United States v. Poole, 10-4626

• Decision Date: 20 October 2011
• Docket Number: No. 10-4626,10-4626
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. TIMOTHY JAMES POOLE, Defendant - Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.TIMOTHY JAMES POOLE, Defendant - Appellant.

No. 10-4626

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

Argued: September 21, 2011

Decided: October 20, 2011

UNPUBLISHED

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Florence. R. Bryan Harwell, District Judge. (4:09-cr-00531-RBH-1)

Before DUNCAN and AGEE, Circuit Judges, and Damon J. KEITH, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by unpublished opinion. Judge Duncan wrote the opinion, in which Judge Agee and Senior Judge Keith joined.

ARGUED: Jonathan McKey Milling, MILLING LAW FIRM, LLC, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Thomas Ernest Booth, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: William N. Nettles, United States Attorney, A. W. Bethea, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Columbia, South Carolina; Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Greg D. Andres, Acting

Deputy Assistant Attorney General, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.DUNCAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from Timothy Poole's conviction on one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349, seventeen counts of substantive mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, and two counts of substantive wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Poole challenges his convictions and his 400-year sentence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

A.

1.

In 1981, Poole, then seven years old, and his three siblings were adopted by Richard and Linda Poole. In 1991, the Pooles moved to Lakewood Plantation, a 3,000 acre estate in a rural, isolated area in Williamsburg County, South Carolina. Richard, a successful businessman, established discretionary trusts for Linda and the children in his will. After Linda's death, the children would become the primary income beneficiaries in the discretion of the trustee, and they would be entitled to receive income from the trust.

In 1994, Poole married Jodie Wise. They had a son in 1998. From 1997 to September 2002, Poole was employed by the Florence(S.C.) County Sheriff's Office. During that period, he purchased a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver.

After Richard's death in 2001, Linda prepared a will that established trust funds for Poole and his siblings. She also gave money to Poole to support his family, including $833 monthly. In 2002, Linda gave $200,000 each to Poole and his siblings, whereupon Poole quit his job.¹ Poole spent the $200,000 within a year. Poole asked Linda for more money, and she gave him an additional $70,000, which he spent within three months. At the same time, some of Poole's checks were returned for insufficient funds.

In August 2004, Linda married Henry Hilton, and placed him in charge of Lakewood. Poole disapproved of this decision.² In March 2005, Linda amended her will to make Hilton her executor and the primary beneficiary of her estate. The codicil substituted Hilton for the children as the estate beneficiaries upon Linda's death. Also, under the new arrangement, the trust for the children would not be legally formed if Hilton survived Linda. Thus, Poole and his siblings would not be entitled to received Linda's trust assets unless Hilton died before Linda.On March 23, by letter, Linda informed Poole of these changes. At the time, Linda's estate was worth $5 million.

In 2005, Poole began an affair with Mia Evans. As relevant to this appeal, in August, during the affair, Evans bought for Poole a pair of New Balance, Model 471, size 12 shoes. Evans noticed that Poole always kept a revolver in the console of his Cadillac Escalade. In October, Poole fought with Jodie over his affair with Evans, after which Jodie called Linda, disclosed Poole's affair, and said that Poole had spent all their money. On November 17, by letter, Linda chastised Poole for his marital infidelity. On November 19, in another letter, Linda threatened to remove Poole as a trust beneficiary. Linda also told Poole to get a job and care for his family. Meanwhile, Poole's financial problems continued to worsen.³

In 2006, Poole's financial problems escalated further. Poole's bank notified him that future missed mortgage and other loan payments could lead to foreclosure proceedings. On June 4, Linda sent Poole two letters. In the first, she advised Poole that beginning in January 2007, she would give him (and his siblings) a yearly sum of $10,000 in lieu of her $833 monthlypayment. She also advised Poole that she did not want further requests for money for anything other than medical emergencies, and that Poole needed to establish his own reserve. In the second letter, Linda sent Poole a check for his June mortgage payment, and said that she would cover his July and August mortgage payment but no more. On several occasions during July, Linda told friends that Poole had been coming to Lakewood uninvited, even when Linda was out, for no apparent reason. Linda said that she was not personally afraid of Poole, but she was "very, very afraid" for Hilton.

