U.S. v. Williams
| Decision Date | 17 October 1996 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 95-2170,95-2173,95-2171,s. 95-2170 |
| Parties | 45 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 761 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jerome WILLIAMS, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Zachary MARSHALL, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Darryl PRICE, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Paul J. Passanante, St. Louis, MO, argued, for appellant Jerome Williams.
Barry A. Short, St. Louis, MO, argued, for appellant Zachary Marshall.
Howard B. Eisenberg, Milwaukee, WI, argued, for appellant Darryl Price.
Dean Hoag, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Louis, MO, argued, for appellee.
Before FAGG, JOHN R. GIBSON, and BOWMAN, Circuit Judges.
Zachary Marshall, Darryl Price, and Jerome Williams appeal their convictions under the Federal Kidnapping Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1) (1994), for kidnapping Richard Harris and conspiracy to kidnap him. All three defendants claim that the district court 1 erred in excluding evidence of a polygraph test conducted on the government's chief witness, Michael Campbell. They also claim that the court erred in admitting evidence of their possession of guns before and after the conspiracy. Williams makes a similar argument regarding evidence of his possession of drugs. Price argues that there was insufficient evidence that he was a member of the conspiracy or participated in the kidnapping, and that the district court erred in refusing to sever his case from the others. We affirm the convictions.
On June 17, 1990, Richard Harris was abducted in St. Louis, Missouri and taken by car to East St. Louis, Illinois, where he was shot to death and abandoned. The government proved that Williams, Marshall, and Price arranged to have a volunteer policeman kidnap Harris. They met the policeman and traveled with him to East St. Louis, where Marshall and Williams killed Harris.
Earlier that June, Harris's cousin, Vernon Henderson, was shot in the Vaughn Housing Project in St. Louis. Harris visited Henderson in the hospital, then returned to the Vaughn Housing Project armed with a rifle and two handguns. Harris went around the Project "sticking [a] gun up to people's faces and asking who shot his cousin." Harris told his girlfriend, who was at the Project with him, that he was going to kill the person who shot his cousin. The girlfriend testified that sometime after that night at the Project, Harris got the information that "Little Dickie" had shot Henderson. She and Harris knew Darryl Price by the name "Little Dickie."
The government's witness, Michael Campbell, was a volunteer officer of the Beverly Hills, Missouri Auxiliary Police Reserve. He was an acquaintance of Zachary Marshall, Jerome Williams, and Darryl Price. Beginning on May 16, 1990, Campbell made a series of gun purchases in which he used his police identification to get gun permits, took money from Marshall and Williams, and bought guns for their use. On May 16 Campbell bought a Taurus nine millimeter pistol; he testified, "I purchased this weapon ... for the protection of [Williams] and his drug trade...." On May 31, 1990, he bought three more guns: a .45 caliber Uzi, a Desert Eagle .44 magnum, and a .357 magnum. Marshall gave Campbell $2,200 in cash to buy the guns, and Marshall and Williams accompanied him to the gun shop to tell him which guns to get. On June 15, 1990, Campbell got more permits. This time all three defendants accompanied Campbell to the gun shop. He bought two ten millimeter Smith & Wesson pistols; two nine millimeter Beretta pistols; one AK47; and one Ruger rifle with a scope, all for $3,779 in cash provided by Marshall. He turned the weapons over to Marshall and Williams.
On the same day as the last gun purchase, June 15, Campbell went with the three defendants to buy a used Chevrolet Celebrity. Various witnesses testified that the Celebrity looked like a St. Louis police car. Marshall supplied the $2,800 in cash to buy the car, but Campbell actually made the purchase.
The next day, June 16, Marshall paged Campbell and asked him to come to a nightclub to meet him. Outside the club, Campbell met Williams and Marshall. They had mounted an antenna on the top of the Chevrolet Celebrity. Marshall told Campbell that someone had been pulling a pistol on thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds in the Vaughn Projects and that Marshall wanted Campbell to pull that person over. Campbell volunteered to use his "police abilities" to pull the person over. Marshall gave Campbell a description of a person they called "Ricky Beers". Williams said he wanted to "pop" Ricky, meaning to shoot him. They offered Campbell $2,000 for his help.
