U.S. v. Watson

• Decision Date: 08 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-5613,80-5613
• Citation: 669 F.2d 1374
• Parties: 10 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 31 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raymond WATSON, Herbert L. Williams, Walter Arthur Parker, William Harrison King, Michael D. Berry, a/k/a "Jerry Forsh" and J. B. McGlocklin, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1374

669 F.2d 1374

10 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 31

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raymond WATSON, Herbert L. Williams, Walter Arthur Parker William Harrison King, Michael D. Berry, a/k/a "Jerry Forsh" and J. B. McGlocklin Defendants-Appellants.

No. 80-5613.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

March 8, 1982.

Vincent J. Flynn, Miami, Fla., for Watson.

Roger D. Patterson, Panama City Beach, Fla., for Williams.

James K. Jenkins, Atlanta, Ga., Gerald H. Goldstein, San Antonio, Tex., for Parker.

Owen N. Powell, Bonifay, Fla., for King & Berry.

Bonnie K. Roberts, Bonifay, Fla., for McGlocklin.

David L. McGee, Asst. U. S. Atty., Tallahassee, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before FAY, ANDERSON and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

FAY, Circuit Judge:

Appellants Watson, Williams, Parker, King, Berry, and McGlocklin were each charged under a one count indictment with conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute it in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. ¹ On July 10, 1980, a jury found all six guilty. Among the numerous issues presented on appeal, we find that one, the exclusion of opinion witnesses offered by the defense to impeach the government's key witness, requires reversal.

THE FACTS

The evidence presented by the government consisted primarily of testimony by Patrick Campbell. Campbell related two major incidents which occurred during the course of the conspiracy. The first incident involved Campbell's introduction to the conspiracy at an airport in north Florida. The second incident entailed the planning and carrying out of a trip to Colombia, South America, for the purpose of importing marijuana. What follows is a review of the evidence presented at trial, considered in the light most favorable to the government. See Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942).

The Tri-County Airport

The Tri-County Airport is located in Holmes County, Florida-a rural area in the panhandle. Patrick Campbell and his wife lived in a trailer at the airstrip in April, 1979. On the evening of April 8, 1979, appellants Bill King, J. B. McGlocklin, and Mike Berry appeared at the Campbell's trailer. King told Campbell that a load of About the end of June, 1979, the Campbells vacated the trailer and Phil Robbins, who was also working with Agent Rowell, moved in. Appellants King and Berry came to the trailer looking for Campbell on August 8th. They asked Robbins where Campbell was and after a short conversation Robbins offered to help the smugglers. King then told Robbins that there were plans to bring about five loads of marijuana into the Tri-County Airport and he offered Robbins $5,000 each trip for his cooperation. King said that his responsibility in the "organization" was to provide protection at the airstrips and to see to the unloading and delivery of the marijuana.

marijuana was being flown into the airport that night and offered him $5,000 to keep silent. Pursuant to an agreement with Agent Rowell, of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Campbell informed King that he was a pilot and offered to help in future ventures. King said that he would "contact the people down south" to see if Campbell could act as pilot on future trips.

The Colombian Trip

In mid-August, 1979, King, Robbins, and Campbell met at a convenience store in Wausau, Florida. King asked Campbell if he would be interested in flying marijuana into the country. Campbell agreed. A few days later, King purchased a ticket to West Palm Beach and sent Campbell there to meet Ray Watson. Watson picked Campbell up at the West Palm Beach Airport on August 15th or 16th. They drove to Fort Lauderdale to check on the airplane which would be used to transport the marijuana and then they returned to West Palm Beach.

In West Palm Beach, Campbell attended a meeting which included Ray Watson, Walter Parker, and William Pitts. At the meeting Campbell was told that the marijuana would be picked up in Colombia, flown to the California coast where a water drop would be made of three or four thousand pounds, and then the rest of the load would be flown to the Tri-County Airport and distributed from there. After the meeting, Campbell and Watson drove to a convenience store where Watson made a phone call to Colombia and told his brother, Herb Williams, to get the marijuana ready to load up.

