United States v. Casteel

• Decision Date: 24 January 2012
• Docket Number: No. 10–3400.,10–3400.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Devan Rodez CASTEEL, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

663 F.3d 1013

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,

v.Devan Rodez CASTEEL, Appellant.

No. 10–3400.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Sept. 23, 2011.Filed: Dec. 16, 2011.Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Jan. 24, 2012.

Chad Douglas Primmer, Primmer Law, Council Bluffs, IA, argued, for appellant.

Shannon L. Olson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Des Moines, IA, argued (Nicholas A. Klinefeldt, U.S. Atty., on the brief), for appellee.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge, COLLOTON and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

RILEY, Chief Judge.

A jury convicted Devan Rodez Casteel (Casteel) of carjacking in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119, and using or carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(ii). Casteel appeals, arguing (1) the district court ¹ abused its discretion by denying his motion to sever his trial from that of his father, Tiran Rodez Casteel (Tiran); (2) the evidence was insufficient to convict him of carjacking; and (3) the denial of severance and admission of certain evidence resulted in a miscarriage of justice warranting acquittal or a new trial. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On September 11, 2008, at approximately 11:30 p.m., Darlene Eitzen, a 76–year–old widow, was alone in her farmhouse five miles from Coin, Iowa, where she was sewing a dress, when she heard two armed men, later determined by the jury to be Casteel and Tiran (collectively, Casteels), banging on the door and yelling at her to let them in. Before Eitzen could comply, the Casteels broke the glass on the front door with their guns, reached inside and unlocked the door.

The Casteels entered the house and ordered Eitzen at gunpoint to sit in a chair on the far side of the room. Casteel, who was wearing a mask, held Eitzen at gunpoint while Tiran proceeded upstairs. Eitzen believed the robbers were familiar with her house as though they “had been there before” because Tiran “knew exactly where he wanted to go” to find her late husband's extensive coin collection, most of which she kept upstairs in a bedroom closet. Upset he was unable to find “as much as what he knew was there,” Tiran demanded “to know where's the rest of it.” Eitzen deduced the Casteels were responsible for an earlier burglary of part of the collection on July 27, 2008, while Eitzen was at church.²

Casteel guarded Eitzen throughout the robbery. He either pointed his gun at her or held it down to his side. Casteel told Eitzen “he was getting tired and he was going to be tireder because they had to make a trip to the river.” Frightened by the robbers' guns and yelling, “[Eitzen] didn't know whether [Casteel] meant put [her] car in the river, put [her] in the river, or what.”

The robbery lasted at least an hour. Eitzen spent nearly the whole hour in the chair at gunpoint. Casteel twice warned Eitzen someone would be watching her. Casteel's warnings were effective. Before the robbers left, Casteel told Eitzen not to move or look out the windows to see what the robbers were doing. Eitzen stayed in the chair for about forty-five minutes to an hour after the robbers left because she “was scared that they were out there and may even shoot [her] or something.”

When she finally felt safe enough to get up, Eitzen tried to use the phone but the line was dead. Eitzen later found her cell phone in a cup of water. Eitzen then looked out the window to see if her car was still in the driveway where she parked it—twenty feet from the house. The car was gone. The robbers had taken Eitzen's keys from her purse without her knowledge and driven Eitzen's car away as she sat in the house. The Casteels later abandoned Eitzen's car in a cornfield.

Deprived of her phone and car, Eitzen sought help by walking in the rain to the neighboring farm. Sometime after midnight, Eitzen reached her neighbor's farm and reported the robbery to the Page County, Iowa Sheriff's office. Deputy Jake Daly arrived at the farm at approximately 1:30 a.m. and found Eitzen frightened and crying. After taking Eitzen's report, Deputy Daly went to Eitzen's house and found the home ransacked.

The next day, an unrelated firearms investigation connected Casteel and Tiran to the Eitzen robbery. On September 12, 2008, at approximately 10:00 a.m., Casteel and Tiran purchased two firearms and a trailer from an undercover officer from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). ATF officers arrested Tiran for being a felon in possession of a firearm and Casteel for aiding and abetting the transaction.

After the arrests, the officers obtained a warrant and searched the back of the Casteels' Pontiac Bonneville. In the back seat of the car, the officers found numerous collectible coins in bags, coin boxes, and collector's cases. The officers contacted local sheriff's offices about the suspicious coins and learned of the robbery of Eitzen's home. Further investigation revealed some of the coins were in envelopes with Eitzen's late husband's handwriting on them. An Omaha coin dealer, who law enforcement officers asked to appraise the coins, also identified the coins as coming from Eitzen's collection.

