United States v. Ndemba
| Decision Date | 05 March 2012 |
| Docket Number | No. 10-31188,10-31188 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee v. JACKSON NTONE NDEMBA, also known as Ndemba Ntone Jackson, also known as Sammy Jackson; PIERRE EMMANUEL JALLA, also known as Marco Jalla, Defendants - Appellants |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Before KING, BENAVIDES, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.
*
Defendants—Appellants Jackson Ntone Ndemba and Pierre Emmanuel Jalla were convicted of conspiracy to manufacture counterfeit United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 471 and 371, and manufacturing counterfeit United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 471 and 2. Defendants timely appealed, arguing that their convictions were not supported by sufficientevidence. For the reasons stated below, we AFFIRM the judgments of conviction.
This case involves a scheme to steal $60,000. Defendant—Appellant Pierre Emmanuel Jalla ("Jalla") testified at length about the details of the scheme at trial and demonstrated the steps of the scheme to FBI agents in the Government's Exhibit 23, a video that was made shortly after Jalla's arrest and was played for the jury at trial. An audiotape of Jalla's description of the scheme to undercover officer Adele Robert Saman ("Saman") was also played at trial.
To conduct the scheme, Jalla needed to find a victim who would provide $60,000 in actual United States currency that would purportedly be used to make $120,000 in counterfeit currency. Jalla would make an agreement with the victim that Jalla would keep $60,000 of the counterfeit currency made, and the victim would receive the other $60,000 of counterfeit currency, as well as the $60,000 in actual currency. The victim would come to a hotel room to participate in the making of counterfeit $100 bills. Jalla and the victim would work in low light, and Jalla would use latex gloves, masks, and chemicals (baby powder, green alcohol, and iodine) in order to make the counterfeiting operation seem believable to the victim. During the process, Jalla would have the victim bring the actual currency into the bathroom so it could be heated in warm water in the bathtub. The heating process was purportedly necessary to facilitate the transfer of color from the genuine currency to pieces of white paper cut to the size of dollar bills. Jalla would then tell the victim that he forgot his syringe and would send the victim out of the room to retrieve it. While the victim was out, Jalla would replace the victim's actual currency with fake currency that Jalla had secretly brought into the bathroom. Jalla and the victim would then take the counterfeit currency, which the victim believed was the actual currency, out of the bathtub and put sheets of white paper on either side of these fake bills.This was purportedly a step in making the sheets of white paper into counterfeit currency. Jalla then would divide the currency and paper into three stacks and soak each stack in iodine. Finally, Jalla would inject the stacks with green alcohol and would send the victim home with all three stacks. Jalla and the victim would agree to meet the following day so that Jalla could apply a special cleaning fluid to the bills to complete the counterfeiting process. However, Jalla would not meet the victim the next day, but would instead leave with the $60,000 in actual currency he had secretly taken. At the end of the scheme, the victim would be left with worthless black paper.
Jalla traveled from Atlanta to New Orleans with the intention of finding a victim for his scheme. Defendant—Appellant Jackson Ntone Ndemba ("Ndemba") was Jalla's driver during the trip. Jalla testified that Ndemba was unaware of his scheme and merely wanted to visit New Orleans as a tourist. On this trip, Jalla encountered a man known as "Nick," who was purportedly interested in participating in the scheme, and Jalla demonstrated his counterfeiting technique to him. During the final steps of the demonstration, Jalla switched the fake currency he was making with genuine currency and pretended that the real currency was the end product of his counterfeiting process. "Nick," who was actually a confidential informant, eventually introduced Jalla to a man known as "Jimmy," who was purportedly interested in providing the $60,000 Jalla said he needed to make $120,000 in counterfeit bills. Jalla demonstrated his counterfeiting technique to both "Nick" and "Jimmy." On July 23, 2009, Jalla agreed with "Nick" and "Jimmy" that, on July 27, 2009, "Jimmy" would provide $60,000 in actual currency and would rent a hotel room where they would manufacture $120,000 in counterfeit currency. Subsequently, Ndemba drove Jalla back to Atlanta, where, according to Jalla's testimony, Jalla worked alone to prepare for his scheme by gathering materials and printing counterfeit bills.
