surrounding areas to television monitors in their rooms. If residents became aware of police presence through either the surveillance devices or observation, they notified others in the motel using cell phones or walkie-talkies. Mr. Thompson expected residents to notify him and others if they became aware of either a police presence or some other disturbance.
William Gladney, one of the defendants before us and a dealer at the Alpine Rose, unwittingly played a role in the demise of the motel's drug operations. Mr. Gladney opened up shop and sold drugs out of his room at the motel after Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson established their operation. When Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson ran out of drugs, the dealers who normally depended on them for supply sometimes turned to Mr. Gladney, who had another, outside source of supply. Though the relationship between Mr. Gladney and Mr. Thompson was strained, Mr. Gladney and Mr. Hutchinson were friends and used drugs together. On October 23, 2004, Marlo Johnson sought to purchase drugs from Mr. Gladney. Mr. Gladney was not in his room, but Dino DeHerrera, Mr. Gladney's lookout, gave Mr. Johnson drugs. Mr. Johnson later returned to the room, complaining that he had been shorted. Apparently upset by the challenge to his (and his lookout's) honor, Mr. Gladney responded by shooting and killing Mr. Johnson. Mr. Gladney later told Mr. DeHerrera that he did so to set an example for other "punks." G. Vol. V at 819-20.
The shooting was not good for business, and most of those involved in the drug operation at the Alpine Rose, including Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hutchinson, began drifting away from the motel. Still, some aspects of the operation continued: Mr. Thompson kept supplying Mr. Hutchinson with crack, which Mr. Hutchinson and others sold from a new address, and when members of the Alpine Rose were eventually arrested, Mr....
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