U.S. v. Mangual-Corchado
| Decision Date | 05 December 1996 |
| Docket Number | 96-1308,Nos. 96-1307,CIRILO-MUNOZ,MANGUAL-CORCHAD,96-1476,RAMIREZ-YNO,D,s. 96-1307 |
| Citation | 139 F.3d 34 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Saulefendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Ernesto, a/k/a Nesty, Defendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Luis Antonioefendant, Appellant. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Juan E. Alvarez, with whom Lucien B. Campbell was on brief for appellant Cirilo-Munoz.
Jorge L. Arroyo-Alejandro for appellant Mangual-Corchado.
Carlos M. Sanchez La Costa for appellant Ramirez-Ynoa.
Jeanette Mercado-Rios, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, and Edwin O. Vazquez, Deputy Chief Criminal Division, were on brief for appellee.
Before CYR and LYNCH, Circuit Judges, and MCAULIFFE, * U.S. District Judge,
Three youthful defendants, Saul Mangual-Corchado ("Mangual"), Luis Antonio Ramirez-Ynoa ("Ramirez") and Ernesto Cirilo-Munoz ("Cirilo"), appeal their respective convictions relating to the intentional killing of an on-duty police officer during the commission of a drug offense. See 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1)(B); 18 U.S.C. § 2. Mangual and Ramirez likewise appeal their carjacking convictions, see id. § 2119, and their convictions for using a firearm to commit the carjacking, see id. § 924(c). We affirm the district court judgments.
Over an extended period of time prior to November 1, 1994, Mangual, Jose Lugo-Sanchez ("Lugo"), and David Silva worked regular nine-hour shifts selling marijuana, cocaine, and heroin seven days a week at a "drug point" immediately outside "Cafetin El Ideal" in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. 2 Their mutual drug suppliers were Yito Morales and a person known only as "Chispo." Lugo correctly suspected that a particular drug customer--Ivan Mejias-Hernandez ("Mejias")--was an undercover police officer. Consequently, during late October 1994 Chispo ordered Lugo to kill Mejias. Lugo in turn promptly informed codefendant Ramirez that Mejias was to be killed on Chispo's instruction. The precise circumstances surrounding the Mejias murder are central to these appeals.
On November 1, shortly after beginning a regular shift with David Silva at the El Ideal drug point, Lugo began ingesting cocaine. 3 Between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., Officer Mejias arrived in plain clothes and took a position beside the two-door, white Suzuki hatchback which he had parked in front of El Ideal. Around 11:15 a.m., Lugo called Ramirez from a pay phone located near one entrance to the El Ideal building. Lugo informed Ramirez that Mejias had arrived, then told him to bring "the gun"--with which Lugo proposed to kill Mejias--and "the car" to El Ideal. Ramirez, who had no driver's license and was just learning to drive, expressed reluctance to drive the car to El Ideal himself. Undeterred, Lugo responded simply: "I know that you can handle it."
Not later than 12:30 p.m., Ramirez arrived at El Ideal in a black Oldsmobile, with the revolver, as instructed. Cirilo arrived within ten to fifteen minutes and was greeted by Lugo. Lugo testified at trial that he said nothing to Cirilo about the impending plan to murder Mejias.
Shortly thereafter, Lugo explained to Silva that he was going across the street to the stoop of a nearby building so he could keep an eye on the El Ideal drug point in case a customer came. Officer Mejias, with Ramirez and Silva following behind him, proceeded across the street as well. Upon reaching the stoop, Lugo and Mejias immediately engaged in a heated discussion, during which Mejias proceeded to let Lugo know that he had read Lugo's lips earlier that morning when Lugo had suggested to Silva that Mejias was a police informant. Lugo, who was continuing to ingest cocaine, became very upset and said he knew Mejias was an informant.
As Silva and Ramirez neared the stoop, Lugo walked back to El Ideal, then returned to the stoop a short time later and asked Ramirez for the keys to the black Oldsmobile. After retrieving the Ramirez revolver from the black Oldsmobile in front of El Ideal, Lugo returned to the stoop and handed the Oldsmobile keys to Ramirez.
