U.S. v. Martinez-Medina
| Decision Date | 08 February 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-1318.,No. 99-1999.,No. 99-1790.,No. 99-2080.,99-1790.,99-1999.,99-2080.,01-1318. |
| Citation | 279 F.3d 105 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Marcos MARTÍNEZ-MEDINA, Defendant, Appellant. United States of America, Appellee, v. Manuel Pérez-Colón, Defendant, Appellant. United States of America, Appellee, v. Angela Ayala-Martínez, Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Judith H. Mizner for appellants Manuel Pérez-Colón and Angela Ayala-Martínez.
Law Offices of John E. Bergendahl on brief for appellant Angela Ayala-Martínez.
Irma R. Valldejuli for appellant Marcos Martínez-Medina.
Sonia I. Torres, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, Jorge E. Vega-Pacheco, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Criminal Division, and Nelson Pérez-Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief for the United States.
Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, KRAVITCH,* Senior Circuit Judge, and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.
This set of appeals grows out of an indictment alleging that the appellants, along with 76 others, were part of a sprawling drug smuggling and distribution network in southwest Puerto Rico between 1994 and 1997. The two-count indictment charged Angela Ayala-Martinez ("Ayala") and Manuel Perez-Colon ("Perez") with conspiracy to possess and distribute multi-kilogram amounts of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846 (1994) and conspiracy to engage in illegal financial transactions involving the drug proceeds in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(1) and 1957 (1994). Perez's money laundering charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1957, but not § 1956(a)(1), was later dropped. Appellant Marcos Martinez-Medina ("Martinez") was charged only with participating in the drug conspiracy.
The three appellants were tried along with four other co-defendants: Manuel Garcia-Torres ("Manuel"), his brother Andres Garcia-Torres ("Andres"), Walter Batiz, and Deri Ventura. The evidence presented during the forty-day trial was extensive,1 and featured the testimony of several indicted co-conspirators who agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for leniency.
In brief, it showed that in 1995, Ayala obtained a contact with a Colombian dealer, Jorge Alicea-Serrano (a/k/a "Jockey"), to import large quantities of cocaine into Puerto Rico. The drugs were delivered by air and by sea, and Ayala hired others — including Andres Garcia, Perez, Batiz, and Ventura — to retrieve them for her.
By virtue of her connection to Jockey, Ayala rose from a small-time drug dealer to a major supplier to various drug distribution points at housing projects in the city of Ponce. Among them were drug points at Los Lirios Del Sur and Santiago Iglesias, owned by Perez; La Atocha and Tibes, owned by Edwin Melendez Negron (a/k/a "Danny Gongolon"); and La Cantera, owned by the Garcias' older brother Tommy Garcia-Torres until his death in August 1995, when it was inherited by Manuel Garcia and Ventura. Batiz worked for Garcia and Ventura cutting drugs at La Cantera.
Disputes at these drug points led to several violent killings, which were not charged as crimes but were important to the government's case both as conspiratorial acts and factors in sentencing. According to the testimony of a cooperating witness named Daniel Sanchez-Ortiz, in or around 1996 Perez ordered the murder of Sol Garcia, owner of a competing drug point at Los Lirios del Sur that was threatening Perez's sales.
At La Cantera, an internecine feud erupted in 1994 when Tommy Garcia fired "Gerardito", his brother-in-law and drug runner, because he allegedly stole $35,000 to $40,000 in drug proceeds. After being ostracized from La Cantera, Gerardito and his brother Nelsito began associating with Michael Vazquez and his father Eddie; the Vazquezes owned a jewelry store and had no demonstrated connection to the drug trade but had weapons and were willing to help Gerardito seek revenge against the Garcias. A war soon erupted between the Garcias and their allies — including Ventura, Ayala, and Gongolon — and Gerardito and his faction — which included Nelsito, the Vazquezes, and the Vazquezes' jewelry store employee, Jose Negron-Santiago (a/k/a "Bejumen").
A series of violent incidents ensued between the two factions. In 1995 Tommy Garcia and his trigger man, Abraham Borgos Santiago, were killed in separate incidents, as was "Gordo", a friend of Gerardito and Nelsito. Each side pinned blame on the other. In 1996, Eddie Vazquez shot and wounded Danny Gongolon. On numerous occasions throughout this period, the Garcias tried to find and kill Gerardito, Nelsito, the Vazquezes, and Bejumen.
