U.S. v. Wilkerson

Decision Date22 September 2009
Docket NumberCr. No. 00-0157-15 (TFH).
Citation656 F.Supp.2d 22
PartiesUNITED STATES of America v. Larry WILKERSON, Defendant.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Columbia

Sebastian Kenneth David Graber, Wolftown, VA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

THOMAS F. HOGAN, District Judge.

During the 1990s, a group of men led by Kevin Gray and Larry Moore distributed large quantities of narcotics across Washington, D.C, using violence to promote their operations. An associate of Gray and Moore during this period was the defendant, Larry Wilkerson. He, Gray, Moore, and eighteen others were eventually prosecuted on charges stemming from this drug ring. Wilkerson was tried separately from the other defendants. Following a two-month trial, on September 22, 2004, a jury found him guilty of nine counts related to narcotics conspiracy, RICO conspiracy, and the murders of Marvin Goodman, Christopher Burton, and Scott Downing.1

Since the verdict, Wilkerson has filed numerous motions attacking the validity of his trial. Pending resolution of those motions, he has not yet been sentenced. The Court now addresses seven of Wilkerson's motions, specifically his (1) Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdicts and to Vacate the Verdicts as Being Against the Weight of the Evidence (Docket No. 2203); (2) Motion for a New Trial Based on the Government's Failure to Disclose Brady Evidence Regarding Rodman Lee and for Asserting Inconsistent Prosecution Theories (Docket No. 2201); (3) Motion to Compel the Government to Disclose the Complete Grand Jury Testimony of Rodman Lee (Docket No. 2269); (4) Motion for a New Trial Based on Court's Rulings Denying an Opportunity to Present Exculpatory Evidence Regarding the Christopher Burton Homicide (Docket No. 2196); (5) Motion to Compel the Release of Government Notes Relating to Devin Ebron (Docket No. 2192); (6) Motion for a New Trial Based on Newly Discovered Evidence (Docket No. 2342); and (7) Motion for Dismissal or a New Trial Based on Prosecutorial Misconduct Regarding Government Witness Donney Alston (Docket No. 2198). For the reasons set forth below, the Court will deny each of these motions.

ANALYSIS

The Court's discussion breaks down the above-listed seven motions into four groups. Part I focuses solely on the Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdicts and to Vacate the Verdicts as Being Against the Weight of the Evidence. Part II addresses the second and third motions related to the impact on this case of Rodman Lee, another drug dealer associated with Kevin Gray. Part III deals with the fourth, fifth, and sixth motions, all of which relate to the murder of Christopher Burton. Part IV examines the seventh motion relating to alleged prosecutorial misconduct as to government witness Donney Alston.

I. Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdicts and to Vacate the Verdicts as Being Against the Weight of the Evidence

In this motion, Wilkerson asks the Court either to enter a judgment of acquittal or to vacate the verdicts and convene a new trial. The Court must undertake two distinct, but related, evaluations: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to support the verdicts, and, in the alternative, (2) whether the evidence weighs against the verdicts strongly enough that the interests of justice warrant a new trial. See Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 37-38 & n. 11, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 72 L.Ed.2d 652 (1982) (explaining "the difference between a reversal stemming from insufficient evidence and one prompted by the weight of the evidence"). Wilkerson offers two reasons why the government's evidence is inadequate to sustain the verdicts. With respect to the murder counts, he claims that the government's case was fatally undermined by witnesses' contradictory testimony. With respect to the conspiracy counts, he contends that the evidence shows that the Gray-Moore operation terminated outside the relevant statute of limitations. Because neither of these arguments satisfies the high threshold required to override a jury's finding, the Court will neither enter a judgment of acquittal nor vacate the verdicts.

