U.S. v. Kwong

• Decision Date: 24 January 1994
• Docket Number: No. 738,D,738
• Citation: 14 F.3d 189
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Wing KWONG, a/k/a David Kwong, Defendant-Appellee. ocket 93-1415.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 189

14 F.3d 189

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Wing KWONG, a/k/a David Kwong, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 738, Docket 93-1415.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued Dec. 20, 1993.

Decided Jan. 24, 1994.

Vivian Shevitz, New York City (Georgia J. Hinde, of counsel), for defendant-appellant.

Kirby A. Heller, Asst. U.S. Atty., Brooklyn (Zachary W. Carter, U.S. Atty., E.D.N.Y Before: PRATT, McLAUGHLIN and JACOBS, Circuit Judges.

Peter A. Norling, Asst. U.S. Atty., of counsel), for appellee.

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge:

Defendant Wing (David) Kwong appeals his conviction and a combined Guidelines sentence of 293 months (over 24 years) imposed by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Glasser, J.), in connection with two separate indictments. Kwong pled guilty in 1988 to a conspiracy to possess and export munitions without the requisite license, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 371 (1988), and possession of unregistered firearms, in violation of 26 U.S.C. Sec. 5861(d) (1988). Before he was sentenced, however, Kwong was again indicted, tried and convicted in 1992 of a far more serious offense: attempting to murder an assistant U.S. attorney, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1114 (1988 & Supp. IV 1992). Only his second conviction is challenged on this appeal, along with the 293-month sentence imposed as concurrent punishment for both convictions.

On appeal, Kwong raises three issues. First, he contends that the evidence was insufficient to prove his identity as the offender or to prove that he possessed the necessary intent to commit the crime of attempted murder. Second, he argues that the district court improperly charged the jury concerning the definition of the required intent. Finally, he contends that the court erred in calculating his adjusted offense level under the Sentencing Guidelines and in assigning his criminal history category. For the reasons stated below, we conclude that there was sufficient evidence to support the verdict, but that the charge on the intent required for attempted murder was erroneous. We therefore reverse the conviction and order a new trial. We see no need to reach the sentencing issue.

BACKGROUND

The tale leading up to the convictions here combines the clues of a dime store "whodunit" and the low-tech gadgetry of a James Bond "wannabe." It culminates in the attempted assassination of an assistant United States attorney ("AUSA") by sending her a booby-trapped briefcase. The core of the plot is who did it: the defendant, David Kwong, or his nemesis, Chan Wing Yeung.

In April 1988, defendant David Kwong was arrested after selling 63 machine guns to an undercover agent. He pled guilty to conspiracy to deal in munitions without the proper license and possessing unregistered firearms, and he entered into a cooperation agreement with the government. Kwong was then released to begin working as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA").

Kwong was a difficult informant. According to his handlers, he displayed an acute anxiety over his impending sentence and, consequently, he pressed to make bigger cases, often promising more than he could deliver. Even his own counsel on appeal characterized him as "something of an irritating 'nudge.' " Appellant's Brief at 7. On one occasion, Kwong called AUSA Catherine Palmer (known to the Asian drug lords as the "Dragon Lady") with his usual complaint: the DEA agents for whom he worked refused to go after any "big cases," including a reputed Chinatown crime figure named Chan Wing Yeung ("Chan"). Palmer's response was to "yell at" defendant, informing him that, as far as she was concerned, the DEA should not be working with Kwong at all. She hung up on him. The DEA eventually washed its hands of Kwong, and in October 1989, he shifted his allegiance to the FBI. As he had done with the DEA, Kwong promised agents that he could provide valuable information about Chan, a target in whom they were already interested. In early 1990, Kwong called FBI Agent Ernest Cavagnaro at his home with some insignificant information about an unrelated case, and then informed the agent that Chan had cash, weapons, and gambling chits in his apartment.

