United States v. Carter

• Decision Date: 29 August 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–3608.,11–3608.
• Citation: 695 F.3d 690
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Jeffery CARTER and Kentrell Willis, Defendants–Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

695 F.3d 690

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Jeffery CARTER and Kentrell Willis, Defendants–Appellants.

No. 11–3608.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued June 7, 2012.

Decided Aug. 29, 2012.

Ryan S. Hedges (argued), Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Gary Ravitz (argued), Attorney, Ravitz & Palles, Steven Shobat (argued), Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Defendants–Appellants.

Before MANION, KANNE, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

As Darrick and Geraldine Anderson were returning home from a birthday party, two men—Jeffery Carter and Kentrell Willis—appeared and robbed the couple at gunpoint. Carter and Willis made off with the couple's vehicle and their belongings, but, unbeknownst to them, one of the cell phones taken from the Andersons was enabled with a GPS tracking feature. As a result, police were easily able to monitor their movements and track them down that same night. Carter and Willis were arrested and, in a joint trial with separate juries for each defendant, convicted of carjacking, using a firearm during the carjacking, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. On appeal, they argue that the district court improperly instructed the jury, that there was insufficient evidence to support their convictions, and that joinder of their offenses was improper. We find none of these contentions meritorious and accordingly affirm their convictions.

I. Background

At about 11:00 p.m. on June 23, 2009, Darrick and Geraldine Anderson pulled up to their home in their 2002 Ford Explorer. As Darrick parked the vehicle, he noticed two men brazenly approaching from both sides. Carter walked up to the passenger's side, telling Geraldine that he had a gun and it was “stick-up time” and demanded that she give him her purse. Meanwhile, Willis came around to the driver's side of the vehicle, where he pointed a handgun at Darrick's head and ordered him out of the car while repeatedly warning, “I'll kill you.” Darrick got out of the car without resistance, while Willis continued to point the gun at his head.

Carter then brought Geraldine around to the driver's side of the vehicle, and had both Darrick and Geraldine empty their pockets and give him their belongings. The items Carter took included the keys to the Explorer and Geraldine's cell phone—which, importantly, was fitted with a GPS tracking feature. With the keys to the Explorer in hand, Carter and Willis entered the vehicle and drove away. The incident left Darrick and Geraldine shaken but physically unharmed.

After Carter and Willis were a safe distance away, the Andersons went into their home to call the police and report the carjacking. Once inside, they told their daughter Nicole the details of the incident. Thinking quickly, Nicole used her laptop computer to track the location of Geraldine's stolen cell phone—and in turn the carjackers' movements—through the phone's GPS tracking feature. This information was then relayed to Chicago police officers in the area, along with the Andersons' description of the two perpetrators.

About a half-hour after the carjacking, Carter and Willis abandoned the stolen Explorer outside of a laundromat. They then walked to a nearby gas station, where Carter had arranged for his uncle, David Chew, to pick them up in Chew's van. Inside the van, Carter and Willis joined Chew, Milton Latham (Carter's other uncle) and Joseph Billups (Carter's cousin). Shortly after leaving the gas station, Carter and Willis spotted a man, Jose Garcia, walking along the street. Evidently deciding that Garcia would be an easy target to rob, Carter and Willis jumped out of the van and chased Garcia down. Carter then held a handgun to Garcia's chest while he and Willis took Garcia's wallet and phone. They returned to the van, and Garcia quickly went home and reported the robbery to police.

At about 12:12 a.m., Chew's van pulled into a gas station, where all of the occupants got out of the van. Once outside, Carter attempted to give the handgun used in the robberies to Latham, but he refused to take it and instead simply placed the gun back inside Chew's van. Shortly afterwards, police officers patrolling the area spotted Willis and noted that he fit the description of one of the carjackers. The officers detained all five individuals for questioning and soon noticed a firearm inside the van, visible from the van's window. The firearm was later identified as a loaded Ruger .22 caliber six-shot revolver with a five-inch blue steel barrel, serial number 63–40041. Carter and Willis were arrested, and afterwards Carter confessed to taking part in the Andersons' carjacking and Garcia's robbery.