A couple of days after the West Palm Beach meeting, Campbell, Parker, and Dirk Winky flew out of Lakeland, Florida to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The trio spent the night at Parker's house in Haiti. The next day, Parker, Campbell, Dirk Winky, and "Jim" flew to Colombia. They landed on an airstrip adjacent to a river. But it was the wrong airstrip and, to make matters worse, the plane was stuck in mud. Dirk Winky went upriver and returned with Herb Williams and a few other people. While all hands were attempting to free the plane, a Colombian airplane appeared and began circling. The group jumped into motorized canoes and proceeded upriver to a farmer's shack. From their vantage point at the shack they observed the Colombian aircraft dropping bombs in the vicinity of the stranded plane. Herb Williams left the group at the shack, but all five met up later that evening at the airstrip where the plane should have landed. From that airstrip, Campbell, Jim, Dirk Winky, and Parker went further upriver to the spot where the marijuana was stored. They stayed at that site for three days.

Then commenced the return trip. The route back took the group to Bogota, an airstrip on the Colombian coast, Port-au-Prince, and Nassau-with mishaps occurring at every turn. Campbell, accompanied by the McCoys (friends of Parker), finally arrived back in the United States on August 29, 1979. He was picked up at the West Palm Beach Airport by Herb Williams.

Sometime after the August fiasco, Campbell, King, Watson, and McGlocklin waited on a planeload of marijuana at Watson's house in Okeechobee, Florida. After a few hours, Watson announced that the plane

had been stolen by its pilot, no "dope" was coming in, and everyone should go home. At the last meeting Campbell had with King, in December, 1979, King indicated that he feared they were all going to jail because the "people down south had their telephone records subpoenaed."

THE ISSUES

Although we find that the District Court's exclusion of witnesses who would give their opinion of Patrick Campbell's ability to testify truthfully requires reversal, we will also address all other issues presented by the appellants. Guidance at this point, we believe, will serve as an aid to proceedings on retrial.

The issues roughly fall into three categories: the sufficiency of the government's proof; the exclusion of character witnesses and other evidentiary matters; and matters occurring at the end of trial.

Sufficiency of the Government's Proof

Two issues concern the sufficiency of the evidence. All appellants argue that the government charged one, but proved two conspiracies. Appellant Williams also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction.

Appellants argue that the District Court's denial of their severance motions was improper because the government presented proof at trial of two conspiracies when the indictment charged a single conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana. ² They maintain that the first conspiracy centered around the April incident at the Tri-County Airport while the second conspiracy involved the aborted smuggling trip to Colombia, that the government failed to prove any connection between the two incidents, and that the government failed to prove that either group of participants was aware of the activities of the other group.

When a conspiracy is charged under 21 U.S.C. § 846, the government must prove, by direct or circumstantial evidence, that there was an agreement among the defendants to achieve an illegal purpose. United States v. Michel, 588 F.2d 986, 994 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 825, 100 S.Ct. 47, 62 L.Ed.2d 32 (1979); United States v. Gordon, 580 F.2d 827, 834 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1051, 99 S.Ct. 731, 58 L.Ed.2d 711 (1978). The existence of the conspiracy must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, Michel, 588 F.2d at 994; but the government is not required to prove that each conspirator was aware of all other conspirators, or that each conspirator participated at every stage of the conspiracy. United States v. Becker, 569 F.2d 951, 960 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 865, 99 S.Ct. 188, 58 L.Ed.2d 174 (1979); United States v. Morrow, 537 F.2d 120, 130 (5th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 956, 97 S.Ct. 1602, 51 L.Ed.2d 806 (1977); United States v. Perez, 489 F.2d 51, 62 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 945, 94 S.Ct. 3067, 41 L.Ed.2d 664 (1974). The factors we examine to determine whether there is one overall conspiracy are "the existence of a common goal, the nature of the scheme, and an overlapping of participants in the various dealings." Becker, 569 F.2d at 960.

The government presented substantial evidence in this case to support the jury's verdict of a single conspiracy. The common goal of the conspiracy was the importation and distribution of marijuana into this country. The nature of the scheme, involving as it did the unloading of marijuana off planes at the Tri-County Airport and flights to Colombia to pick up the marijuana, renders it inconceivable that the appellants were unaware of the participation of others in the conspiracy. Finally, there was proof of overlapping membership; King, McGlocklin, and Berry were together at the Tri-County Airport, Watson and Parker met with Campbell to plan the Colombia flight, and King, Watson, and McGlocklin waited together on another planeload of marijuana. That some of the defendants were responsible for smuggling the marijuana out of...