U.S. v. Richardson, s. 95-3053
| Decision Date | 14 November 1997 |
| Docket Number | 96-2591,96-2682 and 96-3197,95-3054,Nos. 95-3053,96-2551,96-2587,96-2644,s. 95-3053 |
| Parties | 48 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 254 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eddie RICHARDSON, Carmen Tate, Rodney Palmer, Nate Hall, Stanley Westmoreland, Martell Lee, Sectric Curry, and Lennel Smith, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Barry Rand Elden, Chief of Appeals, Jerome N. Krulewitch (argued), Office of the United States Attorney, Criminal Appellate Division, Chicago, IL, for United States of America.
William A. Barnett, Jr. (argued on behalf of Appellants Eddie Richardson and Nate Hall), Chicago, IL, for Eddie Richardson.
Anita Rivkin-Carothers (argued), Chicago, IL, for Carmen Tate.
Carl P. Clavelli (argued), Chicago, IL, for Rodney Palmer.
Stanley L. Hill, Robert D. Whitfield, J. Clifford Greene, Jr., Hill & Associates, Chicago, IL, for Nate Hall.
Stephen E. Eberhardt, Chicago, IL, for Stanley Westmoreland.
Lazar Pol Raynal, Corey Rubenstein (argued), William P. Zieglemueller, McDermott, Will & Emery, Chicago, IL, for Martell Lee.
Patrick W. Blegen, Thomas A. Durkin (argued on behalf of Appellants Stanley Westmoreland, Sectric Curry, and Lenell Smith), Chicago, IL, for Sectric Curry.
Patrick T. Driscoll, Jr., Janice C. Breen, Hickey, Driscoll, Kurfirst, Patterson & Melia, Chicago, IL, for Lenell Smith.
Before BAUER, RIPPLE, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
It wasn't Alice's Restaurant, but starting in 1990, if it was crack you wanted, you could get it at Highway Beef, a stand at the corner of Gladys and Cicero on the west side of Chicago. During the late 1980's, if it was heroin you wanted, you could get it two blocks away at the Courtway Building on Congress at Cicero. And all the dope came courtesy of a conspiracy involving members of a street gang with a charming name--the Undertaker Vice Lords. The gang operated around Cicero Avenue, near the point where it is bisected by the Eisenhower Expressway.
The operation was put out of business, and on March 23, 1994, a three-count indictment was filed charging conspiracy to distribute narcotics, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846; charging two leaders--Eddie Richardson and Carmen Tate--with engaging in a continuing criminal narcotics enterprise, in violation of § 848; and charging Tate and another person with conspiracy to defraud the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. A jury trial in the district court involving a gaggle of defendants ran from March 29, 1995, until May 23, 1995, before Judge James F. Holderman; the eight defendants currently before us were found guilty on all the charges against them, although three others who went to trial were acquitted. In addition, one alleged gang member was convicted in a separate trial and several others entered guilty pleas. Sentencings were held over a 1-year period from August 1995 until August 1996. Sectric Curry, Nate Hall, Richardson, and Tate received life imprisonment; Martell Lee and Stanley Westmoreland received 324 months; Rodney Palmer received 292 months, and Lennel Smith 194 months, sentences which vividly show how much society's attitudes about drugs have changed since Alice's time.
The Undertaker Vice Lords were formed in the 1970's by Eddie Richardson. The gang was organized in a hierarchy with five groups of members called "generations"; members of each generation were people of roughly the same age who joined the gang at roughly the same time. Each generation had its own "King" and "Prince." Richardson was the "King of all the Undertakers" and a "Universal Elite" within the Vice Lord Nation. Tate had no rank but was a member whom, it is said, all Undertakers looked up to. The alleged conspirators in this case came from several of the generations and some were leaders of their generations. Richardson was the one who designated who would be a leader. Two members of the fourth generation, Michael Sargent and Johnnie Chew, and a member of the fifth generation, Andre Cal, pled guilty and testified for the government at trial.
