U.S. v. Lloyd

• Citation: 10 F.3d 1197
• Decision Date: 29 October 1993
• Docket Number: 92-2146 and 92-2175,Nos. 92-2106,92-2108,s. 92-2106
• Parties: 38 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 292 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Leonard LLOYD (92-2106); Shawn Huffman (92-2108); Darryl Little (92-2146); and Mario Taylor (92-2175), Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1197

10 F.3d 1197

38 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 292

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Leonard LLOYD (92-2106); Shawn Huffman (92-2108); Darryl Little (92-2146); and Mario Taylor (92-2175) Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 92-2106, 92-2108, 92-2146 and 92-2175.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued Sept. 21, 1993.

Decided Oct. 29, 1993 ^*.

Jennifer J. Peregord, Office of U.S. Atty., Detroit, MI (argued and briefed), for U.S.

Edward Wishnow, Southfield, MI (argued and briefed), for Leonard Lloyd.

Shawn Huffman, pro se.

F. Randall Karfonta, Mogill, Posner & Cohen, Detroit, MI (argued and briefed), for Shawn Huffman.

Kenneth R. Sasse, Detroit, MI (argued and briefed), for Darryl Little.

David I. Goldstein, Ann Arbor, MI (argued and briefed), for Mario Taylor.

Before: KENNEDY and RYAN, Circuit Judges; and BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge.

RYAN, Circuit Judge.

In this consolidated criminal case, the defendants, Leonard Lloyd, Shawn Huffman, Darryl Little, and Mario Taylor, appeal their conviction by a jury on multiple charges arising from a large drug distribution conspiracy. The defendants, separately and in various combinations, raise a number of challenges to their judgments of conviction and sentences. Finding the defendants' arguments with regard to their convictions to be without merit, we affirm each of their judgments for reasons we shall fully develop. We also affirm the sentences of defendants Lloyd, Huffman, and Taylor. Because Little's sentence, however, was grounded in part on a mistaken conclusion of law, we vacate and remand for resentencing.

I.

A. The Indictment

The defendants, along with thirteen others, were charged in a February 1991 indictment with a variety of drug and firearm crimes. The case originally proceeded to trial against these four defendants in December 1991, and the outcome was a jury deadlock on all but five counts. Taylor was acquitted on four counts, including the overarching conspiracy count and two counts of aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine, and Lloyd was acquitted on one count of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver.

The government again prosecuted the same four defendants in April 1992, and that is the trial from which this appeal is taken. The following summaries represent the counts with which the defendants were charged in the Second Amended Superseding Indictment (Redacted) submitted to the jury.

Little was charged with six counts: conspiracy to possess cocaine and crack with intent to distribute, and to distribute cocaine and crack, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Secs. 846 & 841 (count 1); possession of cocaine within 1000 feet of a school with intent to distribute, and aiding and abetting thereof, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Secs. 841 & 845a(a), 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2 (count 2, relating to events of November 23, 1988); use and carrying of firearms during drug trafficking, and aiding and abetting thereof, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 924(c)(1) & 2 (counts 3 and 6, relating to events of November 23, 1988, and June 30, 1989, respectively); being a felon in possession of firearms, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(1) (count 4, relating to events of November 23, 1988); and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1) (count 8, relating to events of February 20, 1990).

Lloyd was charged with five counts: the conspiracy; distribution of crack within 1000 feet of a school, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 860 (counts 11 and 12, relating to events of February 26 and 27, 1991, respectively); use and carrying of a firearm during drug trafficking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924 (count 13, relating to events of February 27, 1991); and possession of crack with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a) (count 17, relating to events of March 27, 1991).

Huffman was also charged with five counts: the conspiracy; the possession with intent to distribute described in count 2; the two section 924(c)(1) violations described in counts 3 and 6; and possession of false identification documents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1028 (count 16, relating to events of February 28, 1991).

Taylor was charged with four counts: distribution of crack, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1) (count 9, relating to events of August 25, 1990); use and carrying of firearms during drug trafficking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(c)(1) (count 10, relating to events of August 25, 1990); being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(1) (count 14, relating to events of February 28, 1991); and assaulting or impeding a federal agent, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 111 (count 15, relating to events of February 28, 1991).

