U.S. v. Woodard

• Decision Date: 27 June 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06-16577.,06-16577.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Terry Dvaughn WOODARD, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

531 F.3d 1352

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Terry Dvaughn WOODARD, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 06-16577.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

June 27, 2008.

Bruce S. Harvey, Stuart M. Mones, Stuart M. Mones, P.C., Atlanta, GA, for Woodard.

Paul Rhinehart Jones, Amy Levin Weil, U.S. Atty., Atlanta, GA, for U.S.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before TJOFLAT, ANDERSON and COX, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

On March 24, 2004, a Northern District of Georgia grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Terry Dvaughn Woodard, the appellant, and three others, Shedia Glover, Donnie Spencer, and David Thomas.¹ Count One charged all four defendants with violating 21 U.S.C. § 846² by conspiring to possess and distribute marijuana, a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1);³ Count Two charged these four defendants with violating § 841(a)(1); Counts Three and Four charged Spencer and Thomas, respectively, with possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 § U.S.C. 924(c)(1)(A);⁴ Count Five charged Woodard with the same offense. Pursuant to plea agreements with the Government, Glover pled guilty to Count One and Thomas pled to a misdemeanor drug offense.⁵ Woodard was tried, convicted on Counts Two and Five, and sentenced to consecutive prison terms of one year and a day on Count Two and five years on Count Five.

Woodard now appeals his convictions, seeking either their reversal on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to convict, or a new trial based on rulings the district court made during the course of the trial. We affirm.

I.

A.

Woodard's trial commenced on July 17, 2006, and lasted four days.⁶ The Government called eight witnesses to the stand. Two were men who had been indicted with Woodard, Shedia Glover and David Thomas, but had already pled guilty. Three witnesses worked for the U.S. Postal Service, two as Postal Inspectors; two were Atlanta Police Department ("APD") officers; and one was a forensic chemist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ("GBI"). The testimony of the Postal Service employees and the APD officers portrayed the events that led to Woodard's (and the others') arrests. The testimony provided by Glover and Thomas reinforced the Government's case on Counts One and Two by portraying Woodard as a marijuana trafficker.

From November 12, 2003, to January 29, 2004, seven cardboard packages, all weighing roughly sixty pounds, were sent from Brownsville, Texas, and Harlingen, Texas,⁷ via the U.S. Postal Service's Express Mail service to a house at 141 Stafford Street in Atlanta, Georgia ("the residence"). All of these packages passed through the Morris Brown post office in Atlanta before being delivered. The staff at the Morris Brown office grew increasingly suspicious of the contents of these packages because they were addressed to a variety of different businesses but were being sent to a residential address.⁸ Upon receipt of two packages on January 29, the staff raised their concerns about the packages to Robert King, the manager of the Morris Brown office. King contacted Postal Inspector Sharon Williams, who worked in the narcotics section of the Inspectors Service, and informed her of these suspicious packages.

On January 30, Williams arranged a "line-up" for the packages — each package was placed among several dummy packages and a narcotics detection dog was brought in to check the "line-up." The dog identified both of the suspicious packages as containing narcotics. Williams then secured a search warrant and, assisted by Inspector Clinton Potter, cut into the packages. Inside, they found a large plastic container that was wrapped in plastic and contained a smaller, "RubberMaid type container."⁹ Inside this container was a "large bundle ... with plastic wrapped around it several times ... cover[ed] with a red oily substance." The Inspectors cut into the large bundle and performed a field test on the container's contents, which weighed roughly fifty pounds. The test revealed that the contents were marijuana.

Inspector Williams contacted the APD's Major Narcotics Team on February 2 and they arranged for a controlled delivery to occur on February 3. Williams would pose as a Postal Service employee delivering the packages while members of the APD Narcotics Team would raid the residence after the packages were delivered.

On February 3, prior to the controlled delivery, Robert King received a phone call from an unidentified male asking about when the packages would be delivered to the residence. The unidentified caller was concerned because the packages had been sent via Express Mail and were several days overdue.¹⁰ King informed the caller that the packages would be delivered that day, but did not provide a specific time of delivery.

