United States v. Miller
| Decision Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 11-5837,Case No. 11-6191,Case No. 11-6192,Case No. 11-5829,Case No. 11-6196,Case No. 11-5860,Case No. 11-6198 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KELLY MILLER, ADRIAN DORSEY, LEE CARR, SUNNAH MADDOX, RONNIE COOPER, KEITH PARIS RUFFIN, and JASON PETER DEJESUS, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
MERRITT, Circuit Judge. After a ten-day trial, a jury convicted Defendant-Appellants Kelly Miller, Adrian Dorsey, Lee Carr, Sunnah Maddox, Ronnie Cooper, Keith Ruffin, and Jason DeJesus of various drug-trafficking, money-laundering, witness-intimidation, and ammunition offenses. Except for Miller, all the defendants challenge their convictions; because we find their arguments unconvincing, we AFFIRM these convictions. The defendants, all except for Dorsey, also challenge their sentences. Because DeJesus and Ruffin are eligible for resentencing under Dorsey v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2321 (2012), we REMAND their cases for resentencing; however, the remainder of the defendants' sentences are AFFIRMED.
This case focuses on a drug-trafficking scheme operated by Maddox from 2003 to 2009. The primary thrust of the drug-trafficking operation was to purchase kilogram quantities of cocaine, cook it into crack cocaine, and resell the drugs in smaller quantities. The operation was based in Johnson City, Tennessee—where Maddox lived with co-defendant Jamie Rush—but reached to suppliers and activities in Georgia, Florida, and New York. In order to reach these out-of-state suppliers, Maddox and Rush would hire women as couriers to transport money and drugs; in addition, various members of the operation would send wire transfers through Western Union to these different locations.
The operation came to the attention of local DEA agents in February 2008 when they arrested Shawn McGirt, a drug dealer, who told the agents that Maddox was his supplier. The agents set up a transaction between McGirt and Maddox, and obtained a Title III wiretap on Maddox's phone that ultimately generated 25,000 intercepted communications.
Based on their investigation, law enforcement officers arranged two sets of actions. In January 2009, they orchestrated a traffic stop to catch Maddox, Rush, and a female courier en route to Atlanta to purchase a kilogram of cocaine. The officers found $31,500.00 in cash in the courier's car. Then, on May 7, 2009, officers coordinated a search of Maddox and Rush's residence with a traffic stop of their vehicle as they returned from another drug purchase in Atlanta. At the residence, officers arrested Miller and Dorsey, and courier Taneka Ebberts, who had returned from Atlanta ahead of Maddox and Rush. A search of the rental car Ebberts had driven to Atlanta uncovered about one and a half kilograms of cocaine and 67 grams of marijuana in the trunk. Maddox and Rush were also arrested.
On July 13, 2010, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee returned a Third Superseding Indictment against Maddox, Rush, Carr, Miller, Dorsey, Cooper, DeJesus, Ruffin, and others on twenty counts of: conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A), and 846 (Count 1); aiding and abetting the distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B), and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count 2); conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(D) and 846 (Count 3); aiding and abetting the distribution of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(D), and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count 4); conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A), and 846 (Count 5); conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(1)(A)(i) and 1956(h) (Count 6); distribution of cocaine and cocaine base and the aiding and abetting of cocaine base distribution, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B)-(C) (Counts 8 and 15); manufacturing and the attempt to manufacture 50 grams of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A) and 846 (Count 12); aiding and abetting of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1956(a)(1)(A)(i) (Count 13); unlawful possession of ammunition, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e) (Count 16); and witness intimidation and conspiracy to commit witness intimidation, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1512(b)(1), and 1513(b)(2) (Counts 18, 19 and 20).
At trial, Rush and several other indicted co-defendants testified for the prosecution. Rush explained that he was introduced to Maddox as a homeless teenager in Utica, New York, and that he immediately began dealing and operating two crack houses for Maddox there. By 2004, Maddox decided to move the operation to Johnson City with Rush, and they began procuringabout 1.5 kilograms of powder cocaine per month and cooking it into crack cocaine to sell. This amount eventually increased to one kilogram every week or two from a source that Maddox found in Atlanta.