B. Factual Background ¹

This saga's inception was in a November 23, 1988, search by Detroit police of the two-family residence located at 12122/12124 Appoline owned by Darryl Little. ² After receiving a report on November 22 that a man was being held against his will at 12122 Appoline, the lower-level apartment, the police arrived and encountered Little, who answered the door and permitted them to enter. Little refused the police access, however, to the upper-level apartment, and after surveying the largely empty lower apartment, the police left. Shortly after midnight on November 23, the police received another report about a man being shot and held against his will, but this time the address given was on Kentucky Street. At the Kentucky Street residence, the woman who answered the door told the police that she had made the call, and that she believed her brother had been shot and was being held against his will at the Appoline residence.

Four officers then proceeded to the Appoline residence, where, a few minutes after they identified themselves as Detroit police officers, the door was again opened by Little. The police told Little that they were there to check for a person who had been shot. During this explanation, all four officers had their guns drawn, but the weapons were not pointed at Little, and the officers made no threats. Little told them that "there'd been officers out there earlier that day, and they had been inside and they didn't find anything, and if we'd like, we could come in and look ourselves." Little appeared to have been drinking, but did not appear frightened. After he allowed the police to enter the house, they "followed him up to the second story." Little then opened the door to the upstairs apartment, and the police entered.

The officers found several people upstairs, some of whom were playing video games, and ordered everyone into the dining room in order to contain them while they continued to talk to Little. Inside the front door, the officers saw a rifle leaning against a doorway in the hall. While unloading the weapon, one officer observed a large stack of cash and a clear plastic bag of what appeared to be cocaine in an adjoining bedroom. That same officer then saw a woman exit a back bedroom; after securing her in the dining room, he entered the bedroom to secure it, and there observed more cocaine, as well as drug paraphernalia. In addition, cocaine was found in a bowl under a bathroom sink, and a coffee table had a white residue of cocaine across the top.

After obtaining a search warrant for the Appoline residence, police seized approximately 1000 grams of cocaine, 226.16 grams of crack, $11,154 in cash, and nine rifles and handguns. A piece of jewelry monogrammed with one of Huffman's multiple aliases was also seized. Scattered about the house were drug paraphernalia, scales, and kilo wrappers for cocaine, as well as baking soda, quinine, lactose, and small Ziploc bags, all of which led police to conclude that the residents of Appoline were processing and selling cocaine. One of the firearms, a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, contained a latent fingerprint of Huffman's right ring finger. Little and Huffman were arrested. ³

Little signed a statement agreeing that he had consented to a search of the upstairs premises for the purpose of looking for the individual who had allegedly been shot. He then told the officer who was processing him, "Alls I know is they won't find my prints on nothin'." Little also told the supervisor who had ordered the search warrant that the money the police seized was "chump change," and that he had "sufficient resources to beat this case in any court, and this was no big deal to him, just a nuisance."

Officers ⁴ conducted surveillance at the Appoline residence between early and mid-December 1988 because, based on the November 23 search, they believed Appoline served as a major narcotics distribution center. The surveillance confirmed their belief that the individuals at Appoline were involved in an ongoing narcotics enterprise. They observed, on multiple occasions, "cars pulling up to the location, people running in and out within just a matter of moments, carrying bags in and out, and then driving away." They observed "[f]oot traffic going to the location, ... people entering, staying a very short period of time, and leaving." The investigators would often "follow[ ] cars away from the Appoline address where they met other cars ... a short distance away and exchanged bags." Then, "after an exchange, people would go back to the Appoline address." The investigators observed Little and Huffman at the Appoline residence many times, engaging in what appeared to be drug sales. On one occasion, they observed a parking lot exchange, and when the courier returned to Appoline, Little "came out on the porch of th[e] upper level armed with a long gun."

The officers obtained a second search warrant for Appoline, again searching the house on December 20, 1988. On that occasion, Lloyd was there, and the officers observed him throwing cocaine in the fireplace as they entered. They managed to seize the cocaine before it was burnt, and seized large amounts of cash that had been on Lloyd's...