U.S. v. Sandles

• Decision Date: 27 November 2006
• Docket Number: No. 02-2466.,No. 02-2492.,02-2466.,02-2492.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John E. SANDLES, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

469 F.3d 508

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John E. SANDLES, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 02-2466.

No. 02-2492.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Submitted: July 28, 2006.

Decided and Filed: November 27, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ON BRIEF: Curtis R. Williams, Detroit, Michigan, Melvin Houston, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellant. Patricia G. Gaedeke, Assistant United States Attorney, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. John E. Sandles, Adelanto, California, pro se.

Before: BATCHELDER, CLAY, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

This appeal consolidates two related bank-robbery cases concerning Defendant John Sandles, appearing pro se on appeal. Sandles, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was on supervised release from a previous bank-robbery conviction when he committed the robbery at issue in this case. The Government and Sandles agree that Sandles confessed to robbing a branch of Michigan National Bank in February 2000, in Dearborn, Michigan. At the trial, over which Judge George Steeh presided, the jury convicted Sandles of bank robbery, notwithstanding his assertion of an insanity defense and his testimony that the Angel Gabriel told him to rob the bank and give the money to the poor. After Sandles' conviction in Judge Steeh's court, Judge Denise Hood, with respect to Sandles' first bank-robbery conviction, dismissed Sandles' petition for a writ of coram nobis and revoked his supervised release. Judge Hood sentenced Sandles to fifteen months of imprisonment. Judge Steeh then sentenced Sandles to 151 months of imprisonment, with the sentence to run concurrently with the sentence imposed by Judge Hood.

We affirm in part and reverse in part. Sandles makes eight cognizable arguments on appeal, challenging both his conviction and sentences. One of Sandles' arguments concerning his conviction is meritorious: the Government failed to introduce sufficient evidence at trial that the Michigan National Bank's deposits were insured by the FDIC at the time of the robbery, a required element of a federal bank-robbery charge. Therefore, we reverse Sandles' conviction for bank robbery. But we affirm the district court's denial of Sandles' motion to dismiss for alleged violations of his rights under the Speedy Trial Act, and we affirm the district court's dismissal of Sandles' writ of coram nobis concerning his prior bank-robbery conviction. We remand this case for a new trial. See Lockhart v. Nelson, 488 U.S. 33, 40-42, 109 S.Ct. 285, 102 L.Ed.2d 265 (1988) (holding that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not prevent retrial if an appellate court concludes that evidence was erroneously admitted and that there would have been insufficient evidence to convict without that improper evidence).

I.

John Sandles entered a Dearborn branch of the Michigan National Bank on February 3, 2000. He told teller Lori Ruszkiewicz, "Be quiet, give me the money or I will make it worse for you." According to Ruszkiewicz, Sandles did not request a specific amount of money, but according to Sandles he asked for $3,000. After Ruszkiewicz emptied her first cash drawer, he requested more money. She gave him more from the second drawer. Sandles received a total of $2,317, and he quickly and quietly left the bank.

The bank's surveillance cameras took three photographs of Sandles at the teller window. Ultimately, Sandles' federal probation officer, Darcia Cheeks, identified him on a flyer that she saw in August 2000. When the police questioned Sandles, he admitted that he was the robber. He told the police, in a written confession, that

[m]y primary means of communicating was with my angels; however, my angels gave me assurance and support. In return, I felt that I had to prove that I was on the side of righteousness. I believed at the time, that the bank represented evil and that I could prove that I was a messenger of God by robbing the bank.

He wrote that he gave the money to "poor and needy people."

On August 17, 2000, a grand jury returned an indictment against Sandles. The grand jury charged him with one count of bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Judge Steeh presided over the trial. With the assistance of stand-by counsel, Sandles represented himself.

