United States v. Castleman

• Decision Date: 05 August 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–3184.,14–3184.
• Citation: 795 F.3d 904
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee v. Bob Sam CASTLEMAN, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

795 F.3d 904

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.Bob Sam CASTLEMAN, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 14–3184.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 17, 2015.

Filed: Aug. 5, 2015.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Sept. 10, 2015.

J. Blake Hendrix, argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellant.

Anne E. Gardner, AUSA, argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellee.

Before MURPHY, COLLOTON, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

Bob Sam Castleman was charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, maintaining drug premises, and conspiracy to possess chemicals and equipment used to make methamphetamine. Some evidence supporting these charges came from a traffic stop in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas and a later search of open fields on Castleman's property. The district court¹ denied motions to suppress the evidence obtained during these searches. At trial the government also introduced evidence that he had murdered a coconspirator to prevent him from testifying. This testimony was offered over Castleman's objection as evidence of his consciousness of guilt. The jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. At sentencing the district court found that Castleman had murdered the coconspirator, applied the higher base offense level for first degree murder under U.S.S.G. §§ 2A1.1 and 2D1.1(d)(1), and sentenced him to 40 years imprisonment. Castleman appeals his conviction and sentence, and we affirm.

I.

A.

On April 11, 2011, while Tracy Moore was working at the Farm Service store in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, he saw a man who had purchased Coleman fuel enter a parked pickup truck. Then he observed a woman leave the same truck, come into the store, and purchase vinyl tubing. Moore was aware that the items purchased could be used to produce methamphetamine and thought the customers' behavior was suspicious so he called the police chief of Hoxie, a neighboring city. He contacted the police in Hoxie rather than Walnut Ridge because in his prior experience they responded more quickly to such calls. Moore provided a description of the pickup truck, its occupants, and the items they had purchased.

Hoxie Police Chief Glen Smith responded to the call and saw a truck matching Moore's description pull out of the Farm Service parking lot. Smith followed the truck and stopped it after he observed it cross over the center line. The stop occurred in Walnut Ridge, and Smith called the Walnut Ridge police to advise them of the situation as he was making the stop. Walnut Ridge Detective David Burnside arrived at the scene almost immediately.

Smith approached the driver side of the truck, asked for identification, and received driver licenses from both occupants. Bob Castleman was the driver, and Rebecca Spray was the passenger. While requesting identification Smith noticed tubing between the two front seats. When he ran the identification information, Smith discovered that Spray was on probation. He contacted her probation officer who advised him that Spray was subject to search by any law enforcement officer.

Smith then asked Spray to get out of the truck, advised her of her rights, and told her that he had received a report that she bought methamphetamine supplies at the Farm Service store. He saw pills laying on the floor of the truck. Spray stated that she and Castleman were buying “stuff” including fuel and pills to take to Castleman's house for someone else. Spray and Castleman were arrested. A search of the truck found a can of Coleman fuel, four boxes of pseudoephedrine pills, tubing, and a box of plastic bags.

B.

Chief Smith reported information about the traffic stop and arrest of Castleman and Spray to Sheriff Gary Tribble of Randolph County, Arkansas. Based primarily on this information, Sheriff Tribble requested and received a search warrant for Castleman's residence in Imboden, Arkansas. Sheriff Tribble and several other law enforcement officers executed the warrant on April 12, 2011.

Castleman's residence was located on 262 acres of land which was enclosed by a barbed wire fence on three sides, bordered by a river on the fourth, and posted with signs on the boundaries. A locked gate was at the entrance to the property, and law enforcement officers used bolt cutters to gain access for the search. Bob Castleman's son, Robert Jerrod Castleman (“Jerrod”), was present at the house when officers arrived. Inside the house officers found two lithium batteries, some marijuana, and digital scales. Two Coleman fuel cans and one starter fluid can were found on the rear porch.