On February 14, 1997, Bejumen and his wife Rosemarie were shot and killed in their car. Gamaliel Goglas-Valentin, who worked part time for the Garcias at La Cantera and also helped them store guns, testified that Andres, Manuel, and Marcos Martinez drove into the auto shop where he was working and celebrated openly that they had "finally" killed Bejumen. As Andres described it, the three of them ambushed Bejumen's car; Martinez and Andres then opened the door and shot Bejumen and his wife repeatedly at close range.
Four days later, Ayala, Manuel, Danny Gongolon, and Ventura paid $20,000 to hire kidnappers to pose as policeman and "arrest" Michael Vazquez. Although the testimony of various witnesses is somewhat unclear as to the precise chain of events, it appears that the kidnappers handed Michael Vazquez over to associates of the Garcia group — including Manuel and Andres Garcia, Gongolon, Ventura, and Batiz — who drove away with him and killed him. They also found and shot Eddie Vazquez. Ayala was described as celebrating when she was told that the plan had been successfully executed.
The appellants were convicted as charged. Ayala and Perez were sentenced to life imprisonment on the drug conspiracy count and 20 years' imprisonment on the money laundering count, to be served concurrently; Martinez was sentenced to 405 months' imprisonment. These appeals ensued.
The appellants' various claims can be grouped into several categories: sufficiency of the evidence as to certain counts, admissibility of specific evidence, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, improper jury instructions, sentencing rulings, and new trial claims based on new or withheld evidence. We affirm the appellants' convictions and sentences in all respects.
Single versus multiple conspiracies. All three appellants argue that the evidence was insufficient to support aspects of their convictions. The first sufficiency issue, raised by Ayala and Perez, is the frequently raised but often misunderstood claim that a single conspiracy found by the jury was in fact multiple, independent conspiracies.2 If there was such "variance" between the indictment and the proof at trial, it might be grounds for reversal if it substantially prejudiced the defendants' rights by, for example, allowing the jury to transfer evidence of one conspiracy against defendants involved in another. Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 774, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946); United States v. Glenn, 828 F.2d 855, 858 (1st Cir.1987); see generally 4 LaFave, Israel & King, Criminal Procedure § 19.6 (2d ed.1999).
Appellants make two different so-called "variance" arguments. The first focuses on the possibility that some people charged in the indictment but not tried together with the defendants might not have been implicated in the same conspiracy — in particular, other drug point owners whose association with Ayala and the Garcias may have been more tangential. But the government need not show that every person indicted was a member of the conspiracy. United States v. Townsend, 924 F.2d 1385, 1389 (7th Cir.1991). At most, questions may arise whether the introduction of evidence as to these other individuals' actions was unfairly prejudicial to the defendants. United States v. Mojica, 185 F.3d 780, 785-86 (7th Cir.1999). But the appellants make no sustained argument as to unfair prejudice.
Appellants' main "variance" claim is that not all of those tried together were engaged in the single charged conspiracy. This is essentially a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Townsend, 924 F.2d at 1389. As in all sufficiency claims, we take the evidence, including issues of credibility, in the light most favorable to the government and ask whether a rational jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Moran, 984 F.2d 1299, 1300 (1st Cir.1993).
The touchstone of conspiracy is an agreement to do an unlawful act, Iannelli v. United States, 420 U.S. 770, 777, 95 S.Ct. 1284, 43 L.Ed.2d 616 (1975), but each coconspirator need not know of or have contact with all other members, nor must they know all of the details of the conspiracy or participate in every act in furtherance of it.3 The jury may infer an agreement circumstantially by evidence of, inter alia, a common purpose (such as a purpose to sell illicit drugs), overlap of participants, and interdependence of various elements in the overall plan.4
Putting aside Martinez (who raises a separate claim that we address below), the evidence permitted the jury to find that the appellants and their co-defendants were engaged in a single drug conspiracy. The Garcias, Ventura, and Batiz all engaged in a joint venture — the La Cantera drug point — whose main supplier was Ayala. Ayala supplied the drugs and profited from their resale, while the Garcias, Ventura, and Batiz ran the resale operation and took steps — often violent — to protect it. This ongoing operation could be found to constitute a conspiracy. See United States v. Ortiz de Jesus, 230 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2000).
Perez was not involved in the...
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