U.S. v. Spagnoulo, 89-6131
| Decision Date | 20 May 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-6131,89-6131 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gerald SPAGNOULO, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Theodore J. Sakowitz, Federal Public Defender, Miami, Fla., Patrick M. Hunt, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Alison Marie Igoe, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Miami, Fla., for defendant-appellant.
Dexter W. Lehtinen, U.S. Atty., Linda Collins Hertz, Dawn Bowen, Carol E. Herman, Asst. U.S. Attys., Miami, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before HATCHETT, Circuit Judge, JOHNSON * and HENDERSON, Senior Circuit Judges.
We reverse the convictions in this case because the government, without moral culpability or willfulness, suppressed evidence favorable to the appellant.
On February 6, 1987, David Brock arrived in Miami, Florida, on a flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to pick up a kilogram of cocaine for Gerald Spagnoulo, the appellant. Ruben Del Vejar, who had previously supplied Brock with cocaine for Spagnoulo, met Brock at the Miami International Airport and drove him to Del Vejar's house. While at Del Vejar's house, Brock removed $22,000 in cash from a gym bag and exchanged it for a kilogram of cocaine which he then placed into the gym bag for the return trip to Boston. Following the exchange, Del Vejar drove Brock to the Fort Lauderdale Airport for Brock's return flight to Boston.
Detective Norberto Vichot of the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Office approached Brock inside the airport terminal after observing that Brock appeared nervous as he entered the airport and paid cash for a ticket while nervously kicking the gym bag. Vichot identified himself as a police officer, asked for some form of identification, and inquired as to Brock's destination. After producing a return plane ticket to Boston in the name of "David Jones," and a Massachusetts driver's license in the name of "David Brock," Brock explained that he traveled under the alias "David Jones" because of a past bad check problem with Eastern Airlines. Brock agreed to a pat-down search of his outer garments, but refused to consent to a search of the gym bag. Vichot advised Brock that the gym bag would have to be retained in order to allow a narcotics dog to sniff it, but that Brock was free to leave. Before the narcotics dog arrived, Brock told Vichot that he had to use the telephone and declined to accompany the detective to an office. Brock then left the airport and contacted Del Vejar who picked him up and took him to a hotel near the airport. After a narcotics dog had alerted to the bag and Vichot had obtained a search warrant, Vichot discovered one kilogram of cocaine in the gym bag. From the hotel, Brock telephoned Spagnoulo and told him about the incident with the detectives and the loss of the cocaine. Spagnoulo did not believe Brock's story and suspected that Del Vejar and Brock had devised a scheme to "rip off" the cocaine and the money. For this "rip off," Spagnoulo threatened to kill Brock.
Spagnoulo contacted his friends, Alex Mercolini and Steven McCarthy, and informed them of his intention to kill Brock. First, Spagnoulo paid a "Puerto Rican kid" $250 to use a machine gun to "shoot up the house" where Brock's family lived. Several days later, four bullets fired from an automatic weapon damaged the Brock family car. In preparation for his confrontation with Del Vejar and Brock in Miami, Spagnoulo acquired a shotgun, "sawed off" its barrel, purchased a $1,500 Lincoln Continental, and bought a handgun. As the final preparation for his trip, Spagnoulo asked McCarthy to use Spagnoulo's apartment and telephone in Spagnoulo's absence to provide an alibi to prove that he, Spagnoulo, had remained in Boston during the time he would actually be in Miami.
After Spagnoulo departed for Miami, McCarthy contacted the city of Miami police and informed them of Spagnoulo's plan to "shoot somebody" in Florida. During his drive down to Miami, Spagnoulo telephoned his father and learned that $20,000 had been stolen from the father's house. This news prompted Spagnoulo to telephone McCarthy and inform him that he, Spagnoulo, would be returning to Boston. While at a North Carolina airport awaiting departure of his flight to Boston, Spagnoulo assumed the alias Cirelli and informed Mercolini to pick him up the following day at the West Palm Beach Airport.
When Mercolini met Spagnoulo at the West Palm Beach Airport, Spagnoulo was driving a rental Cadillac because the long trip had "burned up the engine" on the Lincoln. During this series of events, McCarthy kept the police informed of Spagnoulo and Mercolini's whereabouts and plans.
