United States v. Adorno-Molina
| Citation | 774 F.3d 116 |
| Decision Date | 19 December 2014 |
| Docket Number | No. 13–1065.,13–1065. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Marva ADORNO–MOLINA, Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit) |
Raymond L. Sanchez Maceira for appellant.
Juan Carlos Reyes–Ramos, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Rosa Emilia Rodríguez–Vélez, United States Attorney, and Nelson Pérez–Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, were on brief, for appellee.
Before HOWARD, SELYA, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Marva Adorno–Molina (“Adorno”) was convicted on drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering charges related to her involvement in a wide-ranging drug trafficking organization led by Angel Ayala–Vazquez (“Ayala”). Adorno challenges her drug conspiracy conviction on sufficiency grounds. She also argues that her money laundering conviction should be vacated pursuant to United States v. Santos, 553 U.S. 507, 128 S.Ct. 2020, 170 L.Ed.2d 912 (2008), because the government failed to prove that the monies laundered were “net profits” of drug-trafficking, not merely “gross revenues.” Additionally, she contends that the district court erred when it gave a willful blindness instruction to the jury, and when it relied on the money laundering proceeds to establish a base offense level at sentencing.
We reject Adorno's arguments and affirm the convictions and sentence.
Because Adorno's appeal follows the jury's finding of guilt, and she challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. United States v. Rodríguez, 731 F.3d 20, 23 (1st Cir.2013).
Ayala was the leader of a drug trafficking organization (“DTO”) using as its base the Jose Celso Barbosa Public Housing Project and the Sierra Linda Public Housing Project in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.1 Ayala's DTO required many vehicles to transport drugs and firearms, secure proceeds from drug sales, and elude authorities. Alberto Meléndez–Sáez (“Meléndez”) was in charge of procuring vehicles for Ayala's DTO.
In 2007, Adorno was a financing manager for Bella International's Honda and Acura dealership on Kennedy Avenue in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During her time at Bella International, Adorno befriended Meléndez and assisted him with procuring many vehicles. Meléndez and Adorno would use “straw owners” to conceal the fact that the vehicles were being purchased for Ayala's DTO. Adorno and Meléndez would recruit prospective straw owners by seeking out individuals in need of extra money. They would tell the straw owners that professionals with bad credit required assistance purchasing vehicles. Adorno and Meléndez paid the straw owners $2,000 to $5,000 per vehicle once they signed the purchase documents and became the registered owner of a vehicle.
For example, one straw owner, Mary Soto, testified that Adorno convinced her to act as a straw owner for five vehicles from July to September 2007 by using the professionals with bad credit rationale. In exchange for signing the purchase documents, Meléndez paid Soto $4,000 to $5,000 per vehicle.
Although the cars were technically titled in the straw owners' names, they never drove the cars. Instead, Meléndez or individuals who worked with him would pick up the vehicles directly from the dealership lot. Meléndez and Adorno also paid for all vehicle-related expenses, including the down payment, monthly loan payments, and insurance.
Meléndez and Adorno procured cars from both Bella International and other dealerships in Puerto Rico. At Bella International, they usually worked with the same salesperson, Luis Martínez. Martínez testified that whenever Meléndez wanted to purchase a vehicle, the transaction was “very easy” and was “squared away” by Adorno and Meléndez ahead of time. All Martínez had to do was find the requested vehicle from the dealership lot. Instead of delivering the vehicle to the straw owner who signed the purchase documents, Martínez would give the car directly to Meléndez.
Meléndez would visit Adorno at Bella International at least three times per week. Adorno liked to conduct business with Meléndez in private. Whenever they would exchange money in her office, Adorno would ask Martínez to leave them alone. Nevertheless, at times, Martínez saw Meléndez deliver cash to Adorno, either from his pockets or in a paper bag.
Top management at Bella International became concerned about Adorno's business practices. The accounts receivable for many of her clients were not paid on time, and many payments were more than 30 days late. Bella International had difficulty when it tried to collect on those accounts because the documentation completed by Adorno contained inaccurate information. Her supervisor, José Colon Ayala, investigated her sales and discovered that many of Adorno and Martínez's clients would purchase multiple cars in a brief one-to-two month period as straw owners for other individuals. As a result of the investigation, Bella International fired both Adorno and Martínez in October 2007. After her dismissal from Bella International, Adorno continued to help Meléndez procure cars from other dealerships. For example, in December 2007, she helped straw owner Agustín Treviño purchase five cars from the Autocentro, Autogermana, Lexus de San Juan, and Triangle Honda dealerships.