While Maddox generally did the cooking himself, Rush testified that he personally cooked at least forty kilograms of cocaine into crack cocaine for Maddox. According to Rush, Maddox kept the profits from drug sales and provided Rush with cars, cash, jewelry, computers, and cell phones.
Rush also testified that Carr, Dorsey, Miller, and DeJesus all played a role in Maddox's operation and stayed at Maddox's apartment in Johnson City at various times. According to Rush, Carr—Maddox's cousin—moved to Johnson City from Florida to help Maddox with drug sales, though his role evolved to cooking crack cocaine and locating and buying from cocaine suppliers in Florida. Eventually, Carr began his own drug business relying on Maddox as a supplier, according to Rush. Maddox also brought Dorsey and Miller from New York to sell drugs in 2006, according to Rush, and was in the process of securing a stash house for them to operate down the street from Maddox's apartment when the group was arrested.
As for Cooper, Maddox's brother-in-law, a jailhouse informant testified that Cooper told the informant he was part of Maddox's operation to purchase cocaine in kilogram quantities for resale in Tennessee. Another informant testified that he had witnessed Cooper selling cocaine in Utica, New York, where Cooper lived.
In addition, various law enforcement officers testified about (1) intercepted phone calls and text messages, (2) recordings made by informants transacting with defendants, (3) the coded language the defendants employed when communicating, and (4) financial transactions through Western Union that officers traced to the defendants. The intercepted communications includednumerous phone calls and text messages between Maddox and Cooper, and Maddox and DeJesus, among others.
For instance, in August 2008, Maddox had been sold fake cocaine and had started to sell marijuana to stay in business, according to Rush. A recording of Carr by an informant posing as a cocaine supplier corroborated the testimony regarding the fake cocaine. Carr told the informant he had recently lost money after he and his cousin purchased fake cocaine that would not cook properly, and expressed an interest in buying kilograms of cocaine from the informant.
Though DeJesus had stayed in Tennessee for only a short period of time to sell marijuana before returning to New York, according to Rush, intercepted communications showed that he sold Maddox cocaine and tried to help Maddox cook it into crack cocaine in September and October 2008 when Maddox was in New York.
Finally, as to Ruffin, the jury heard multiple recordings of phone calls and transcripts of various text messages between him and Maddox explicitly discussing the sale of large quantities of cocaine, as well as testimony by a DEA agent regarding incriminating statements Ruffin made to the agent after his arrest.
Based on this evidence and the testimony of several dozen witnesses, the jury convicted the defendants on various counts, including some lesser-included offenses. The defendants filed motions for judgment of acquittal or new trial, which the district court denied. It then sentenced Maddox to life imprisonment; Cooper and Ruffin to 360 months' imprisonment; DeJesus to 240 months; Carr to 235 months; Dorsey to 120 months; and Miller to 78 months. In addition, it ordered Maddox, Cooper, and Carr to pay a $7 million money judgment. Defendants then appealed.
Maddox first seeks to have his conviction set aside and the indictment overturned on the basis that the composition of the grand jury violated his right to equal protection. Specifically, he argues that African-Americans were systematically excluded from the grand jury that indicted him, as well as from service as grand jury foreperson. The district court denied Maddox's motion to dismiss on these grounds.
The courts have long "recognized that a criminal defendant's right to equal protection of the laws has been denied when he is indicted by a grand jury from which members of a racial group purposefully have been excluded." Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. 545, 556 (1979). "[I]n order to show that an equal protection violation has occurred in the context of grand jury selection, the defendant must show that the procedure employed resulted in substantial underrepresentation of his race or of the identifiable group to which he belongs." Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 494 (1977).
This requires meeting a three-part test laid out in Castaneda. United States v. Ovalle, 136 F.3d 1092, 1104 (6th Cir. 1998...
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