U.S. v. Williams

• Decision Date: 09 January 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-20823,96-20823
• Citation: 132 F.3d 1055
• Parties: 48 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 777 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James Haskell WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1055

132 F.3d 1055

48 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 777

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James Haskell WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 96-20823.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Jan. 9, 1998.

David R. Millard, III, Paula Camille Offenhauser, Asst. U.S. Atty., Houston, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

William L. Bowers, Jr., Houston, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before KING and JONES, Circuit Judges, and KENDALL ¹, District Judge.

KENDALL, District Judge:

Appellant James Williams appeals his conviction under 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii) for transporting illegal aliens within the United States. A jury convicted Williams on five counts of aiding and abetting the knowing transportation of illegal aliens within the United States. Appellant now asserts multiple errors involving the sufficiency of the evidence, admission of certain testimony, denial of his motion for mistrial and the denial of his motion to dismiss. Because this court finds no merit in appellant's arguments, we AFFIRM the conviction of appellant.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

James Williams is a retired airline pilot from Brownsville, Texas. On August 10, 1995, Williams landed his single-engine, high-wing Cessna 210 aircraft at RWJ Air Park, a remote airstrip near Houston. Williams was accompanied on his flight by his housekeeper, Rosalinda Saenz, and five illegal aliens. Three of the illegal aliens were Mexican nationals and the remaining two were Dominican Republic nationals.

When he landed his plane, Williams was greeted by Doug Pence, a pilot for the United States Custom Service in Houston, Texas. Pence had received a telephone call at the Houston Air Branch explaining that a Customs aircraft was tracking a suspect aircraft heading towards Houston from the Rio Grande area. Pence was requested to participate in the tracking.

Pence gained visual sight of Williams' aircraft over Galveston Bay. He continued to monitor the airplane until it landed at RWJ. Pence met Williams as the two exited their planes and questioned Williams regarding his passengers. Williams explained that he knew Saenz but failed to identify the remaining passengers.

Saenz and the five remaining passengers were required to exit the aircraft and present identification. Saenz produced a Texas identification card. Pence received only Mexican voter registration cards and what appeared to be a pair of Dominican Republic identification or voter registration cards from the other passengers. Saenz and the five aliens were taken into custody at RWJ.

At trial, Williams testified that he sometimes carries paying passengers to supplement his income. Williams explained that on August 9, 1995, he received a telephone call from an unidentified Spanish-speaking female concerning a trip to Houston. Williams could not understand the woman, so he handed the telephone to Saenz. With Saenz translating, Williams agreed to transport four unidentified people to Houston the next afternoon for a price of $175. Williams testified he instructed Saenz to ask if "the people are documented." Saenz informed him that she had been told that they were. Saenz accepted Williams invitation to accompany him to Houston.

Saenz and Williams drove to the airport together the next day. Williams readied his plane for the trip and went to the airport office to pay for his fuel. When he returned, Saenz and five passengers were seated inside the plane. Williams testified that he was in a hurry to take off because of bad weather. As they were taking off, Williams asked Saenz if the aliens had papers. Saenz replied that they did. Williams stated that he then turned to the passengers and said the word "papeles," which he described was about all the Spanish he knew. According to Williams, one passenger showed him a card which Williams thought bore the words "resident alien," and the other passengers showed him similar identification cards with pictures.

Four of the five illegal aliens testified at trial and told essentially the same story. A "coyote" transported them across the Rio Grande and took them to a house in the United States where they spent the night. ² The next day the coyote drove Saenz and two of the Mexicans to an airport where Saenz took the aliens to a room and instructed them to wait. The coyote returned to the house and drove the remaining three men to the airport. Saenz later took the men to the airplane and told them where to sit. Neither Saenz nor Williams asked their passengers what their names were or whether they had immigration papers.

One of the aliens, Juan Jose Villar-Sanchez, testified that before Williams left the plane after landing at RWJ, Williams and Saenz had a conversation in English which Villar could not understand. Saenz then spoke to them in Spanish and told them to pretend to be asleep. All the aliens testified that Williams returned to the plane after talking to Pence and spoke to Saenz in English. Saenz immediately instructed the men that, if questioned, they should say that Saenz and Williams did not know that they were illegal aliens.