Two events at trial are relevant to the issues that Sandles raises in this appeal:

First, the Government called Rhonda York to testify that the bank's deposits were insured by the FDIC at the time of the robbery. York was a senior investigator and responsible for the bank's security. When the Government asked York whether the bank's deposits were insured by the FDIC, Sandles objected to the lack of foundation demonstrating York's personal knowledge. The court stated, "In the event the testimony does not establish relevance to the last question[,] the Court will entertain a motion to strike." The Government then presented York with "Government's Exhibit 4," which was a packet of papers covered in plastic, containing an FDIC certificate, dated 1987. When asked whether that certificate demonstrated that the bank's deposits were FDIC-insured in February 2000, York stated, "As far as I know it does." Sandles objected to a lack of foundation. The court sustained his objection and struck the preceding question and answer. The Government then asked, "putting aside the certificate," whether York was personally aware that the bank's deposits were FDIC-insured on February 3. She answered that they were. When Sandles made another objection to lack of foundation, York stated that her personal knowledge was based on having seen "these certificates and knowing that we have been certified over 23 years experience in the bank [sic] and that we established this at each of our deposit windows at our Teller windows with signs indicating that we are insured."

During the Government's closing argument, the Government mentioned an affidavit by Valerie Best, the Assistant Executive Secretary of the FDIC. In her affidavit, Best testified that she had searched FDIC records and uncovered nothing indicating that the bank's insured status had been terminated. Sandles objected because the affidavit had not been admitted at trial. The Government argued that the affidavit was part of the packet covered in plastic that the court admitted as Exhibit 4 and that the defense reviewed the packet prior to the admission of the documents. The court overruled the defense objection and found that the affidavit had been admitted into evidence, even though there had been no mention of the affidavit at trial. The Government then told the jury during closing, "The [affidavit that] is attached to the certificate further indicate[s] specifically that the branch that was robbed was insured by the FDIC including the date of February 3rd of 2000, the date of the bank robbery."

Second, Sandles complained on Tuesday, the second day of trial, that he was not receiving his anti-psychotic medication from prison personnel. After two witnesses finished testifying, the court heard Sandles' argument concerning his medication. Sandles stated that he had not received his medication, which he normally took twice a day, since that past Thursday. He said that he was starting to experience "emotional overload." The United States Marshal informed the court that he had contacted the county jail, and the court stated, "We'll trust that results in you receiving medication."

Four motions made at trial are also relevant to this appeal. First, the district court denied Sandles' motion to dismiss. Sandles argued for dismissal because the bank-robbery statute which he had been charged with violating had been repealed by 50 U.S.C. § 1601 and because the Government did not prove that the bank's FDIC insurance covered robbery and theft. Second, the district court denied Sandles' motion to dismiss on the grounds that his trial's delay violated the Speedy Trial Act. Third, the district court denied Sandles' request that the court include an additional sentence in the jury instruction concerning Sandles' insanity defense. Sandles wanted the district court to instruct the jury that one can be insane, despite one's knowledge that the act was illegal, if one believed his conduct was morally justified. The district court noted, however, that Sandles was permitted to make his argument as to what "wrongfulness" in the instruction meant. Finally, at some point before trial, the district court granted the Government's request to sequester certain defense witnesses.

The jury found Sandles guilty in December 2001. Prior to the robbery for which he was convicted, Sandles had been convicted of another bank robbery in Wisconsin. See United States v. Sandles, 80 F.3d 1145 (7th Cir.1996). He was on supervised release at the time of the second robbery. During the pendency of the proceedings concerning his supervised release, in which Judge Hood presided, Sandles filed a petition for a writ of coram nobis, arguing that the Eastern District of Wisconsin incorrectly held, because of misrepresentations allegedly made by the Government, that violence or intimidation was required under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(b). The district court denied the petition for lack of jurisdiction. Judge Hood revoked his supervised release and, on November 21, 2002, imposed a fifteen-month sentence.

Judge Steeh sentenced Sandles on November 27, 2002, to 151 months of imprisonment and assessed restitution in the amount stolen from the bank. Judge Steeh imposed the sentence under a mandatory Guidelines scheme. Although Judge Hood held that she did not have any objections to Sandles' sentence running consecutively to the sentence to be imposed by Judge Steeh, Judge Steeh stated that the sentences would run concurrently. Sandles filed timely notices of appeal.

II.

Sandles' conviction cannot stand because the Government failed to proffer sufficient evidence that the Michigan National Bank's deposits were insured by the FDIC. It was...