U.S. v. McLaurin, s. 75-3364

• Decision Date: 15 August 1977
• Docket Number: Nos. 75-3364,75-3387,s. 75-3364
• Citation: 557 F.2d 1064
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Irby McLAURIN, a/k/a "Pop", "Jesse Earl Jackson", and "Lonnie", and Marilyn Williams, a/k/a "Tator Britches", Defendants-Appellants. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Herbert Lee CHRISTOPHER, Leon "Boe" Christopher, Herbert Lee Bryant, Willie Lee "Henry Lee Bell" Parker, Gerald Alexander "Sweetback" Christie, Eddie Lee Wright, Mable Horne, Dorothy Mae "Zip" Hamilton, Patricia Ann "Pat" Williams, Marsha Davis, Nelson James Franklin, and John Christopher, Jr., Defendants- Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1064

557 F.2d 1064

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Irby McLAURIN, a/k/a "Pop", "Jesse Earl Jackson", and "Lonnie", and Marilyn Williams, a/k/a "Tator

Britches", Defendants-Appellants.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Herbert Lee CHRISTOPHER, Leon "Boe" Christopher, Herbert Lee

Bryant, Willie Lee "Henry Lee Bell" Parker, Gerald Alexander

"Sweetback" Christie, Eddie Lee Wright, Mable Horne, Dorothy

Mae "Zip" Hamilton, Patricia Ann "Pat" Williams, Marsha

Davis, Nelson James Franklin, and John Christopher, Jr.,

Defendants- Appellants.

Nos. 75-3364, 75-3387.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 15, 1977.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Oct. 11, 1977.

Lynwood F. Arnold, Jr., (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Williams.

Irby McLaurin, pro se.

William A. Patterson, (Court-appointed), St. Petersburg, Fla., for Irby McLaurin.

Martin N. Strelser, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Herbert Lee Christopher.

Charles J. O'Connor, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Leon Christopher.

John J. Chamblee, Jr., (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Herbert Lee Bryant.

Elvin L. Martinez, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Willie Lee Parker.

James V. Caltagirone, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Gerald Christie.

Edgar C. Watkins, Jr., (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Eddie Lee Wright and Nelson James Franklin.

Harley E. Riedel, II, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for Mable Horne.

Dennis G. Diecidue, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for May Hamilton.

Allan C. Watkins, (Court-appointed), Tampa, Fla., for P. A. Williams and Marsha Davis.

John L. Briggs, U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., Alan J. Sobol, Sidney M. Glazer, Atty., S. Michael Levin, Special Asst. U. S. Atty., Strike Force Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., L. Eades Hogue, Tampa, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.

Before JONES, COLEMAN and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

This appeal comes to us following a five-week trial in Tampa, Florida, during the summer of 1975. When the dust had settled, fifteen defendants found themselves convicted of various federal offenses as a result of their participation in an apparently lucrative commercial enterprise specializing in prostitution. ¹ From this conviction fourteen of the defendants have appealed, alleging various substantive and procedural defects in their convictions. We affirm.

I. THE FACTS

Before considering the various assignments of error raised by the appellants, we should make a detailed statement of the facts of this case. Since most of the appellants have questioned the sufficiency of the evidence, a thorough review of the facts developed at trial is necessary at this juncture in order to avoid repetition when we reach the sufficiency issue.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict below, ² then, the facts are these. The government's case-in-chief hinged primarily upon the testimony of six women: Linda Marie Davis, Jeanette LaFreta Hill, Joan Jennifer Hoff, Barbara Scott Vann, Mary Alice Howard and Constance G. Perez. All six of these women had, at one time or another, participated in the prostitution activity underlying the indictment. The government also called a multitude of witnesses who corroborated largely through circumstantial testimony various portions of the stories pieced together by the six female eyewitnesses. This corroborative evidence included the testimony of twelve FBI agents, six motel managers, the manager of an apartment complex in Tampa, and at least ten other assorted witnesses.

As the government's case progressed, a picture of the organization of the prostitution activity developed. It appeared that the most active leadership role was played by the defendant John Christopher, Jr. His "second in command" was his brother and co-defendant Herbert Christopher, who was assisted in his lieutenant's role by a third brother, Leon Christopher (also a co-defendant). A lower tier of management personnel included the male defendants Franklin, Byrant, Parker, Christie, Marilyn Williams, Wright, and McLaurin. Assisting them as a collector and courier of cash received by the prostitutes was the female defendant Mable Horne. The roles of the remaining female defendants (Mary Lee Mincey, Dorothy Mae Hamilton, Marsha Davis, and Patricia Ann Williams) were apparently limited to the actual performance of prostitution activity.