Police officers in Miami arrested Brock and informed him of Spagnoulo's threats. Spagnoulo and Mercolini traveled to Del Vejar's house in Miami with the shotgun, but when they arrived at Del Vejar's house, neither Brock nor Del Vejar was at the house. Spagnoulo and Mercolini later returned to Del Vejar's house and noticed that several cars were in the area. Brock, who was in a police car parked in the area, identified Spagnoulo and Mercolini. Spagnoulo believed that the undercover cars surrounding Del Vejar's house were Del Vejar's associates and possible members of the Colombian mafia. Spagnoulo also suspected that the cars might belong to undercover police officers, and thus began to drive away. The police officers followed Spagnoulo, blocked the path of his car at a toll booth, and announced their presence. Spagnoulo and Mercolini jumped out of the car and ran. The officers were able to apprehend Mercolini, but Spagnoulo, carrying his handgun in his hand, escaped. In the trunk of the car the officers found a loaded shotgun and additional shells. Spagnoulo telephoned McCarthy and told him about the incident and his narrow escape. Spagnoulo then went to Orlando, Florida, boarded a flight to Boston. Upon arriving in Boston, Spagnoulo went to McCarthy's auto body shop.
On February 11, 1987, Detective Paul Barnacle of the Boston Police Department arrested Spagnoulo at his apartment. In a search, pursuant to a search warrant, Barnacle found an airline ticket stub for a flight from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Boston in the name of Gerry Cirelli. Barnacle also found a beeper, a contract for lease of the beeper, and various papers and documents written in code reflecting Spagnoulo's drug business. A search of McCarthy's house revealed "a barrel which had been sawed off a shotgun," "some wood chips which came from the sawed-off stock," and "sawdust filings and iron filings that were found on the work bench in the cellar of McCarthy's house next to a vice grip." Laboratory analysis revealed Spagnoulo's thumb print and palm print on the barrel of the sawed-off shotgun.
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment charging Spagnoulo with: (1) conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a) and 846; (2) possession with intent to distribute cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2; (3) traveling in interstate commerce to commit a crime of violence to further an unlawful activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(2); (4) using and carrying firearms during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1); and (5) transporting an unregistered firearm in interstate commerce, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(j). On December 2, 1987, a jury convicted Spagnoulo on all counts of the indictment.
After the district court conducted several hearings concerning the competency of Spagnoulo to stand trial, the district court found Spagnoulo competent to stand trial and denied motions for a new trial. The district court then sentenced Spagnoulo as follows: fifty years imprisonment on each of Counts I and II to run concurrently; five years imprisonment on each of Counts III and V to run concurrently with each other and with the sentences imposed on the first two counts; and five years imprisonment on Count IV to run consecutive to the sentences imposed on Counts I, II, III, and V. In addition, the court sentenced Spagnoulo to a four-year term of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $250 special assessment.
Spagnoulo filed a motion for new trial based upon the government's failure to comply with standing discovery orders requiring the production of results or reports of physical or mental examinations and of scientific tests or experiments. While Spagnoulo awaited trial, a psychiatrist and psychologist at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a pretrial detention facility, performed a psychiatric evaluation of Spagnoulo. The psychology services at MCC performed this evaluation because of Spagnoulo's unprovoked attack on another inmate. On October 8, 1987, Dr. Ronald Neuhring, chief of psychology services at MCC, issued a report (the "Neuhring report") recommending that no disciplinary action be taken against Spagnoulo for the unprovoked assault because Spagnoulo's psychiatric evaluation indicated that a mental disorder, characterized as paranoid delusional thinking, motivated the assault.
As a result of Spagnoulo's diagnosis, the prison doctors ordered medication including Haldol, a major tranquilizer, Symetril, a drug used to offset the side effects of Haldol, and Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication. Based upon the Neuhring report, the government dismissed the assault charge. The defense lawyer in the assault case, which is a case separate from this case, obtained the Neuhring report after having filed a motion to compel discovery. The defense lawyer in the assault case then notified the defense lawyer in this case of the existence and contents of the report. When the defense lawyer in this case obtained the Neuhring report, the trial in this case...
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