U.S. v. Mastrangelo

• Decision Date: 09 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1469,98-1469
• Citation: 172 F.3d 288
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, v. Adrian MASTRANGELO, Jr. Adrian Mastrangelo, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 288

172 F.3d 288

UNITED STATES of America, v. Adrian MASTRANGELO, Jr Adrian Mastrangelo, Appellant.

No. 98-1469.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued Dec. 17, 1998.

Decided April 9, 1999.

Stephen P. Patrizio (Argued), Dranoff & Patrizio, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellant.

Ewald Zittlau (Argued), Assistant U.S. Attorney, Michael R. Stiles, U.S. Attorney, Walter S. Batty, Jr., Assistant U.S. Attorney, Chief of Appeals, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee.

Before: SLOVITER and COWEN, Circuit Judges, and RODRIGUEZ, ^* District Judge.

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

I.

Defendant Adrian Mastrangelo, Jr., appeals his conviction following a jury trial for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. He was charged on two counts of a 12-count indictment with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and attempt to manufacture methamphetamine. The jury convicted him of the conspiracy charge, and acquitted him of the charge of attempt to manufacture methamphetamine. Post-trial, Mastrangelo moved for acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29(c) or, alternatively, for a new trial under Rule 33. The District Court denied both motions. United States v. Mastrangelo, 941 F.Supp. 1428, 1443 (E.D.Pa.1996).

On the acquittal motion, the District Court concluded, first, that there was sufficient evidence (viewed in a light most favorable to the government) for a jury to conclude that defendant was guilty of the conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt. Second, it held that the allegedly outrageous conduct of the government in failing to preserve evidence did not demonstrate any bad faith, because there was no showing that the government knew the exculpatory value of the evidence at the time. Third, it concluded that the misdeeds of the government, which included allegations of permitting perjured grand jury testimony, were harmless errors and did not substantially influence the grand jury's decision to indict.

The District Court also rejected each of the seven grounds underlying the motion for a new trial. The court held Mastrangelo lacked standing to challenge the search of the storage locker in which the methamphetamine equipment and ingredients were found, and concluded that it did not err in admitting into evidence a videotape showing defendant opening the storage locker, coconspirators' statements, a stipulation intended to avoid the introduction under Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) 404(b) of evidence of Mastrangelo's prior conviction for methamphetamine manufacture, the laboratory analysis showing methamphetamine was present on equipment found in the locker but damaged or destroyed before the defendant could test the equipment, and photographs of other items later destroyed. Finally, the District Court determined that prosecutorial misconduct in the closing statements and rebuttal either was cured or lacked an improper effect on the jury. Thus, the court concluded that its earlier refusal to declare a mistrial was not error.

The District Court sentenced Mastrangelo to 262 months' imprisonment, the lowest possible on his offense level of 34, and ten years' supervised release, but waived the fine Mastrangelo filed a timely appeal. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II.

A. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

There are a number of highly problematic issues raised on this appeal. Because of the conclusion we ultimately reach on the issue of prosecutorial misconduct, we will discuss some of the other issues only briefly.

One of the contentions Mastrangelo presses most vigorously is that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict of guilty on the conspiracy charge. In order to establish a conspiracy, the prosecution must prove:

(1) a shared "unity of purpose,"

(2) an intent to achieve a common goal, and

(3) an agreement to work together toward the goal.

United States v. Wexler, 838 F.2d 88, 90-91 (3d Cir.1988). This proof incorporates a demonstration that a defendant has "knowledge of the illegal objective contemplated by the conspiracy." Id. at 91.

1. The Evidence Against Mastrangelo

The District Court held there was sufficient evidence of Mastrangelo's involvement in the conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine based on the following evidence, which was detailed in the District Court's opinion.