The government alleged that Richardson not only controlled the gang but also oversaw the distribution of heroin, crack cocaine, and powder cocaine. Richardson and Tate were said to permit only members of the Undertakers and others granted permission by them to sell drugs in the Undertakers territory. The drugs were sold at well-established drug "spots," and there were established locations for preparing and packaging the drugs. A Chicago Police Department search of one of the latter locations in June 1985 uncovered a kilogram of heroin, irons, mixing bowls, blenders, and strainers. During the search Tate asked the police to let everyone else go because the heroin belonged to him; he said that he bagged it himself because he did not trust his workers. From the packaging locations, runners delivered the drugs to the drug spots and collected the money, and the workers then sold the drugs. Richardson and Tate enforced the rules regarding drug sales by a system of punishments called "violations." The violations ranged from not being allowed to continue selling, to beatings with bricks, bottles, or ax handles, being stabbed or shot, and even, at least once, to being killed.
The sale of heroin was the primary object of the conspiracy from 1984 until 1990. From 1984 until 1987 brown heroin was distributed out of the Courtway Building in packs which contained 25 $25 packets of user quantities of heroin. For each pack sold, the workers were paid $100, and Richardson and Tate received the balance. From the winter of 1987 until the end of 1988 Chew ran the heroin spot in the Courtway Building. He estimated that during that time, the Undertakers sold a "frame"--25 packs of 25 bags--every 3 to 4 days, or approximately 25 kilograms of brown heroin. Others selling brown heroin from the Courtway Building included Hall and Westmoreland. Smith also admitted to selling heroin for Richardson and Tate at Cicero and Van Buren and Laramie and Van Buren and, in a tape-recorded conversation, he said he worked for Tate and Richardson from 1985 to 1988, making about $50,000.
In the fall of 1988 Richardson and the Undertakers began to distribute white heroin from the Courtway Building. Chew initially was the runner, followed by Darryl Joyner, Lee, and Sargent. Lee was arrested in January 1989 carrying $2,700 in cash and a beeper. After the arrest, Sargent assumed Lee's responsibilities; Richardson provided Sargent with an average of $40,000 to $60,000 worth of heroin three times a week. Joseph Westmoreland, who was convicted in a separate trial, estimated that the conspiracy was collecting about $20,000 to $30,000 per day. Based on these statements, the Undertakers sold slightly more than 100 kilograms of white heroin between 1988 and 1990.
Others were also involved in the heroin operation. Curry sold heroin while Sargent was the runner; in fact, Sargent considered Curry his best worker. Curry was arrested in August 1989 and, in a tape-recorded conversation, told an agent that he made more than $50,000 selling drugs for Richardson and Tate. Hall sold heroin from the Courtway Building from May 1988 until December 1988. In a June 1991 conversation with a government agent, Hall confirmed that he was selling heroin for Richardson and that he had been working for Tate and Richardson since 1983. He claims he made approximately $60,000. Lee also was involved in the white heroin trafficking. On October 9, 1990, and November 24, 1990, Lee sold an agent 19 $20 bags of white heroin.
In November 1990 the Undertakers branched into the distribution of crack, primarily from the beefstand at the corner of Gladys and Cicero. Cal testified that he and Tate cooked a quarter kilo of cocaine into crack two to three times a week for 10 months. That would mean that during that time, they sold over 25 kilograms of crack. Curry, Hall, Lee, Palmer, Smith, and Westmoreland each participated in the sale of crack at the beefstand.
Richardson and Tate also oversaw the distribution of powder cocaine. In 1988 Chew became a runner for cocaine. In addition, Hall, Curry, and Lee were involved in the cocaine operation.
The conspiracy was uncovered when, beginning in 1988, John Rotunno, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, began an undercover investigation into an illegal gun trade on the west side. In August 1990 he abandoned that investigation and began looking into narcotics sales and street gangs. Posing as the brother of confidential informant Debra Schwede, Rotunno said he was a large marijuana dealer from California who had been arrested by the DEA and was currently on parole. He began to make small purchases of narcotics from low-level members of the gang, who then cooperated with the government.
The facts just recited have been, as required, viewed in the light most favorable to the government. The defendants don't agree. First, they say, this was not one big conspiracy with a monopoly on the Cicero Avenue drug trade. To the extent the defendants sold drugs, they claim to have sold them as members of several smaller conspiracies. Being a member of the Undertakers, they say, does not make one a member of an overarching drug conspiracy. That there is a variance between the indictment and the proof--that is, that there were several smaller conspiracies rather than one large one--is not a novel argument in drug cases, and the law is well-established. We will summarize briefly.
A contention that there were several conspiracies, rather than the one charged, amounts to a "challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury's finding that each defendant was a member of the same conspiracy." United States v. Townsend, 924 F.2d 1385, 1389 (7th Cir.1991). The court considers the...
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