A. Legal Standards

FED.R.CRIM.P. 29(c)(2) provides that "the court on the defendant's motion must enter a judgment of acquittal on any offense for which the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction." This rule governs Wilkerson's Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdicts. "[T]he standard for overturning a guilty verdict on the grounds of insufficiency of evidence is a demanding one." United States v. Monroe, 990 F.2d 1370, 1373 (D.C.Cir.1993) (citation and internal punctuation omitted). The court's inquiry is limited to "whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (emphasis in original). "[T]his inquiry does not require a court to ask itself whether it believes that the evidence at the trial established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. at 318-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781 (internal quotation omitted) (emphasis in original). In other words, the reviewing court is "not a second jury weighing the evidence anew." United States v. Poston, 902 F.2d 90, 94 (D.C.Cir. 1990). "This familiar standard gives full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact fairly to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts." Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781. To prevail on this claim, Wilkerson must show that the jury's verdicts objectively lack any foundation.

The Court takes a less deferential approach in reviewing Wilkerson's Motion to Vacate the Verdicts as Being Against the Weight of the Evidence. This motion is governed by FED.R.CRIM.P. 33(a), which provides that, "[u]pon the defendant's motion, the court may vacate any judgment and grant a new trial if the interest of justice so requires." On this motion, the Court has greater discretion to make its own judgment about whether the verdict is just in light of the evidence adduced at trial:

When a motion for new trial is made on the ground that the verdict is contrary to the weight of the evidence, the issues are far different. . . . The district court need not view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict; it may weigh the evidence and in so doing evaluate for itself the credibility of the witnesses. If the court concludes that, despite the abstract sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict, the evidence preponderates sufficiently heavily against the verdict that a serious miscarriage of justice may have occurred, it may set aside the verdict, grant a new trial, and submit the issues for determination by another jury.

Tibbs, 457 U.S. at 38 n. 11, 102 S.Ct. 2211 (quotation omitted). "A reversal on this ground, unlike a reversal based on insufficient evidence, does not mean that acquittal was the only proper verdict. Instead, the [reviewing] court sits as a `thirteenth juror' and disagrees with the jury's resolution of the conflicting testimony." Id. at 42, 102 S.Ct. 2211. This second-guessing "discretion should be exercised sparingly," United States v. Sanchez, 969 F.2d 1409, 1414 (2d Cir.1992), however, limited to situations presenting "a serious danger that a miscarriage of justice has occurred—that is, that an innocent person has been convicted." United States v. Morales, 902 F.2d 604, 606 (7th Cir.1990); see also United States v. Ruiz, 105 F.3d 1492, 1501 (1st Cir.1997) ("Where a new trial motion is based upon the weight of the evidence, the court may not order a new trial unless it is quite clear that the jury has reached a seriously erroneous result." (internal quotation omitted)).

B. Inconsistency of Witness Statements

Wilkerson challenges each of the jury's verdicts with respect to the Scott Downing, Christopher Burton, and Marvin Goodman murders. According to Wilkerson, the government's case for each murder depended on witness testimony that no reasonable jury would have believed and that the Court should not accept. Illustrative of Wilkerson's general strategy is his treatment of the Marvin Goodman counts. Goodman, a sometime acquaintance of Gray, Moore, and Wilkerson, was killed by multiple gunshots in 1992. The government and Wilkerson concur that Goodman, a heroin user, was murdered in retaliation for stealing drugs. The two sides agree on little else, however. For its part, the government argues that Goodman stole heroin from the Gray-Moore crew and was later killed by Wilkerson, Gray, and others. Wilkerson, on the other hand, posits that Goodman was murdered by two men known as "Cat Man" and Kenny Hill. At trial, each side offered witness testimony to support its respective narrative, and the jury ultimately found Wilkerson guilty on all of the Goodman counts.

Wilkerson does not argue that the government's proffered testimony, if taken at face value, provides insufficient evidence that Wilkerson helped to murder Goodman. Instead, Wilkerson claims that the government's witnesses had perhaps colluded and were not believable, so that the government offered an insufficient amount of credible testimony to support the jury's verdicts. In support of his claim, Wilkerson observes that government witnesses contradicted each other on subjects including whether Goodman obtained some of his stolen drugs from a safe; who discovered the theft; whether Goodman facilitated his theft by breaking and entering through a kitchen or a closet; whether Kevin Gray ever used the alias "Cat Man"; and whether Goodman was inside a car when killed. Wilkerson claims that these discrepancies so discredit the government's witnesses that the jury's verdicts were beyond all reason and constitute an affront to justice.

The Court...

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