While walking back toward El Ideal a third time, with the Ramirez revolver concealed in his waistband, Lugo encountered Mangual, Cirilo, and Yito Morales (who, along with Chispo, supplied the drugs Lugo and Mangual sold at the El Ideal drug point) and attempted to "fire them up" to "prenderlo" ("beat up") Mejias. After Mangual, Cirilo and Yito failed to take up Lugo's challenge, and while all four were returning to the stoop together, Mangual offered instead to circle around behind Mejias while Lugo confronted Mejias with the Ramirez revolver so they could secure the keys to the white Suzuki in which Mejias had arrived at El Ideal, and search for his weapon. 4
After the unarmed Mejias had been seized at gunpoint as suggested by Mangual, Lugo remained near the stoop with Mejias while Ramirez, Mangual, Yito, and Silva returned to El Ideal to search the Suzuki for the suspected Mejias weapon. Lugo testified at trial, without contradiction, that Cirilo was standing "real close" as Mangual and Ramirez retrieved the Mejias weapon from the white Suzuki. Multiple palm and fingerprints, lifted from the exterior of the Suzuki on the passenger side, were identified as belonging to Cirilo as well. Lugo then reminded Mejias that he was carrying a weapon under his shirt and walked behind him from the stoop to the Suzuki. After Mejias had retrieved the keys to the Suzuki, Lugo told him to get into the Suzuki "and not to come around there anymore."
Just as Mejias turned on the ignition and was about to leave, however, yet another young man, who also hung around El Ideal and was identified at trial only as "Papilin," told Lugo: "You have to take him ... because he might come back." 5 Lugo thereupon abruptly instructed Mejias, at gunpoint, to get out of the driver's seat and into the back seat of the Suzuki. 6 While Mejias and Lugo entered the back seat, Mangual got into the driver's seat. As soon as the doors to the Suzuki were closed, Mangual drove the Suzuki out of the El Ideal parking area onto the highway and observed that "the others were following ... in a black Oldsmobile two-door." 7
The Suzuki, followed by the black Oldsmobile driven by Cirilo, then proceeded easterly on the highway fronting El Ideal, past a store 50 yards distant, then through two intersections to a small valley. There, notwithstanding his pleas for mercy, Mejias was shot twice by Lugo; first in the abdomen, then in the head. 8
Two or three minutes after departing El Ideal, Mangual stopped the Suzuki at a school crossing, where Yito Morales, one of the drug suppliers, pulled alongside on a motorcycle. As soon as Lugo signaled that Mejias was already dead, Yito nodded and drove off. Moments later Lugo spotted the black Oldsmobile, and the Suzuki proceeded on. Once again the Oldsmobile followed, with Cirilo still at the wheel and Ramirez in the passenger seat.
A little later, after noticing that the Oldsmobile was nowhere in sight, Lugo told Mangual to double back until the Suzuki came upon the Oldsmobile, whereupon the two vehicles drove into a nearby cemetery and parked. 9 At this point in time, whether on his own initiative or on prior instruction from Yito, Ramirez asked Lugo if he was sure Mejias was dead. When Lugo said "no," Ramirez fired two shots into the victim's head, then got in the passenger seat of the Suzuki beside Mangual.
As Cirilo and Lugo led the way from the cemetery in the black Oldsmobile, Cirilo ingested cocaine provided by Lugo. With Mangual driving and Ramirez in the passenger seat, the Suzuki followed the black Oldsmobile to a nearby quarry. There the Suzuki--carrying the Mejias remains--was pushed over an embankment by Ramirez and Mangual, but became suspended and did not drop to the quarry floor.
After Ramirez and Mangual scurried back to the Oldsmobile, Cirilo drove them and Lugo to a successful getaway. Later, the $240 Lugo had removed from the dead officer's body before dumping the Suzuki was divided equally among them.
In due course, Mangual, Ramirez, Lugo and Cirilo were indicted for aiding and abetting the murder of an on-duty police officer during the commission of a drug offense, 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1); 10 18 U.S.C. § 2; 11 carjacking, id. §§ 2119, 12 and using a firearm during the commission of a carjacking, id. § 924(c). 13
Ultimately, Lugo entered into a plea agreement, testified for the prosecution, and received a twenty-year prison sentence. Following a ten-day trial, the jury returned verdicts against Mangual and Ramirez on all three counts. Cirilo was acquitted of the carjacking and firearm charges, but convicted of aiding and abetting the Mejias murder. All three appellants were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Appellants first maintain that it was error to disallow their pretrial motion to dismiss the indictment. Relying on United States v. Basurto, 497 F.2d 781 (9th Cir.1974), they argue that the indictment violated due process because the government knew it was based in material part on the testimony of Special Agent Rene F. Medina, who related to the grand jury two perjured versions of the relevant events previously provided by Lugo. 14
After a grand juror voiced concern about Lugo's credibility, Agent Medina expressed the belief that Lugo had recognized the implausibility of his first story and decided to "come clean." However, Medina did not disclose to the grand jury that Lugo, at a later debriefing, had corrected yet other "inaccuracies" in his second version. Finally, after the grand jury returned the indictment, Lugo came forward with a third version, essentially recasting the four codefendants in the respective roles later ascribed to them by Lugo at trial....
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