U.S. v. Lee

• Citation: 374 F.3d 637
• Decision Date: 08 July 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-2389.,02-2389.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Daniel Lewis LEE, also known as Daniel Lewis Graham, also known as D L Graham, also known as Danny Lee, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

Page 637

374 F.3d 637

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Daniel Lewis LEE, also known as Daniel Lewis Graham, also known as D L Graham, also known as Danny Lee, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 02-2389.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 15, 2004.

Filed: July 8, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant was Cheryl A. Pilate, of Kansas City, Missouri. Kent E. Gipson of Kansas City, Missouri, also represented Daniel L. Lee.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee was Clarence D. Stripling, AUSA, of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Before MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, MAGILL, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Daniel Lewis Lee of conspiring to violate and violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c) and (d), and of three murders in aid of racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959. The jury also returned a verdict of death and a death sentence was imposed. Lee moved successfully for a new sentencing phase of the trial; the government appealed and we reversed.¹ Now before the court is Lee's direct appeal of his conviction and sentence. We affirm the judgment of the district court.²

I.

The evidence presented at trial showed that Lee, Chevie Kehoe (Kehoe), his father Kirby Kehoe, his brother Cheyne Kehoe (Cheyne), and Faron Lovelace participated in a variety of criminal activities to promote and fund a white supremacist organization known as the Aryan Peoples' Republic or the Aryan Peoples' Resistence (APR). Kehoe formed the APR to establish an independent nation of white members of the Christian Identity faith in the Pacific Northwest. He patterned it after an antigovernment, white supremacist organization called the Order.

Lee met Kehoe in 1995, and Kehoe recruited him into the APR. In January 1996, Lee and Kehoe left the state of Washington and traveled to Arkansas where they dressed in police raid clothing and went to the home of William Mueller, a gun dealer near Tilley who owned a large collection of weapons and ammunition. Kehoe and his father had robbed Mueller in February 1995, and Kehoe planned to find valuable property at his house. The Muellers were not at home when Lee and Kehoe arrived so they waited. When the Muellers returned, Lee and Kehoe overpowered and incapacitated Mueller and his wife. Then they questioned Nancy Mueller's eight year old daughter, Sarah Powell, about where they could find cash, guns, and munitions. After finding $50,000 in cash, guns, and ammunition, they shot the three victims with a stun gun, placed plastic bags over their heads, and sealed the bags with duct tape. They took the victims in Kehoe's vehicle to the Illinois bayou; there they taped rocks onto them and threw them into the bayou. The bodies were discovered in Lake Darnelle near Russellville, Arkansas in late June 1996.

Kehoe and Lee returned to Spokane with the stolen property around January 14, 1996. Kehoe traveled to several states to sell the Mueller property at gun shows, and he and Lee were apprehended by law enforcement in 1997 after some of Mueller's guns had been traced to Kehoe.

Lee, Kehoe, and several others were indicted on December 12, 1997. On January 5, 1998, Lee appeared in court for arraignment and was ordered detained until trial. A superceding indictment was filed, charging Lee with racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), conspiracy to commit racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d), murder in aid of racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), conspiracy to commit robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a), and use of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922. The indictment alleged that the APR was a RICO enterprise designed to start a revolution in the United States in order to create a new nation and that members of the APR, including Lee, established and financed the APR through robbery, kidnapping, murder, and dealing in stolen property. Prior to trial the conspiracy to commit robbery and firearm charges were dismissed.

The government filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty against both Lee and Kehoe under 18 U.S.C. § 3593(a). The amended death penalty notice for Lee identified several aggravating factors that the government intended to prove in support of death sentences for each of the three murder counts he faced. These aggravating factors included: expectation of receiving something of pecuniary value, 18 U.S.C. § 3592(c)(8); substantial planning and premeditation to cause the death of the victim, id. § 3592(c)(9); intentional killing of more than one person in a single criminal episode, id. § 3592(c)(16); and risk of future dangerousness. The government also listed the additional aggravating factor of a vulnerable victim in Sarah Powell's murder. Id. § 3592(c)(11).