William Faries runs a small aircraft repair and sales business at the RWJ airport. He testified at trial that as a rule Saenz accompanied Williams on trips when he carried other passengers. Faries testified that several times Williams had landed at RWJ carrying Saenz and five other passengers. The passengers often would remain in the airplane during stops. Faries stated that on the occasions when Williams' airplane was overloaded, his passengers appeared to be Hispanic.

Faries further testified that a car containing two or three Hispanic persons would sometimes park near the airport for as long as two hours before Williams arrived. When Williams landed, the car would drive very close to his airplane. The passengers would transfer from the plane to the car, which would drive away quickly. On other occasions, Hispanic male passengers would wait in Williams' airplane for as long as two hours while Williams and Saenz ate and relaxed inside the airport.

II. DISCUSSION

Williams moved for judgment of acquittal at the end of the government's case-in-chief and again at the close of the evidence. Williams asserts that the district court erroneously denied his motion for judgment of acquittal because no evidence, or, alternatively, insufficient evidence, existed to establish that Williams actually knew that the aliens he was transporting were illegally in the United States.

To establish a violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a), the Government must prove (1) that the defendant transported or moved an alien within the United States, (2) that the alien was present in violation of law, (3) that the defendant was aware of the alien's status, and (4) that the defendant acted wilfully in furtherance of the alien's violation of the law. United States v. Diaz, 936 F.2d 786, 788 (5th Cir.1991). The defendant's knowledge of the alien's illegal status is an essential element of the offense. Id.

The standard for evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence is whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Bell, 678 F.2d 547, 549 (5th Cir.1982) (en banc), aff'd, 462 U.S. 356, 103 S.Ct. 2398, 76 L.Ed.2d 638 (1983). This court reviews direct and circumstantial evidence adduced at trial, as well as all inferences reasonably drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the verdict. United States v. Sanchez, 961 F.2d 1169, 1173 (5th Cir.1992). The jury is solely responsible for determining the weight and credibility of the evidence. United States v. Martinez, 975 F.2d 159, 161 (5th Cir.1992). The court will not substitute its own credibility determination for that of the jury. Id. The court looks to whether the trier of fact made a rational decision, rather than whether it correctly determined the defendant's guilt or innocence. United States v. Jaramillo, 42 F.3d 920, 923 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1134, 115 S.Ct. 2014, 131 L.Ed.2d 1013 (1995).

The testimony of the aliens and the fact the identification cards described by Williams were never found was sufficient evidence for a rational jury to have rejected Williams' explanation as not credible and to have concluded that he knowingly transported illegal aliens in violation of § 1324. See Sanchez, 961 F.2d at 1173; Martinez, 975 F.2d at 161, Diaz, 936 F.2d at 788. It is the jury's responsibility to weigh the credibility of witnesses. That the jury chose not to believe Williams' testimony is to Williams' detriment. However, this court will not assume the jury's role on appeal.

Appellant next argues that the district court erred by allowing Faries to testify that Williams and Saenz had flown into RWJ Airport with Hispanic passengers on prior occasions. At trial, Williams objected to this testimony on the basis of relevance. On appeal, Williams now asserts that Faries' testimony regarding Williams' previous flights to RWJ should have been excluded under 404(b). Because Williams failed to assert his 404(b) objection at trial, we will review this objection for plain error. Fed.R.Evid. 103(d). Reversal for plain error is appropriate only in extreme circumstances where a miscarriage of justice otherwise would occur. Wilson v. Waggener, 837 F.2d 220, 222 (5th Cir.1988). Rule 404(b) prohibits the use of prior bad acts as proof of the defendant's character. Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Prior bad acts or wrongs are admissible for other purposes such as proof of knowledge or absence of mistake or accident. Id. Even with a Rule 404(b) objection, Faries' testimony could have been admitted to prove evidence of Williams' knowledge that the individuals he was transporting in his airplane were illegal aliens, a fact Williams vehemently denied. Such testimony also could have been...