Officers found more coins when they executed a search warrant at the house Casteel and Tiran shared with Anna Dawn Hutt, Tiran's girlfriend. Officers also seized a note near the computer with the word “coins” and a map that officers described as a “back way” to Eitzen's house through farm fields. Forensic analysis of the computer revealed internet searches for information on the Eitzens before the robbery and downloaded images of collectible coins the day after the robbery.

Outside Hutt's house, officers found an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) with burglary tools and fresh vegetation on it. Hutt reported the Casteels left on the ATV about an hour before the robbery, heading in the general direction of Eitzen's farm. When Hutt asked what they were doing, Tiran told her to “mind [her] own f- - - - - - business.” Later, Tiran telephoned Hutt to ask if there were any police near the house.

Nathan Wilcoxson, Hutt's son, described taking part in a “dry run” with the Casteels before the robbery. Wilcoxson testified Tiran recruited him to control Eitzen during the robbery. According to Wilcoxson, Tiran instructed him “[a]fter the door was kicked in [Wilcoxson] was supposed to run to [Eitzen's] chair and hold her down while the other person went upstairs and got the coins.” If Eitzen resisted, Wilcoxson was to do “[a]nything in [his] power” to make her comply, including “[p]istol-whip her, hit her.” Wilcoxson accompanied the Casteels to Eitzen's farm, but they aborted the robbery when they saw the lights were already off. The plan required Eitzen to be awake.

Another prospective recruit, Timothy Blank, testified Tiran discussed traveling by four-wheeler to the house of some people so they could rob them of their coins and gold at gunpoint. Tiran warned Blank that if the victims recognized the robbers, they would have to kill them.

After his arrest, Tiran contacted Wilcoxson to ask for help preventing Eitzen from testifying. The government introduced transcripts of telephone calls and letters from Tiran that Wilcoxson understood to mean Tiran wanted Wilcoxson to kill or otherwise harm Eitzen or arrange for someone else to do it. Tiran also spoke with his cellmate, Anthony Formaro, about arranging to have Eitzen “eliminated from existence on this earth.” Tiran's detailed plans for eliminating Eitzen included pushing her down the stairs or electrocuting her in the bathtub with a radio.

On February 19, 2009, a grand jury charged Casteel in five counts of a nine-count third superseding indictment that also charged Tiran. Count 2 charged Casteel with knowingly disposing of a firearm to a felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(d) and 924(a)(2). Count 4 charged Casteel and Tiran with carjacking in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2119 and 2. Counts 5 and 7 respectively charged Casteel and Tiran with knowingly and intentionally using or carrying a firearm and brandishing that firearm in relation to a violent federal crime for carjacking and robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c)(1)(A)(i) and (ii). Count 6 charged Casteel and Tiran with affecting commerce by robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1951 and 2. The remaining counts charged Tiran with being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2), and 2, obstruction or attempted obstruction of justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503, and tampering with a witness by attempting to kill in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(A).

Before trial, Casteel moved to sever his trial from Tiran's, arguing (1) the evidence of Tiran's obstruction of justice and witness tampering would severely prejudice Casteel because the jury would not be able to compartmentalize the evidence, and (2) a joint trial might prevent him from calling Tiran as a witness. The district court denied the motion, but granted Casteel's separate motion to sever the weapons charges from the robbery charges and dismissed Counts 6 and 7. Casteel also moved in limine to exclude evidence of the July 27, 2008 burglary and Casteel's sales of collectible coins beginning the next day. The district court denied that motion before trial.

On November 16, 2009, the district court began a five-day jury trial of Casteel and Tiran on Counts 4 and 5. Tiran also stood trial on the obstruction and witness tampering charges. The jury convicted Casteel and Tiran on all counts. Casteel filed two motions for a new trial, both of which were denied. On October 21, 2010, the district court sentenced Casteel to consecutive sentences of 78 months imprisonment on Count 4 and 84 months imprisonment on Count 5, with concurrent three-year terms of supervised release. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSIONA. Motion to Sever

Casteel contends the district court abused its discretion by denying his motion to sever his trial from Tiran's. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 8(b), 14. “We will...