While other officers searched the house, investigators Michael King and Willie Kimble followed a driveway that led uphill and away from the residence. Over the crest of the hill in an area not visible from the house, they found closed garbage bags in a trailer. They also noticed a large plastic tarp near some hay bales, and without moving the tarp they could see an air tank and a gray plastic tote under it. The officers opened the trash bags and found a Coleman fuel can and a lacquer thinner can. They then moved the tarp and opened the tote. Inside was plastic and copper

tubing, a white spoon, a funnel, pipe and valve fittings, a siphon pump, two plastic pitchers, rubber gloves, drain cleaner, and a pill crusher with residue on it. They also found an empty bag of salt pellets near the tote. King took photos of these items. Subsequent forensic testing detected methamphetamine residue on the digital scales found in the residence and pseudoephedrine residue on the pill crusher found in the tote. The copper tubing found in the tote had green corrosion consistent with exposure to anhydrous ammonia.

C.

A grand jury indicted Castleman on charges of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B) and 846 ; maintaining a drug premises in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 856(a)(2) and 846 ; and conspiracy to possess chemicals and equipment used to manufacture methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(a)(6), 843(d), and 846. Other charged members of the conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine included Jerrod, Spray, and Travis Perkins. Spray and Castleman were the only charged members of the conspiracy to possess methamphetamine precursors.

Castleman moved to suppress evidence obtained from the traffic stop and from the search of the trash bags and tote. The district court denied these motions. Castleman was the only defendant who proceeded to trial. Travis Perkins was killed shortly before he was scheduled to enter a guilty plea on April 18, 2013. Jerrod pleaded guilty on the day trial began, December 12, 2013. The other coconspirators had already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government.

The evidence presented by the government at trial showed that Castleman allowed Jerrod and Perkins to cook methamphetamine on his property in Imboden, Arkansas, that he received methamphetamine for his own use in return, and that he sometimes purchased precursors for them. Evidence and testimony about the traffic stop and search of Castleman's property was also presented, and a forensic chemist testified that methamphetamine could be produced using materials such as lithium

batteries, pseudoephedrine pills, anhydrous ammonia, tubing, air tanks, plastic containers, salt, and camp fuel. Records from a state database showed that Castleman had purchased pseudoephedrine pills 14 times in the two years preceding his arrest.

Several witnesses who had agreed to cooperate with the government testified about their visits to the Castleman farm. They testified that they visited the farm between 2008 and 2011, sometimes bringing pseudoephedrine pills with them to give to Jerrod or Perkins for the purpose of manufacturing methamphetamine. Jerrod or Perkins would cook methamphetamine outside of the house and bring the finished product into the house on a coffee filter to dry. The filter would be placed on the kitchen table, sometimes in Castleman's presence. Castleman and others at the farm would then smoke the methamphetamine. Sometimes Perkins would make enough so that they could all smoke some, he could leave some with Castleman, and he could take some away himself. One witness also testified that he, Perkins, Jerrod, and Castleman talked as a group about purchasing fertilizer. While nobody had stated directly that the fertilizer was for manufacturing methamphetamine, he believed that “everybody knew” that was its purpose.

On the morning of the third day of trial, the government announced that it intended to call Jerrod as a witness and that it had recently learned Jerrod would testify that Castleman had confessed to killing Perkins.² The government stated that it wished to offer testimony about this confession as evidence of Castleman's consciousness of guilt of the charged offenses and that it believed a limiting instruction would be appropriate. Castleman objected to the introduction of this evidence and the district court granted the defense a 24 hour continuance to prepare its response.³ After hearing argument the court ruled that it would allow the testimony for the limited purpose identified by the government.

Jerrod testified that when his father mentioned that he had been “ripped off” and had gotten “bad stuff,” which Jerrod understood to be methamphetamine, Jerrod “hinted that [he] might be able to fix the problem.” Jerrod knew that his friend Perkins “was cooking meth at the time and he sometimes needed a place to go.” Perkins and Jerrod began manufacturing methamphetamine on Castleman's property; according to Jerrod, his father “basically told me he didn't want to know nothing about it.” Jerrod confirmed that he and Perkins would receive pseudoephedrine pills from visitors to the property, manufacture methamphetamine on the property, bring the methamphetamine on a coffee filter into the house to dry, and then smoke some of it with whomever was present. Castleman was sometimes present when they brought the coffee...