On January 30, 1990 AUSA Palmer received a package through the mail. Providentially, two agents happened to be in her office at the time, and they urged caution in opening the package when she did not recognize who sent it. Unwrapping it gingerly, they spied a briefcase inside of which was a The inside of the briefcase bristled with ham-handed clues. There was a typewritten address that turned out to be Chan's home. The sawed-off barrel of the rifle was later found in a trash can in lower Manhattan, and inside the barrel was a sales slip made out to Chan by a Connecticut gun shop.

loaded, sawed-off rifle aimed toward the front of the case. The lid of the briefcase held an ordinary rat trap in its ready-to-snap position. A string connected the rat trap to a nut, which was placed inside a paper clamp, which itself was lodged in the trigger housing. The nut was jammed in, presumably, to prevent the gun from firing while it was in the mail. Once the tension of the lid on the trap was released, the rat trap would spring, jerking the string, which would dislodge the nut from the paper clamp. The wings of the clamp would then open, and the trigger would fire. The gun was loaded and its safety was off. There was testimony that the device was functional and that the gun could have fired through the briefcase.

Finding this a trifle too pat, the investigators did not arrest Chan. The defendant continued to furnish "evidence" of Chan's guilt to the point where his continued interest eventually shifted the focus of the inquiry to David Kwong himself.

Evidence was developed that at least from September 1989, Kwong had been impersonating Chan in various places. Thus, he used Chan's credit card to buy jewelry. He also rented a private mail drop and hired an answering service in Chan's name. Equipment that could be used to create counterfeit identification documents was seized from Kwong's apartment, as well as that of his girlfriend. Evidence of Kwong's skillful use of disguises was also presented.

On November 15, 1989, someone bought a Marlin 70P rifle from a gun shop in Connecticut. According to the store owner David Chute, the buyer was an Asian man who identified himself as Chan. The most Chute could say a few months later (in March-April 1990), according to FBI Agent Mary Galligan, was that photos of both Chan and Kwong bore "some resemblance" to the individual who bought the rifle. Chute, however, testified at trial that he had selected only Chan's photo, and had never suggested that Kwong looked like Chan or anyone else. Moreover, at trial Chute was unable to point to the defendant as someone who might ever have been a customer at the gun store.

Relying on circumstantial evidence, the government went to trial on the theory that David Kwong had the motive to kill AUSA Palmer and the motive to "frame" Chan for it. The theory was that Kwong decided to frame Chan for a "big crime" and then "solve" the case to get generous sentencing credit. Because AUSA Palmer, according to the government's argument, was the "only" person thought to stand in the way of Kwong's freedom (given their testy phone conversation), what better "big crime" for Kwong to solve than her murder. Other evidence, including recorded conversations between Kwong and an undercover officer, demonstrated that Kwong had the requisite skill to commit the crime, including extensive knowledge of weapons, particularly those involving booby traps. Significantly, he had a book explaining how to build a booby trap, using a mouse trap.

The government requested that the jury be instructed that proof of "reckless and wanton conduct on the part of the defendant which grossly deviated from a reasonable standard of care such that he was aware of the serious risk of death" could essentially be substituted for proof of an "intent to kill." As the government explained in support of its requested charge:

[W]e can certainly argue that anyone who would send a device that was really just being held together by one little nut even if they didn't intend for the thing to operate was certainly showing reckless and wanton behavior.

Defense counsel opposed this request, arguing that the government had not been attempting to prove reckless or wanton conduct, but intentional and specific conduct. Judge Glasser overruled this objection, and gave the requested charge. Kwong was then convicted of attempted murder.

Prior to sentencing, Kwong moved to set aside the verdict pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 29, challenging both the sufficiency of the In calculating the defendant's offense level under the Sentencing Guidelines, the court started with a base level of 22, and then by various specific offense adjustments arrived at an adjusted offense level of 35. Among the various adjustments was a four-level enhancement for an offense involving a murder for hire, an adjustment that even the government conceded in the district court was not appropriate in this case.

                government's identification evidence and, assuming the government's theory and evidence were somehow deemed enough to place Kwong on the sending end of the supposedly booby-trapped device, the lack of evidence that Kwong ever intended to kill anyone, or that the briefcase device would or was intended to have functioned to kill--as opposed, for example, to frighten--the recipient.  Kwong also challenged the jury instruction that permitted the jury to convict him of attempted murder, even if the government only proved that sending such a device was "reckless."   The court denied the Rule 29 motion
                

In calculating the criminal history factor in the sentence equation, the court settled on Category III. Finding, however, that this did not adequately reflect the...