Lee and the government filed several pretrial motions. After a hearing in November 1998, the district court granted a motion under Fed.R.Crim.P. 16(d) to restrict Lee's personal access to discovery materials in the interest of protecting witnesses. In February 1999, the district court granted the government's request to delay the mandatory disclosure of witness names under 18 U.S.C. § 3432. The district court also denied several motions by Lee and Kehoe. Prior to trial all the defendants other than Lee and Kehoe pled guilty. Lee and Kehoe were jointly tried.

At trial, the government presented numerous witnesses and circumstantial physical evidence to prove Lee's participation in the murders of the Mueller family. Kehoe's mother, Gloria, testified that Lee had confessed the murders to her. The district court also admitted statements made by Kehoe to his mother, in which he confessed the Mueller murders and other criminal activities in great detail. Gloria testified that Kehoe told her Lee had participated in the murder of the adults, but would have no part in the killing of Sarah Powell so Kehoe had done it alone. The district court also admitted hearsay statements made by Kehoe to his brother, Cheyne, confessing the three murders. The government called a number of other witnesses. They included Sean Haines, a man Lee had attempted to recruit into the APR, James and Dalvine Wanker, both of whom knew Lee when he lived in Washington, and David Lynch, who helped Lee recruit other people into the APR. Haines testified that Lee was involved in Kehoe's white supremacist movement and that he had tried to recruit him into the APR several times. The Wankers corroborated Gloria Kehoe's testimony by recounting that Lee had told them about a trip down south in which some people had messed with him and he had done something violent to take care of them. They also testified that Lee had made statements to them about his white supremacist beliefs. Lynch stated that he had helped Lee recruit Jon Cox into the APR and that Lee had told him about taking part in militia type activities.

The circumstantial evidence adduced at trial included physical evidence connecting Kehoe's vehicle to the crime scene, evidence that Lee and Kehoe were in Arkansas at the time of the murders, evidence connecting Lee and Kehoe to police raid clothing worn at the time of the murders, their possession of Mueller property immediately after the murders, Lee's fingerprint found on Mueller belongings stored with APR property, and hair similar to Lee's found on a raid cap which Kehoe told Cheyne was used during the Mueller murders.

Following a two month trial, on May 4, 1999 a jury convicted Lee and Kehoe of the capital murder counts, racketeering, and conspiracy to commit racketeering. The defendants were sentenced after separate penalty phases before the same jury. Kehoe's penalty phase proceeded first, and he was sentenced to life without release. After Kehoe's sentencing, the U.S. Attorney tried to withdraw the death notice in Lee's case, but the Department of Justice denied her request. United States v. Lee, 274 F.3d 485, 488-89 (8th Cir.2001). Prior to Lee's penalty phase, the parties agreed on instructions permitting the jury to consider Lee's past criminal history and behavior. The jury returned a death verdict against Lee on May 14, 1999. A few days later on May 19, Lee moved for correction of the sentence and a new sentencing phase of the trial. The district court granted the motion, and the government appealed. We reversed and reinstated the death sentence. Id. at 497. Now before the court is Lee's direct appeal from the judgment of conviction and sentence.

II.

On his direct appeal Lee raises a number of issues. He argues that his Sixth Amendment rights to confrontation and effective assistance of counsel were violated. Other issues include limitations put on his discovery rights, the sufficiency of the evidence and the indictment, the denial of his severance motion, certain jury instructions, and the constitutionality of the Federal Death Penalty Act.

A.

Lee argues that his Sixth Amendment confrontation rights were violated by the admission of hearsay statements made by nontestifying codefendant Kehoe to Gloria and Cheyne Kehoe. Lee contends that the statements are testimonial and therefore inadmissible under the confrontation clause. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (Mar. 8, 2004). We review denials of confrontation clause objections de novo, United States v. Beal, 279 F.3d 567, 570 (8th Cir.2002). If any evidence was admitted in violation of Lee's confrontation rights, we consider whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 116, 140, 119 S.Ct. 1887, 144 L.Ed.2d 117 (1999).

The confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment gives an accused the fundamental right to confront the witnesses against him. Crawford, 541 U.S. at ___, 124 S.Ct. at 1359. The central function of this right is to protect...