Many of the vehicles purchased through Adorno and Meléndez's scheme were later used in criminal activity, some of which was linked to Ayala's DTO. For example, in May 2009, a white BMW with license plate HFQ 548 was involved in a murder and shootout at Pájaros Park. The same vehicle had been purchased by Treviño in December 2007. After the shootout, the police stopped the white BMW, arrested its three occupants, and seized the vehicle and four Glock pistols found inside. Police Sergeant Benjamín Burgos–Del Toro testified that members of Ayala's DTO were involved in the shootout.
Other vehicles purchased through the scheme were driven by members of Ayala's DTO. On May 11, 2009, the police stopped Diego Cardona while he was driving a white Acura MDX with license plate HAC 284. Earlier that morning, FBI Special Agent Joseph González observed Ayala himself driving the same vehicle. The Acura MDX had been purchased at Bella International by straw owner Arenymar Ortíz–Valle under Adorno's direction.
Some straw owners became concerned when they learned that the vehicles they had purchased were connected to criminal activity. For example, in 2008, an agent from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) contacted Treviño after the DEA had confiscated a black Toyota Highlander he had purchased. Treviño subsequently contacted Adorno, who told him that the vehicle was confiscated because “[the driver] got stopped for something ... and the person was carrying I think more than $10,000.00 and he couldn't prove that it was from his business.” Adorno instructed Treviño to retrieve the vehicle. She arranged for Treviño to meet with an individual at Toyota Credit, where the DEA had transferred the black Highlander. The individual paid Toyota Credit approximately $40,000 to pay off the remainder of the loan amount and obtain the vehicle.
A few weeks later, Treviño learned from the newspaper that a gray Toyota Highlander, similar to one that he had purchased under Adorno's direction, had been involved in a crime. Treviño again contacted Adorno, who instructed him to report the car as stolen. Treviño refused and asked Adorno to return to him all of the vehicles he had purchased. In response, Adorno said: “[Y]ou know what, if I was you I would just be quiet because this thing is bigger than what you think it is, and there is a lot of people involved in this.” Scared by Adorno's warning, Treviño agreed to be quiet and did not bring up the issue again.
In addition to acquiring vehicles, Adorno also procured an apartment used by Ayala's DTO. In June 2009, she helped obtain a lease on an apartment located at the Astralis Condominium complex in Isla Verde. She personally paid the apartment's $2,050 monthly rent from June to October 2009. In February 2010, the DEA executed a search warrant for the apartment and found drug packing materials, loaders for semiautomatic weapons, ammunition boxes, and $240,260 in cash. The apartment also contained several documents, including a DEA investigation report about Ayala's DTO and a vehicle registration for a BMW M5 registered in Adorno's name.
Adorno was arrested on October 2, 2009. She was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (count one) and conspiracy to launder money in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 (count nine), as one of 65 defendants in a multi-defendant, eleven-count indictment relating to Ayala's drug trafficking activities. After a ten-day trial, in which she was tried alone, Adorno was found guilty on both counts. The district court sentenced Adorno to 121 months' imprisonment as to each count, to be served concurrently. This timely appeal followed.
Adorno raises three challenges to her convictions: sufficiency challenges to the drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy convictions as well as a claim of instructional error. We review each in turn.
We review preserved challenges to the sufficiency of evidence de novo. United States v. Ihenacho, 716 F.3d 266, 279 (1st Cir.2013). In analyzing such claims, we consider “ ‘whether any rational factfinder could have found that the evidence presented at trial, together with all reasonable inferences, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, established each element of the particular offense beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Willson, 708 F.3d 47, 52 (1st Cir.2013) (quoting United States v. Poulin, 631 F.3d 17, 22 (1st Cir.2011) ).
To sustain a conspiracy conviction under § 846, “the evidence must show that: (1) a conspiracy existed; (2) the defendant had knowledge of the conspiracy; and (3) ...
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