When Jalla and Ndemba returned to New Orleans, Jalla dealt with a man known to him as "Ahamed," who was purportedly Jimmy's older brother. "Ahamed" was actually Saman, the undercover officer whose phone conversation with Jalla is mentioned above. Jalla and Ndemba met with "Ahamed" in an Office Depot parking lot on July 29, 2009, where "Ahamed" gave them a key to the hotel room that was to be the site of the counterfeiting operation. Ndemba drove Jalla from the Office Depot parking lot to the hotel where the counterfeiting was to occur, which is where Ndemba and Jalla were both arrested.
As noted above, Jalla cooperated with FBI agents and demonstrated his scheme to them shortly after his arrest. In addition, before meeting with "Ahamed" at Office Depot, Jalla had rented a hotel room nearby where he had stored his supplies. Agents searched that hotel room and found, inter alia, stacks of paper cut to the size of United States currency, large stacks of counterfeit currency, a hospital mask, a syringe, two pieces of white paper that each bore the image of a $20 bill in white ink, two actual $100 bills with serial numbers that matched the serial numbers on many of the counterfeit bills, and bottles of chemicals wrapped in aluminum foil. Agents also searched a hotel room that Jalla had rented in Chamblee, Georgia, and found a printer and ink cartridges that Jalla testified he had used to make the counterfeit currency found in his hotel room near New Orleans.
Jalla and Ndemba (collectively, "Defendants") were initially charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 371, and mail and wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 2. A superseding indictment was brought against Defendants adding charges of conspiracy to manufacture counterfeit United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 471 and 371, and manufacturing counterfeit United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 471 and 2. A second superseding indictment chargedDefendants with conspiracy to manufacture counterfeit United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 471 and 371, and manufacturing counterfeit United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 471 and 2. A jury convicted Defendants of both counts of the second superseding indictment. Jalla was subsequently sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment, and Ndemba was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. Both Defendants now appeal, arguing that there was insufficient evidence presented at trial to support their convictions.
Because Defendants properly preserved their challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their convictions, we review "the evidence and all inferences to be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine if a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Seale, 600 F.3d 473, 496 (5th Cir. 2010); see also United States v. Villarreal, 324 F.3d 319, 322 (5th Cir. 2003). "A jury is free to choose among reasonable constructions of the evidence." United States v. Pigrum, 922 F.2d 249, 254 (5th Cir. 1991). We also consider all credibility determinations in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. See United States v. Lopez, 74 F.3d 575, 577 (5th Cir. 1996). Thus, our review is "highly deferential to the verdict." United States v. Harris, 293 F.3d 863, 869 (5th Cir. 2002).
Under 18 U.S.C. § 471, "[w]hoever, with intent to defraud, falsely makes, forges, counterfeits, or alters any obligation or other security of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both." Thus, to be convicted under § 471, a person must (1) make counterfeit United States currency and (2) do so with intent to defraud, meaning the intentto cheat someone by making that person think the counterfeit currency was real. See United States v. Porter, 542 F.3d 1088, 1091 (5th Cir. 2008); Fifth Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions (Criminal) § 2.24. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2(a), one who aids or abets the commission of an offense, in this case making counterfeit obligations under § 471, is punishable as a principal.
In contesting his conviction, Jalla contends that he lacked the intent to defraud required to violate § 471. Jalla asserts that he "intended nothing more than to commit a theft" and did not intend to cheat his victim by making him believe the fake currency that he manufactured was genuine. He focuses on the fact that, at the end of his scheme, the counterfeit bills he had made and would have left in the victim's possession would be worthless pieces of paper blackened by iodine. This paper, Jalla argues, could never have been mistaken for genuine currency. Thus, Jalla contends that he could not have intended the counterfeit bills that he had manufactured to be mistaken for genuine currency, as required by § 471. Jalla...
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