U.S. v. Williams

• Decision Date: 27 January 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-1573.,No. 07-1575.,No. 07-1574.,No. 07-1576.,07-1573.,07-1576.,07-1574.,07-1575.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Brad O. WILLIAMS, Seville Williams, Clinton Williams, and Rory Tucker, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

553 F.3d 1073

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Brad O. WILLIAMS, Seville Williams, Clinton Williams, and Rory Tucker, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 07-1573.

No. 07-1576.

No. 07-1574.

No. 07-1575.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 5, 2008.

Decided January 27, 2009.

Richard N. Cox (argued and submitted), Office of the United States Attorney, Urbana, IL, Timothy A. Bass, Office of the United States Attorney, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Harvey C. Welch (argued), Urbana, IL, for Defendant-Appellant, Brad O. Williams.

Seville Williams, pro se, Jonesville, VA, Susan Kister, St. Louis, MO, for Defendant-Appellant, Seville Williams.

Carol A. Dison, Brett N. Olmstead (argued), Beckett & Webber, Urbana, IL, for Defendant-Appellant, Clinton Williams.

Carlton M. Kagawa (argued), Danville, IL, for Defendant-Appellant, Rory Tucker.

Before FLAUM, ROVNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

The four appellants in this case, Brad Williams, Seville Williams, Clinton Williams, and Rory Tucker, were charged with committing a series of armed robberies over a four month period. Four other individuals who were involved in the robberies pled guilty and testified against the defendants at trial. All of the defendants were convicted and appeal their convictions.

Rory Tucker raises several challenges to his conviction and sentence. We reject his first argument regarding improper joinder of defendants because the indictment properly charged Tucker and the other defendants with conspiracy to rob banks, financial institutions, and a retail store. And because he failed to renew his motion at the close of the evidence, we also reject his argument that the district court improperly denied his motion to sever. Next, contrary to Tucker's assertion, we find that the government presented sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict even though the government proved its case, in part, through the testimony of several co-conspirators. Finally, we reject his arguments that his sentence of 221 months' imprisonment was erroneous and unreasonable.

Because of the particularly violent nature of the robberies he committed, which justifies the district court's sentence of life imprisonment, we reject Brad Williams's challenge to his sentence. However, we vacate Clinton Williams's sentence because the record does not demonstrate that the district court considered his mental disability as a mitigating factor.

We dismiss the appeal of Seville Williams. As pointed out in his counsel's Anders brief, there are no nonfrivolous issues for appeal.

I. BACKGROUND

According to the government's evidence at trial, Brad Williams committed a series of armed robberies from January 3, 2006 through April 24, 2006. He was accompanied and assisted by various people in these robberies, some of whom participated in more robberies than others. Tucker, for example, was involved only in the final robbery, though he also helped plan another robbery that was not executed.

Because Tucker is the only defendant challenging the sufficiency of the evidence against him, the details of every robbery are not necessary for this appeal. But for background, we provide a brief summary of the robberies and their participants.

On January 3, 2006, Brad Williams, Seville Williams, and two other masked men robbed a Walgreens store, striking the attending pharmacist on the head and leaving with money in a dark green bag. The robbery occurred around 2:30 a.m. and at 2:45 a.m., Brad Williams arrived at Nathein Franklin's apartment with Seville Williams and two other men. The four men were carrying a dark green bag and two revolvers. They changed in Franklin's bathroom and left the apartment.

On January 11, 2006, at approximately 5:40 p.m., Brad Williams and Seville Williams forced their way inside the Commonwealth Credit Union and held a gun to an employee's head while she unlocked the vault. They emptied the contents of the vault and fled in Clinton Williams's car.

On March 28, 2006, Brad Williams, Marion Jefferson, and Tyron Thomas robbed the Heights Finance store in Kankakee. Jefferson and Thomas, both wearing masks, entered the store with guns while Brad stayed in the car. Jefferson loaded a round into his gun and struck a male employee in the side of his head, causing the gun to discharge, when the employee told him there was no safe. Thomas grabbed another employee and took her to the front of the store, where she gave the men all of the money the store had—$235.