Around 1:30 p.m., Inspector Potter and Officer Zandra Jackson of the Narcotics Team parked across the street from the residence to observe the upcoming controlled delivery. Jackson saw several men standing in the front yard of the residence, including Woodard.¹¹ Moments later, they witnessed four vehicles arrive at the residence, including a white Toyota Camry and a silver GMC pickup truck.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., Williams arrived, stepped out of the Postal Service delivery van, and walked toward the residence. Before she reached the front door, Woodard greeted her. She informed Woodard that she had two packages and that "someone had to sign for them." Woodard, who did not live at the residence, offered to sign and then both printed and signed the name "Tom Smith" on the signature card for the packages. Williams told Woodard that the packages were heavy and asked him to lift them off the back of the van. He took the first package from the van and placed it in the bed of the silver GMC pickup truck, which was parked close to the van. Woodard then yelled to a woman sitting on the front porch of the residence to "tell Donnie to come and help me." The woman went inside to get Donnie Spencer, who was leasing the residence. Spencer came out of the house and told Woodard that he could not help him because he had a bad back. Woodard placed the second package in the bed of the pickup truck. With that, Williams got into the van and drove away.

Spencer then got into the pickup truck, along with an unidentified male. Woodard got into the back seat of the Camry, which was being driven by Shedia Glover. Both vehicles began to pull away from the curb. Officer Jackson contacted the APD officers standing by, waiting to raid the residence, and informed them of the vehicles' movement away from the residence. The APD officers commenced the raid, stopping the vehicles in front of the residence.

The officers, led by Detective Benjamin L. Lucas II, were divided into two teams — one entered the residence, one secured its perimeter. Officer Justin Snell, a member of the perimeter team, approached the Camry and arrested and searched Woodard and Glover. On Woodard, he found a Llama 9 mm pistol, loaded, and with a round in the chamber, and $3,856 in bills of various denominations.

The police officers raiding the residence arrested the individuals inside and then searched the residence. They located an ounce of marijuana, a small amount of crack cocaine, a handgun, and $4,000 in bills in a safe. In searching the carport, the officers located five plastic containers that were very similar to the containers in the two packages Inspector Williams had opened. The residence also had a video security system; a camera over the outside of the front door was connected to a small television located inside. Everyone in the residence was arrested, including David Thomas.

Following the raid, Inspector Williams investigated the businesses to which the packages had been addressed. Her investigation revealed that while at least one of these businesses actually existed, neither Woodard nor Spencer were involved with it as owners or employees. The GBI's forensic laboratory subsequently determined that the material contained in the two packages Williams had delivered consisted of fifty pounds of marijuana.

Thomas and Glover implicated Woodard in the marijuana deliveries to the residence in this way. Thomas testified that he had been a regular visitor at the residence for the past year, where he used marijuana and saw people using marijuana and cocaine. He stated that Woodard was present there "a handful" of times, and, when there, Woodard would frequently speak with Spencer.

Glover testified that "a week or two" before the February 3 controlled delivery, Woodard told him that he "had a package, come in or something, and he had wanted me to help him, if I knew anyone who wanted some" and that "if I knew somebody that needed some, you know, help him out and he will hook me up." Glover understood "package" to refer to some type of narcotics and "hook me up" to mean that if he helped Woodard sell the narcotics, Woodard would pay him. Glover said that he had never been to the residence before February 3 and that immediately prior to his arrest, he was in the process of "hand[ing] ... a bag of money" to Woodard.

B.

Woodard moved the district court for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the Government's case in chief. The court granted his motion as to the Count One offense, conspiracy, but denied it as to Counts Two, possession with intent to distribute, and Five, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Woodard thereafter put on his defense. It consisted of one exhibit, a certified copy of the firearms permit index of the Clayton County, Georgia, Probate Court. The index showed that Woodard was licensed to carry a firearm at the time of the alleged crimes, February 3, 2003.

After both sides rested, Woodard renewed his motion for judgment of acquittal (as to Counts Two and Five). The court took the motion under...