Michael DeJulius, Raymond D'Aulerio, and Adrian Mastrangelo, III (Adrian III), defendant's son, pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine from approximately July 30 to October 4, 1993. Paul Rosa, a cooperating witness who acted for the government, sought to purchase methamphetamine from DeJulius and D'Aulerio, but they lacked methylamine, a necessary ingredient. In what the District Court characterized as a "reverse sting" ¹ organized by the government, Rosa gave DeJulius the methylamine on August 5 in four bottles in a white box with the name "J.T. Baker," a chemical supply company, on the side of the box. This name became the basis by which the government could identify the box. DeJulius gave the box to a second person who gave it to Adrian III, who, in turn, brought it to "Garage G," a garage on Latona Street in Philadelphia. Several hours later, Adrian III returned to get "what appeared to be the box" and moved it to his own house nearby. Mastrangelo, 941 F.Supp. at 1431.

On August 7, Mastrangelo, driving his own Jeep, went to his son's house, and minutes later the two left with Adrian III driving the Jeep and Mastrangelo driving a white van. They drove to another location in the same neighborhood where they loaded various items into and out of the van. Thereafter, they switched vehicles with Adrian III driving the van and Mastrangelo driving the Jeep, and drove back to Garage G, where they moved various items into, and possibly out of, the van. Id.

The two then drove on I-95, a north-south expressway, to a storage facility in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Along the way they exited and reentered the highway once and exchanged the lead a few times, but they always drove within the speed limit, in what the District Court, based on trial testimony, stated might have been a counter-surveillance measure. After they left the highway, Mastrangelo parked the Jeep at a nearby apartment complex and joined his son in the van before they drove to the storage facility. They punched the security-gate code at the entrance to the facility, using what company records showed was the code for storage locker H-16, remained for five minutes, and then drove both vehicles back to Philadelphia. Id.

The storage locker H-16 was rented in the name of someone who has not been located. The address listed on the rental lease, however, was for an apartment in the complex where Mastrangelo lived. The contact phone number listed on the lease was for a phone located at an address where Mastrangelo had previously lived and at which two automobiles were still registered to him. A handwriting expert testified that the lease for the locker was probably signed by Mastrangelo and the locker rental agent testified that the renter was approximately the same height, age, and hair color as Mastrangelo, but neither witness's testimony was unequivocal. Id. at 1432.

Although the government maintained surveillance at the storage facility, company records revealed that someone, without the government's knowledge, used the security code for locker H-16 on August 8 to enter the facility and remained about ten minutes. Thereafter, the government covertly searched locker H-16 on August 25 and found the J.T. Baker box, some ingredients and equipment necessary for manufacturing methamphetamine, and one of the marked bottles, now empty, with a residue of methylamine. The government photographed the contents of the locker before returning everything to its original state. Later, on September 17, it seized all the drug-related materials from the locker. Among the items seized were ingredients and equipment necessary to make methamphetamine except for phenyl-2-propanone, the most expensive ingredient, and methylamine. Adrian III's fingerprint was on the methylamine bottle. Mastrangelo's fingerprint was on a funnel but there is no way to know the date when the fingerprint was made. A government agent stated that it was common to store some of the materials in separate places and opined that whoever controlled the locker was either the financier or the "cook." Id.

On October 4, the government executed search warrants for the residences of DeJulius, D'Aulerio, and Adrian III, as well as for Garage G. Documents belonging to Mastrangelo and Adrian III and an old catalogue for chemical supplies were found at the garage. Id.

On October 7, Mastrangelo went to the storage locker, which was now empty except for some domestic items, removed the padlocks, and abandoned the locker and the few remaining items. He also transferred the title for his Jeep to his girlfriend, and reregistered a truck he had previously purchased to another person, although he was still using the truck a year and a half later. The storage company attempted unsuccessfully to contact someone associated with the locker rental: one contact telephone number was disconnected and the person at the other could not explain why his number was used on the lease. Mastrangelo was arrested at his sister's house more than a year and a half later. Id. at 1432-33.

2. The District Court's Analysis of the Evidence

The District Court concluded that the circumstantial evidence supported the inference that Mastrangelo knew what materials were in H-16. The court referred to the two-vehicle trip to the storage locker in August as one transporting the methylamine, id. at 1434.

The District Court concluded that the jury could have inferred that Mastrangelo "facilitated the goals of the conspiracy by allowing materials which he knew were for the manufacture of methamphetamine to be stored in[the] locker...