United States v. Strayhorn

• Decision Date: 26 February 2014
• Docket Number: Nos. 12–4487,12–4495.,s. 12–4487
• Citation: 743 F.3d 917
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Janson Lamark STRAYHORN, Defendant–Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Jimmy Jay Strayhorn, Jr., Defendant–Appellant.

743 F.3d 917

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Janson Lamark STRAYHORN, Defendant–Appellant.

United States of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Jimmy Jay Strayhorn, Jr., Defendant–Appellant.

Nos. 12–4487, 12–4495.

United States Court of Appeals,Fourth Circuit.

Argued: Dec. 11, 2013.

Decided: Feb. 26, 2014.

ARGUED:James B. Craven, III, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellants. Andrew Charles Cochran, Office of the United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:Tony E. Rollman, Enka, North Carolina, for Appellant Jimmy Jay Strayhorn, Jr. Ripley Rand, United States Attorney, Graham T. Green, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before GREGORY, DAVIS, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated and remanded for resentencing by published opinion. Judge WYNN wrote the opinion, in which Judge GREGORY and Judge DAVIS joined.

WYNN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from the convictions of Janson Strayhorn and Jimmy Strayhorn for the robbery of P & S Coins and a second planned robbery of All American Coins.

Regarding Janson Strayhorn's appeal, we conclude that there was insufficient evidence to convict Janson Strayhorn of robbing P & S Coins. Thus, we hold that the district court erred by denying his motion for judgment of acquittal on the charges related to the P & S Coins robbery. The government did, however, present sufficient evidence to sustain the conspiracy and firearm convictions against Janson Strayhorn relating to the All American Coins robbery.

Regarding Jimmy Strayhorn's appeal, we remand his case for resentencing on the brandishing charge arising from the P & S Coins robbery because the district court failed to instruct the jurors that to convict Jimmy Strayhorn of that offense, they needed to find that he had brandished a gun.

I.

In August 2010, two men robbed P & S Coins, a store in north Davidson County, North Carolina. The robbers arrived in a cream-colored Cadillac. One of the robbers pulled a revolver on Samuel Sims, the store's owner, while the other robber bound Sims's hands with zip ties and his legs with duct tape. The robbers took coins from a safe and a Colt Peacemaker revolver from a display case and then left the store.

Starting on October 24, 2010, Jimmy Strayhorn, who had been detained in Guilford County Jail as a suspect for other crimes, placed several phone calls to his girlfriend, Thania Woodcock. The police listened to those calls and learned that Jimmy Strayhorn had asked his brother Janson Strayhorn to rob All American Coins and Collectibles in Butner, North Carolina to raise enough money for Jimmy Strayhorn to post his bond. These calls were forwarded to the Butner police and officers were dispatched to watch All American Coins. Butner police knew from the recorded phone calls that the robbers would likely be driving Woodcock's Cadillac.

On October 29, 2010, Captain Donald Slaughter, a Butner police officer, was patrolling the area around All American Coins in an unmarked police car when he noticed a white Cadillac driving slowly past the store. When the Cadillac neared the unmarked police car, the Cadillac's occupants “slumped down[,]” and the driver “place[d] his hand up over his eyes ... to conceal his identity....” J.A. 146–47.

Slaughter followed the Cadillac, which sped up and made several turns. Believing that the Cadillac's driver was trying to elude him, Slaughter called in the license plate, confirmed that he was following the targeted Cadillac, and stopped and searched the car along with Officer Knutson, who had been called for back-up assistance. The officers discovered that Janson Strayhorn was the Cadillac's driver, Kenneth Jones was the passenger, and the vehicle was registered to Woodcock, Jimmy Strayhorn's girlfriend. Upon searchingthe Cadillac, the police found in the back seat a book bag and a laptop bag each containing a revolver. One of the revolvers was the Colt Peacemaker stolen from P & S Coins.

After arresting Janson Strayhorn and Jones, the officers obtained a search warrant for Woodcock's house. There, the police found the same type of black zip tie as those used in the P & S Coins robbery, a coin taken from P & S Coins, and ammunition. It is undisputed that Jimmy Strayhorn resided, at least occasionally, at the Woodcock residence but that Janson Strayhorn did not.

