United States v. Brantley

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
• Writing for the Court: PROCTOR, District Judge
• Citation: United States v. Brantley, 803 F.3d 1265 (11th Cir. 2015)
• Decision Date: 09 October 2015
• Docket Number: No. 13–12776.,13–12776.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Courtnee Nicole BRANTLEY, Defendant–Appellant.

803 F.3d 1265

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.Courtnee Nicole BRANTLEY, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 13–12776.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Oct. 9, 2015.

David Paul Rhodes, Arthur Lee Bentley, III, James C. Preston, U.S. Attorney's Office, Tampa, FL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Grady Charles Irvin, Jr., Irvin Law Firm, LLC, Tampa, FL, for Defendant–Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before MARTIN and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges, and PROCTOR,^* District Judge.

Opinion

PROCTOR, District Judge:

This appeal involves an infrequently charged crime: misprision of a felony in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 4. Courtnee Nicole Brantley was convicted of misprision as a result of her actions during and following a traffic stop on June 29, 2010. Brantley raises several challenges to her conviction. She argues that she was the subject of selective prosecution, the prosecution violated her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict against her. After careful review and with the benefit of oral argument, we disagree. For the reasons stated below, we affirm Brantley's conviction.

I. BACKGROUND

The misprision charge brought against Brantley stems from tragic events that occurred on June 29, 2010. Brantley was pulled over in a routine traffic stop. Brantley's boyfriend, convicted felon Dontae Morris, was a passenger in her car. Upon questioning by the police, he emerged from the car and shot and killed two officers. He then fled on foot as Brantley sped away. Within minutes, Brantley spoke with Morris on a cell phone, and thereafter hid the car and exchanged texts with Morris. The traffic stop itself—including the shootings—was recorded by the dashboard video camera in a police car. The video was played for the jury.

At trial, the jury ultimately found that Brantley knew about a federal felony (her convicted-felon boyfriend's possession of the firearm which he used to shoot the officers), did not report that crime to the authorities, and, in the aftermath of the murders, took affirmative steps to conceal Morris's felony from the authorities.

II. SUMMARY OF RELEVANT FACTS

At about 2:13 a.m. on June 29, 2010, Tampa Police Officer David Curtis pulled over Brantley's car because it did not have a license tag. Brantley provided her driver's license and vehicle documentation, and Officer Curtis discussed the tag violation with her. Officer Curtis also questioned Morris, who gave Curtis his name and birthdate. Officer Curtis entered Morris's information into his patrol car's computer. An outstanding warrant came up, along with a warning that Morris had previously resisted arrest.

A backup officer, Jeffrey Kocab, arrived on the scene, and both officers approached the passenger side of Brantley's car. Officer Curtis told Morris to step out of the car. As he exited the car, Morris pulled a gun and shot Officers Curtis and Kocab in the head. Both officers died from their wounds. Morris ran in one direction, and Brantley drove off in another. The entire traffic stop—including the shootings—was captured by the dashboard video camera in Officer Curtis's vehicle.

Within a minute of the shootings, Brantley called Morris. Two more phone calls between them soon followed. Brantley drove to an apartment complex located about three miles from the murder scene. Therefore, the calls between Brantley and Morris necessarily occurred prior to the time Brantley parked the car.¹ Brantley parked the car a distance from the apartment in which she hid. When Brantley parked, she backed the car into a space (and up against some bushes) in order to conceal the missing license tag.

Following their phone conversations, and within minutes after the shootings, Brantley and Morris had the following exchange of text messages:

Morris: “Your ride dont need 2 be park by the spot neither.”

Brantley: “No. Still n here, bt way round corner. I nd to move it sumwhere else tho.”

Morris: “Just lean bak til 2morrow. you phone in your name.”

Brantley: “No.”

Morris: “Bet im bout 2 turn my shiit off til 2morrow i love you.”

Brantley: “I love u with my last breath.”

Morris: “Yea just lean bak stay loyal.”

Brantley: “Of course ... Til death do us part.”

Brantley's texts all included the tagline: “ON MY OWN LEVEL.”

A few minutes later, Brantley sent text messages to several other people: “U havent seen me..... U dont know where im at..... Please dont tell anyone anything. Erase these messages!” When one of those people questioned her, Brantley explained, “Just make like I never exisisted!”