Carter and Willis were both charged with carjacking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 2119 (Count One); using and carrying a firearm during the carjacking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 924(c)(1)(A) (Count Two); and being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (Count Three as to Willis and Count Four as to Carter). They were not charged with Garcia's robbery, but evidence of Garcia's robbery was later admitted to prove the defendants' possession of the Ruger pistol. Prior to trial, the district court granted a severance under Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), because Carter had provided written post-arrest statements incriminating both himself and Willis. In order to conserve resources, the court elected to hold a single trial with separate juries empaneled for each defendant. On June 28, 2011, each jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts as to its respective defendant, and the district court subsequently sentenced both Carter and Willis to 264 months' imprisonment. Carter and Willis timely appealed their convictions.

II. Analysis

Carter and Willis raise several arguments on appeal. First, they argue that the district court gave an erroneous instruction as to the mental state required under the federal carjacking statute. Carter also separately argues that the court erred in giving his jury an aiding and abetting instruction. Next, they claim that there was insufficient evidence that the specific firearm identified in the indictment was the same firearm used to commit the carjacking. Finally, they claim that joinder of their felon-in-possession counts with the remaining counts of the indictment was improper under Rules 8 and 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. We address each of these arguments in turn.

A. Jury Instructions

Carter and Willis begin by contesting the jury instructions given by the district court. We review de novo whether an instruction fairly and accurately summarizes the law, Clarett v. Roberts, 657 F.3d 664, 672 (7th Cir.2011), and review a district court's decision to give a particular instruction for an abuse of discretion, United States v. McKnight, 665 F.3d 786, 790–91 (7th Cir.2011), cert. denied,––– U.S. ––––, 132 S.Ct. 2756, 183 L.Ed.2d 626 (2012). Even if an instruction is erroneous, a defendant must establish actual prejudice to win reversal. United States v. Collins, 223 F.3d 502, 507 (7th Cir.2000).

1. Requisite Mental State

Carter and Willis first argue that the district court erroneously instructed the jury as to the required mental state for the carjacking offense alleged in Count One. The district court's instruction tracked the mental state alleged in the indictment, requiringthe government to prove that each defendant “intended to cause serious bodily harm when the defendant took the motor vehicle.” (Appellants' Br. at 12–13.) The defendants contend that this instruction alters the mental state described in the federal carjacking statute. That statute provides that a person commits a carjacking if he or she “ with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm takes a motor vehicle [in interstate commerce] from the person or presence of another by force and violence or by intimidation, or attempts to do so.” 18 U.S.C. § 2119 (emphasis added). Although the statute is written in the disjunctive, the defendants argue that “the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm” describes a single mental state: “the specific intent to kill or its near equivalent.” (Appellants' Br. at 13.) Omitting the phrase “to cause death” from the jury's instructions, the defendants conclude, alters the mental state required by § 2119. We disagree.

The carjacking statute is written in the disjunctive: a defendant must possess the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm. “Canons of construction ordinarily suggest that terms connected by a disjunctive be given separate meanings, unless the context dictates otherwise.” Reiter v. Sonotone Corp., 442 U.S. 330, 339, 99 S.Ct. 2326, 60 L.Ed.2d 931 (1979). Here, the inference that Congress intended these terms to have a separate meaning is buttressed by the fact that § 2119 explicitly distinguishes between serious bodily injury and death only a few sentences after describing the requisite mental state. A defendant may be sentenced to up to twenty-five years' imprisonment if she causes serious bodily injury, but may be sentenced to life imprisonment or death if she causes death. 18 U.S.C. § 2119(2), (3); see also Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 239–52, 119 S.Ct. 1215, 143 L.Ed.2d 311 (1999) (holding that § 2119 defines three distinct crimes: simple carjacking, carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury, and carjacking resulting in death). The plain language of the statute indicates that a defendant can satisfy the requisite mental state by acting with the intent to cause either death or serious bodily harm.

Moreover, the defendants conceded in the district court that, hypothetically, if the evidence at trial could only demonstrate that a defendant intended to shoot a victim in the leg, then the intent requirement of § 2119 would be satisfied. Of course it would—that hypothetical defendant would...