On April 7, 2006, Jefferson and Thomas entered the First Community Bank and Trust in Peotone, Illinois, wearing masks and waving guns while Brad Williams distracted the teller at the drive-through window. While Thomas brought three tellers into a back room, Jefferson pointed his gun at the assistant cashier and demanded that she put all the money from the safe into a bag he gave her. After Thomas made a phone call, Clinton Williams picked Thomas and Jefferson up outside the bank.¹

In April 2006, Tucker conspired with Jefferson, Thomas, Collins, Brad Williams, Clinton Williams, Riley, and others to rob a bank in Chicago Heights but the robbery was aborted before anything happened because someone froze. A few days later, the men tried again in Rantoul, this time successfully and without the person who thwarted the prior attempt. Collins, Jefferson, Thomas, and Brad Williams entered the credit union first while Riley and Clinton Williams remained in cars outside. All of the men wore light blue ski masks. Tucker waited outside the credit union for most of the robbery and went in for less than 45 seconds at the very end. (The surveillance recording shows five robbers inside the bank at that time.) Tucker had a gun, as did Collins and Jefferson. As Tucker entered the building, he called out, "Let's go."

Police arrived on the scene and the robbers fled. Collins and Brad Williams were arrested after police pursuit. Clinton Williams was arrested in the driver's seat of one getaway car. Tucker jumped into the back seat of the other getaway car (which Riley was driving) but Riley was stopped and arrested. Tucker hid in the back seat for an hour until a crime scene investigator noticed him. Jefferson fled and hid for days until he was arrested. Thomas ran to a nearby carwash and jumped into a car, told the people in the car he had a gun, and directed them to drive out of the area. He was arrested the next day.

Only four of the eight defendants went to trial. Jefferson, Thomas, Collins, and Riley pled guilty and testified for the government. Tucker, Brad Williams, Clinton Williams, and Seville Williams were tried and found guilty. Tucker testified on his own behalf.

The district court sentenced Tucker to 221 months' imprisonment, Brad Williams to life imprisonment, Clinton Williams to 552 months' imprisonment, and Seville Williams to 546 months' imprisonment. All four defendants appealed.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Rory Tucker

1. No improper joinder

Tucker maintains that because of his relatively minor role in the conspiracy, he should not have been tried together with his co-defendants. He argues that the joinder of the defendants was improper under Rule 8(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and that the district court improperly denied his motion to sever.

We review a claim of misjoinder de novo, focusing on the face of the indictment rather than the evidence adduced at trial. United States v. Ross, 510 F.3d 702, 710 (7th Cir.2007). Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 8(b) permits joinder of defendants if the defendants "are alleged to have participated in the same act or transaction, or in the same series of acts or transactions, constituting an offense or offenses." We have held that "Rule 8(b) is satisfied when the defendants are charged with crimes that well up out of the same series of such acts, but they need not be the same crimes." United States v. Warner, 498 F.3d 666, 699 (7th Cir.2007) (internal quotation marks omitted). A conspiracy charge combined with substantive counts arising out of that conspiracy is a proper basis for joinder under Rule 8(b). United States v. Stillo, 57 F.3d 553, 557 (7th Cir.1995).

The final indictment in this case contained ten counts. It charged all of the defendants, including Tucker, with conspiracy to commit armed robbery (Count 1). The conduct in Counts 2 through 10 relates to the charges in the conspiracy count. Although the government did not charge Tucker with every one of those counts (Counts 2 through 10),² the indictment relates the charges against Tucker to the charges against the other defendants through the conspiracy charge. So the conspiracy charge is a proper basis for joinder because it sufficiently links the various robberies for Rule 8(b) purposes. See, e.g., Warner, 498 F.3d at 699 (no improper joinder where conduct related to charges in the conspiracy count); United States v. Dounias, 777 F.2d 346, 348 (7th Cir.1985).

Tucker relies on our decision in United States v. Velasquez, 772 F.2d 1348, 1352 (7th Cir.1985) to argue that his robbery was not related to the other robberies committed by Brad Williams. In Velasquez, which was a cocaine trafficking case, we found misjoinder of one count because the indictment did not relate the charge in that count to any of the charges against the other defendants named in the indictment. The charge was against one defendant for heroin violations unrelated to the cocaine trafficking charges. Velasquez does not help Tucker. Unlike in that case, all of the conduct in Counts One through Ten relates to the charges in the conspiracy count, which was charged against both Brad Williams and Tucker.

Even if we found that misjoinder occurred, Tucker's argument fails because he cannot show actual prejudice. See Ross, 510 F.3d at 712; Stillo, 57 F.3d at 557 (misjoinder must result in actual prejudice). There was sufficient evidence to convict Tucker (more...