United States v. Goodin
| Decision Date | 10 February 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 19-30923,19-30923 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff—Appellee, v. THOMAS J. M. GOODIN; BRITTANY S. GIX; MEKO R. WALKER, Defendants—Appellants. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
Before JONES, SMITH, and ELROD, Circuit Judges.
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This is a consolidated appeal of three defendants who were found guilty of participating in the same or related drug and drug conspiracy offenses. Goodin sent a package containing methamphetamine to Gix and Walker, who were arrested shortly after police orchestrated a controlled delivery. Goodin was located and arrested a couple of months later after hewas stopped by police for a traffic offense. Gix and Walker challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to convict them of two counts of conspiracy and attempt. Goodin challenges his detention following a traffic stop and his sentence as a career offender. Goodin's detention following a traffic stop was supported by reasonable suspicion. We AFFIRM the judgments of conviction and Goodin's enhanced sentence.
On October 4, 2017, Thomas Goodin walked into a FedEx store in San Bernardino, California with a package wrapped in birthday wrapping paper. At the store clerk's suggestion, Goodin placed the package in a FedEx box to protect the wrapping paper. He stated that the package was being shipped from "Tyrone Gix" in Loma Linda, California to a "Jordyn Gix" in Monroe, Louisiana. Goodin paid over $100 in cash to overnight ship the package, which he told the FedEx employee was a doll for his daughter's birthday.
The package was intercepted by a narcotics agent, Nick Oglesby, with the West Monroe (Louisiana) Police Department who was working at a FedEx facility in Monroe. A dog alerted to the presence of drugs and Oglesby secured a search warrant for the package. The package contained about one pound of methamphetamine.
Oglesby re-wrapped the present and repacked the box, leaving a small amount of methamphetamine enclosed in the bundle, and police set up a controlled delivery. A police officer dressed as a FedEx delivery driver knocked on Brittany Gix's door as other officers conducted surveillance, andleft the package at Gix's apartment, as it specified. Shortly after delivery, Gix opened the apartment door, picked up the package, and returned inside. About 40 minutes later, agents saw Walker arrive at Gix's apartment, go inside the apartment and quickly reemerge holding the re-wrapped package, no longer in a FedEx box. Agents arrested Walker when he got to his car.
Police then searched Gix's apartment and spoke with her. Officers found the FedEx box in a closet in her bedroom. Gix first claimed the package came from Tyrone Gix; then she said it came from Tyrone Johnson, who she claimed was her uncle. She said Tyrone Johnson was sending the package to his own daughter even though the package was addressed to Jordyn Gix. When police asked why her uncle would send a present for his daughter to Gix instead of directly to his own daughter, Gix said they were "really close" and that Gix "would do anything for Tyrone." Gix said that she had removed the birthday present from the FedEx box because she was "just being nosey." Gix also admitted that she had called FedEx to ascertain the status of the package's delivery. Gix allowed police to search her phone, which revealed extensive communications with a contact labeled "T Notes," who was in fact Goodin. Goodin and Gix were in a romantic relationship.
Both Gix and Walker had communicated extensively via text message and phone with Goodin about the FedEx shipment. the day Goodin shipped the package, Goodin texted Gix asking for an address and Gix sent him her apartment address. They then had the following exchange via text message: Goodin: "Who's going to be there to get it?"; Gix: "I thought you said I was picking it up?!"; Goodin: "Oh."
On October 5, the supposed delivery date, their communications continued. Around 10 am, Goodin texted Gix the FedEx receipt and manifest for the shipment from California to her apartment. A minute later, Gix responded with three thumbs-up emojis. One minute later, the two started an eight minute phone call. About an hour later, Gix sent Goodin a screenshot from FedEx's online tracking page corresponding to the package that Goodin had sent. In response, Goodin asked Gix to "[k]eep your eyes open." At 2:53 pm, Goodin inquired, "[i]f you know I'm expecting something, regardless, why would you allow someone to be . . . [a]round all day?" Then, around 3:00pm, Gix texted angrily and warned Goodin that she would not accept "anything else at this address." Goodin then called Gix at 3:28 pm and spoke with her for about two minutes.