The police eventually located Brantley in an apartment some 500 yards and across a lake from where she had parked her car. During questioning, Brantley admitted that she had been pulled over, someone had been injured, and she had fled the scene. She further admitted that she had a passenger in the car, but refused to disclose Morris's last name.

Morris was arrested after three days, and was prosecuted by the State of Florida for the two murders. Brantley went to trial on the misprision of a felony charge.² After the Government put on its case, Brantley rested without presenting any evidence. The case then went to the jury.

The jury was instructed that, in order for Brantley to be found guilty of misprision, it must find “that a federal felony as charged in Count I of the Indictment was committed[,] that the defendant had actual knowledge of the commission of the felony[,] that the defendant did not as soon as possible make known the felony to some judge or other person in civil or military authority [, and] that the defendant did an affirmative act to conceal the crime.” The court further instructed that, in the event the jury found Brantley guilty, it should disclose the acts of concealment that it found she had committed. (“there's blanks for you to write in whatever act or acts you find”). Consistent with the trial court's instruction, the verdict form directed the jury (in the event it found Brantley guilty) to “describe the act or acts you find Brantley committed to conceal the crime of felon in possession of [a] firearm and ammunition.”

The jury returned a verdict of guilty against Brantley on the misprision charge. In response to the special jury interrogatory, the jury explained that it found evidence of the following acts: “The defendant knowingly and willfully concealed her knowledge of the possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon from the authorities by coordinating via phone calls and text messages with Dantae [sic] Morris.” After return of the verdict, the district court gave the jury the opportunity to be more specific as to the “acts of concealment” it found. The jury declined to supplement or alter its verdict.

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

“[I]n reviewing the denial of a motion to dismiss for selective prosecution, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. ” United States v. Jordan, 635 F.3d 1181, 1185 (11th Cir.2011) (citing United States v. Smith, 231 F.3d 800, 806 (11th Cir.2000) ).

We also review the district court's application of the Fifth Amendment privilege de novo. United States v. Hernandez, 141 F.3d 1042, 1049 (11th Cir.1998).

We review de novo a verdict challenged for sufficiency of the evidence, “resolving all reasonable inferences in favor of the verdict.” United States v. Farley, 607 F.3d 1294, 1333 (11th Cir.2010). If there is a reasonable basis in the record for the verdict, we must sustain it. Id.

IV. DISCUSSION

Brantley presents the following arguments on appeal: (1) the district court should have dismissed the charge against her because she was selectively prosecuted; (2) the prosecution violated her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination; and (3) the district court should have ordered a judgment of acquittal or a new trial because there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict. We address each of these arguments below, but find they lack merit.

A. Brantley Did Not Establish that Her Prosecution was Improperly Selective

It is axiomatic that with limited law enforcement resources, the Government is unable to prosecute every crime that is committed. Decisions regarding which crimes will be prosecuted are entrusted by the United States Constitution to the Executive Branch, which is charged with seeing that our nation's laws are enforced. See U.S. Const., Art. II, § 3 (“he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”). “The judiciary cannot interfere with a prosecutor's exercise of charging discretion, except in narrow circumstances where it is necessary to do so in order to discharge the judicial function of interpreting and applying the Constitution.” Smith, 231 F.3d at 807. “[U]nder the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, ‘the decision whether to prosecute may not be based on an unjustifiable standard such as race, religion, or other arbitrary classification.’ ” Jordan, 635 F.3d at 1188 (quoting Smith, 231 F.3d at 807 ). However, a presumption exists that a prosecutor has not violated equal protection principles, and a defendant challenging her conviction on this ground must satisfy a “demanding” burden to establish that she is being selectively prosecuted. Id.; Smith, 231 F.3d at 807. In order to overcome that presumption, a defendant must present clear evidence of a selective prosecution. Smith, 231 F.3d at 807.

A defendant asserting that she was selectively prosecuted must show “that the federal prosecutorial policy had a discriminatory effect and that it was motivated by a discriminatory purpose.” Jordan, 635 F.3d at 1188 (quoting Smith, 231 F.3d at 808 ). In other words, a criminal defendant who claims she was subjected to selective prosecution must establish two elements: (1) the discriminatory effect prong of this test requires a showing that “similarly situated individuals were not prosecuted” (id. (quoting Smith, 231 F.3d at 809 ...