Chronologically, the government's case began with certain events which transpired in the summer of 1970, as testified to by Linda Marie Davis. Davis related that in June of that year, in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., she had seen John Christopher, Jr., accompanied by the defendant Marsha Davis and another woman. Christopher asked Linda Davis if she would like to drive with them to Florida to see John's brother Leon Christopher, whom she knew. Davis joined them, but rather than taking the group south as promised, John Christopher drove north, stopping at various points in northern Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware for the apparent purpose of procuring income from prostitution. Christopher pressured Linda Davis to join the other two women in their prostitution activities, and she eventually agreed. She testified that her participation was not voluntary, but motivated by her fear of physical harm at the hands of John Christopher. Eventually Christopher stopped at a gas station in Delaware, where a police officer approached the car, checked its registration, and questioned its occupants. Davis testified that during this episode she managed to escape from the group.

From this point, the government's case moved ahead three years to August 1973. Jeanette LaFreta Hill testified that on the evening of August 17, while she was walking to her home in Tampa, Florida, she encountered the defendants Herbert Lee Bryant and Herbert Lee Christopher. They were in an automobile with two other persons. At gunpoint, Bryant asked Hill to get in the car; when she refused, he got out of the car and struck her on the back of the head. According to her testimony, she then blacked out and awoke as the car was arriving at the Lindale Motel in Tampa. At the motel she was introduced to John Christopher, Jr. Eventually Bryant and John Christopher left the Lindale in a car with Hill as their passenger. After they had picked up another passenger, the defendant Dorothy Hamilton, they drove to a Ramada Inn where Bryant registered using John Christopher's identification. Hill testified that while they were at the inn, Byrant asked her to work for him as a prostitute. When she declined the offer, Bryant struck her and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him. The four Bryant, Hill, John Christopher and Dorothy Hamilton remained at the inn throughout the night.

The next day, Bryant bought Hill some "working clothes", anticipating her eventual employment as a prostitute. John Christopher provided the money for this transaction. On that evening and the next, Hill was taken to two Tampa bars and encouraged to solicit for prostitution. By her testimony, she refused to do so, but she did not attempt to escape because she feared further physical reprisals from Bryant.

The next day was August 20. According to Hill, Bryant took her to a street corner in Tampa and instructed her to solicit for prostitution by pretending to hitchhike. Hill did as Bryant had told her, but when a car stopped to pick her up, she merely asked the driver to take her home. Before the car could pull away, however, Bryant got Hill out of the car and took her back to the Lindale Motel. At the motel, Hill testified, Bryant "slapped (her) a couple of times" and told her to do as he instructed. Later that day, Bryant brought a man to Hill's room and "made (her) have sex with the guy." In the evening, Hill was taken to two bars in Tampa, but did not transact any business.

In the evening of the following day, Hill was driven to a Tampa establishment called the Gator Bar, where she again saw Bryant. He gave her a quota for the evening's prostitution business, but rather than attempting to fill her quota, Hill ducked out of a side door and ran for several blocks. Eventually a man offered to take her home, and she accepted. When Hill got home, her mother called the police. Before the police arrived, the defendant Dorothy Mae Hamilton came to the door and told Hill that Bryant wanted to speak with her. Hill refused. Dorothy Mae Hamilton then left, but the car in which she was a passenger remained parked in front of the house until the police arrived some twenty minutes later.

Hill had no further contact with any of the defendants except for one incident which occurred almost a year after the events just described. In the summer of 1974, Hill testified, she saw the defendant Bryant in a Tampa bar. In this encounter, Bryant threatened to kill her if she persisted in involving the police. Hill then left the bar and did not see or hear from Byrant or any other defendants until she testified at their trial.

The next government witness was Barbara Scott Vann. Vann testified to meeting Herbert Bryant in Tampa during February 1974. She described an incident which transpired about two weeks after she had first met Bryant and which led to her involuntary commission of acts of prostitution at Bryant's direction. According to Vann, Bryant offered her a ride home from a Tampa laundromat and, when she accepted, drove her instead to a bar called Carmella's, located in the Tampa suburb of Gordonville. At Carmella's, Vann related, Bryant ordered her to "make him some money" by offering herself for prostitution. Carmella's was apparently well suited to this purpose, since it was adjacent to several mobile homes and trailers which afforded a convenient location for prostitutes to execute the contracts they had made inside the bar. Van eventually acceded to...