2.

At noon on August 1, 2006, Poole visited friends Rachel and Robert Atkinson at their home, leaving at 5:15 p.m. Rachel noticed that Poole was wearing "tennis shoes." As he was leaving, Poole informed Rachel that he was going to a GNC store and then returning home. From 1:58 p.m. that day until 10:22 a.m. on August 2, Poole's cell phone was turned off, which prevented his cell phone provider from tracking Poole's location during that period. At 5:30 p.m., Poole went to a GNC store--located about 38 miles and a 44-minute drive from Lakewood--and argued with a store clerk. According to Jodie Poole, who was home that day, Poole returned home between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00p.m.⁴ Jodie believed that Poole was working on the night shift at a Honda plant.

On the morning of August 2, a Lakewood employee noticed that the padlock at the front gate was located upside down, outside the gate; normally, Linda and Hilton locked the gate behind them, causing the padlock to be placed inside the gate. That afternoon, Lakewood employees found Linda's body near the house. Linda died of two gunshot wounds. Inside the residence, the employees found Hilton's body. Hilton had been shot four times.⁵ The bullets that killed Linda and Hilton were consistent with bullets fired from either a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver or a .357 Magnum.

State law enforcement agents arrived at Lakewood later that day. While they noticed small signs of disturbance in the house, the agents did not believe that a robbery had occurred; there were no signs of a forced entry, and items of significant value were accounted for. The agents saw shoe prints in the carpet near Hilton's body. An expert shoe examiner laterconcluded that the prints shared "limited design features" with a New Balance 471 shoe, but he could not determine the shoe prints' size.

That afternoon, an officer picked up Poole at home and drove him to Lakewood. Enroute, Poole said that he had given a .38 revolver to Linda for her protection after his father's death.⁶ That evening, agents interviewed Poole and Jodie separately. Before Jodie's interview, Poole instructed her to falsely tell the agents that he returned home at 6:00 p.m. on August 1, and spent the night with her there. Jodie did so. During his interview, Poole said that he was at the Atkinsons' house during the afternoon of August 1, and he returned home at 6:00 p.m. He then left his house to purchase an item at a GNC store, and returned home at 6:30 p.m. Poole denied having financial problems, then stated that he could always get money from Linda if he did. Poole's interview ended at 9:35 p.m. During the next ten minutes, Poole made several calls to Jodie; he also sent her several text messages, asking her to stop talking to investigators.

On August 3, agents executed a search warrant at Poole's house and vehicle. They seized several firearms, and otheritems, but they did not find Poole's .38 Smith and Wesson revolver or his New Balance shoes.

3.

On August 18, 2006, Poole contacted Linda's trust administrator and requested money from her estate to pay his bills. Poole made several additional requests between 2006 and 2008. Jodie also participated in the effort to obtain funds from Linda's estate. From 2006 to 2008, the trust issued multiple checks to Poole, his bank, and his creditors. Poole used these funds, inter alia, to make his mortgage and car payments, and pay his current food, gas, and other bills.

B.

On April 30, 2009, a grand jury charged that Timothy Poole and Jodie Poole conspired together to commit mail and wire fraud upon Linda's estate. The indictment alleged, in relevant part, that it was part of the conspiracy that Poole and Jodie would conceal Poole's involvement in the Hilton murders so that Poole would remain eligible to inherit monies from Linda's estate.⁷

During a ten-day jury trial in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, the government presented testimony from several witnesses. Jodie testifiedabout Poole asking her to lie as to his whereabouts on the day of the murder.⁸ Additionally, as relevant to this appeal, Mia Evans (with whom Poole had an affair, as noted above),⁹ Ryana Cafasso (with whom Poole also had an affair),¹⁰ Rachel Atkinson (the wife of a friend, with whom Poole also had an affair),¹¹ Julia White (a friend of Cafasso's),¹² and Poole's brother Richard,¹³ also provided testimony for the government that suggested that Poole and Jodie had conspired to conceal his involvement in the murders. The government also introduced evidence of Poole's extramarital affairs, lavish spending and straitened financial circumstances. Poole was convicted on all counts. At sentencing, the district court...