Early the next morning, June 17, Marshall and Williams took Campbell to the area in south St. Louis where Harris lived and showed him Harris's apartment and car. Campbell began surveilling Harris's apartment, sitting in the Chevrolet Celebrity. Marshall gave Campbell a mobile phone to maintain communication with him.
By mistake, Campbell stopped the wrong man, Kenneth Draper. Campbell flashed a red light and identified himself as a police officer. He told Draper to get in the back seat of the car, gave him handcuffs, and told him to handcuff himself. Draper testified at trial that Campbell called him "Ricky" and was talking to someone on a portable phone. Campbell took Draper downtown. There, they met Williams, who told Campbell he had the wrong man. Campbell crossed the Mississippi and let Draper out of the car in East St. Louis. He returned to St. Louis to continue surveilling Harris's apartment.
Campbell soon apprehended Harris, who was in a car with his family. Campbell followed the same procedure he had used with Draper, stopping Harris by using a flashing light, and having Harris get in the back seat of the Celebrity and handcuff himself. Using the portable phone, Campbell telephoned Marshall and told him that he had Harris; Marshall said to bring him downtown. Campbell again drove downtown, where he met Williams, Marshall, and Price, who were in another Chevrolet Celebrity. At Williams's direction, Campbell then drove over the bridge to East St. Louis, with the other Celebrity following. Campbell stopped in East St. Louis and walked back to talk to the others. He said, "Whatever you want to do, let's do it right here...." The others told him to keep driving. He got back in the car and continued driving. Campbell was looking for a rural area, but when he pulled into Church Lane, the second car bumped Campbell's car from behind. Harris looked back at the second car and said: "That's Dickie" or "That's Dickie and Zac and them" and "They gonna kill me." Harris jumped out of the car and ran. Marshall got out of the second car and shot Harris twice. Harris fell. Williams then got out of the car. He and Marshall both shot Harris repeatedly.
Price moved to the driver's seat in the second car. Marshall and Williams got back in the car, and both cars sped away.
About an hour or hour and a half later, Williams paged Campbell and arranged a meeting. Price also attended the meeting. Price and Williams paid Campbell his $2,000. Williams told him to have the Celebrity he had used in the kidnapping painted and to get rid of the license plates and antenna, which he did. Williams also warned him not to talk about what had happened or he would get "knocked." Campbell asked what had become of the guns used to shoot Harris, and Williams said they had thrown them into a field.
On June 20, St. Louis police arrested Williams for brandishing a handgun. The handgun turned out to be the Desert Eagle .44 magnum Campbell had bought for Williams and Marshall. Marshall paged Campbell to warn him that a gun registered to him had been seized. He advised Campbell to report the other guns as stolen. Accordingly, Campbell filed a false police report with the Hazelwood police department, saying several guns had been stolen from his car.
Later that same day, June 20, Williams paged Campbell. They met and discussed Williams's arrest. Williams told Campbell that Harris had been a drug rival and that Harris was going to kill Marshall and Price because Price had "shot a guy" in the projects. Campbell retrieved from Williams two of the guns he had bought for the group.
Campbell's report of the stolen guns came to the attention of the Beverly Hills police chief, Joe Collins. Chief Collins knew Campbell had financial problems and was surprised that Campbell would own so many expensive guns. He called Campbell in to ask him about it. After talking to Campbell, Chief Collins concluded the theft report was false and told Campbell to bring the guns in. Chief Collins took Campbell's badge and police identification card and placed him on suspension. Chief Collins told Campbell to bring the guns in to the station. When Campbell returned to the police station with two of the guns, he was arrested.
On August 3, Williams was again arrested, this time with two pistols in his waistband. The serial numbers had been drilled off, but a specialist in firearms identification was able to raise part of the serial number on each gun. His results indicated the serial numbers on these guns were consistent with the serial numbers for two of the pistols Campbell had bought for the group.
Ballistics evidence indicated that all the bullets recovered from Harris's body, except one, were fired from the same .45 caliber gun. The ballistics expert could not identify the caliber gun from which the other bullet was fired, although it could have been a nine millimeter. Police recovered .45 caliber and 9 millimeter shell casings from the scene of the murder. The government recovered five of the eight pistols Campbell bought for the group, but not the .45 caliber Uzi or the second 9 millimeter Beretta. The police never recovered the murder weapons.
Williams, Marshall, and Price were indicted for conspiracy to...
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