The package was delivered outside Gix's apartment at 3:40 pm. At 4:01 pm, Gix texted Goodin a package emoji and thumbs-up emoji. Gix called Goodin at 4:28 pm, after Walker had already retrieved the package, and spoke with Goodin for 16 seconds. A minute or two later, law enforcement agents entered and began searching Gix's apartment. Goodin tried to reach Gix by phone multiple times but she didn't answer because police were in her apartment.
Goodin was also in frequent communication with Walker, especially on the day of the drug drop. Walker had entered Goodin in his contacts under the name "Trouble." On August 28, 2017, Goodin texted Walker his new phone number. On October 5, they spoke on the phone for about five minutes starting at 2:56 pm, roughly 45 minutes before the package was dropped offat Gix's apartment. Eleven minutes later, Walker and Goodin spoke on the phone for a minute and a half. At 3:10 pm, Goodin texted Walker the same receipt and sender/receiver manifest from the FedEx shipment that Gix had received. Goodin called Walker at 4:36 pm, but Walker was already in police custody.
Shortly after midnight about seven weeks after the controlled delivery took place, Goodin was stopped on Interstate 20 near Monroe, Louisiana because his car was swerving.
In handling the traffic stop, State Trooper Dickerson's suspicions were aroused, according to the government, by "a number of aspects of the traffic stop—the absence of a driver's license; that the car's registration was in someone else's name and suspended; the criminal history associated with the Louisiana identification card in the name of Malchia Desha Douzart that the driver provided; the fact the driver (Goodin) claimed to reside in California but had a Louisiana ID; nervous behavior. . . ." Dickerson called for a drug sniffing dog, which arrived about 15 to 20 minutes later and alerted on the car. Armed with probable cause to search the car, Trooper Dickerson testified that he immediately smelled marijuana upon opening the car doors. When officers opened the trunk, they saw two wrapped gifts. As the troopers began unwrapping the boxes, the driver complained they were gifts for his mother and he did not want the officers to mess with them. Nonetheless, the officers unwrapped the "gifts" and found methamphetamine hidden inside a candle, a hammer to break open the candle, and disguised tea bottles withphencyclidine ("PCP") inside them. After arrest, Goodin's real identity was discovered from a driver's license, and the officers found $1,495 in cash in his wallet. Dickerson then located an outstanding arrest warrant based on Goodin's involvement in the October 5, 2017 methamphetamine distribution involving Gix and Walker.
After a jury trial, Walker and Gix were convicted of the conspiracy and of attempted possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846.
Goodin was convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846 (Count 1); possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (Count 3); and possession with intent to distribute PCP, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (Count 4).
Gix was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment, Walker to 144 months, and Goodin to 504 months.
Gix and Walker each assert the evidence is legally insufficient, and each essentially attempts to refute the knowledge element of the convictions.
This court reviews sufficiency challenges de novo, construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party (in this case thegovernment). A conviction must be affirmed if "any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Gonzalez, 907 F.3d 869, 873 (5th Cir. 2018) (per curiam) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 2789 (1979)). All "weight and credibility assessments lie within the exclusive province of the jury." United States v. Vinagre-Hernandez, 925 F.3d 761, 764 (5th Cir. 2019) (quoting United States v. Barakett, 994 F.2d 1107, 1110 (5th Cir. 1993)) cert. denied, 140 S. Ct. 897 (2020).
Gix and Walker were both convicted on two counts: conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and attempted possession with intent to distribute. A conviction for conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine under 21 U.S.C. § 846 requires the government to prove: (1) an agreement between two or more individuals to violate federal drug laws; (2) the defendant's knowledge of that agreement; and (3) the defendant's voluntary participation in that agreement. See United States v. Brown, 553 F.3d 768, 781 (5th Cir. 2008) (citing United States v. Aguilar, 503 F.3d 431, 435 (5th Cir. 2007)). A conviction for attempted possession of a controlled substance requires the government to prove that the defendant: (1) acted with the culpability required for the substantive offense, and (2) took a ...
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