As a result of these incidents, Defendants Janson Strayhorn and Jimmy Strayhorn were charged with one count each of: robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act, which prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce (Count One); using, by brandishing, a firearm in relation to that robbery (Count Two); conspiracy to commit robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act (Count Three); and using a firearm in relation to the conspiracy (Count Four).¹

At the ensuing joint trial, various witnesses testified, including Sims from P & S Coins, who identified Jimmy Strayhorn as one of the robbers. Notably, Sims did not identify Janson Strayhorn. Jimmy Strayhorn's DNA was also found on the plastic zip ties left in P & S Coins.

Additionally, a fingerprint expert testified that a partial fingerprint on the duct tape used to bind Sims's feet belonged to Janson Strayhorn. But the expert testified that he could not determine when that fingerprint had been imprinted on the tape and that such a print could remain on the tape for as long as a year.

Defendants unsuccessfully moved for a judgment of acquittal from the jury verdicts of guilty on all counts; they now appeal to this Court.

II.

With his lead argument, Janson Strayhorn contends that the government failed to adduce sufficient evidence to support his convictions involving the P & S Coins robbery and that the district court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal. We review the denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal de novo. United States v. Hickman, 626 F.3d 756, 762 (4th Cir.2010). Specifically, “[w]e review the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction by determining whether there is substantial evidence in the record, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, to support the conviction.” United States v. Jaensch, 665 F.3d 83, 93 (4th Cir.2011) (quotation marks omitted). “ ‘[S]ubstantial evidence is evidence that a reasonable finder of fact could accept as adequate and sufficient to support a conclusion of a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting United States v. Burgos, 94 F.3d 849, 862 (4th Cir.1996) (en banc)).

“In determining whether the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction, a reviewing court must determine whether ‘ any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Madrigal–Valadez, 561 F.3d 370, 374 (4th Cir.2009) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). As we have emphasized, in sufficiency challenges our focus “is the complete picture that the evidencepresents.” Burgos, 94 F.3d at 863. We thus consider the evidence “in cumulative context” rather than “in a piecemeal fashion[.]” Id.

Defendants were convicted of two counts relating to P & S Coins. The first was robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act. “A Hobbs Act violation requires proof of two elements: (1) the underlying robbery or extortion crime, and (2) an effect on interstate commerce.” United States v. Williams, 342 F.3d 350, 353 (4th Cir.2003). The Hobbs Act defines robbery as “the unlawful taking or obtaining of personal property from the person ... by means of actual or threatened force, or violence, or fear of injury, ... to his person or property ... at the time of the taking or obtaining.” 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(1).

The second P & S Coins-related count was for using, by brandishing, a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). To successfully prosecute that crime, the government “must show two elements: (1) the defendant used or carried a firearm, and (2) the defendant did so during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense or crime of violence.” United States v. Mitchell, 104 F.3d 649, 652 (4th Cir.1997).

We must first determine whether the government presented sufficient evidence to support Janson Strayhorn's convictions on the two P & S Coins-related charges. The centerpiece of the government's case against Janson Strayhorn consisted of a partial fingerprint on an easily movable object, i.e., duct tape. This Court has spoken on the sufficiency of such fingerprint evidence before, and a close review of our precedent is instructive.

In United States v. Corso, we reversed a burglary conviction because we found that the government's evidence was insufficient. 439 F.2d 956, 957 (4th Cir.1971) (per curiam). In that case, the evidence included the defendant's fingerprint on a matchbook cover that had been used by thieves to jam a lock, screwdrivers, and expert testimony that marks found on the door where the matchbook had been used had been made by one of the screwdrivers. Id. Witnesses also testified that the defendant made credit purchases with cash down payments soon after the burglary, and evidence indicated that more than a year before the burglary, the defendant had worked laying tile in a nearby building. Id. We held that the defendant's fingerprint on the matchbook cover was insufficient to support a burglary conviction.

In reaching that conclusion, we noted that “[t]he probative value of an accused's fingerprints upon a readily movable object is highly questionable, unless it can be shown that such prints could have been impressed only during the commission of the crime.” Id. Such timing evidence was lacking. Regarding the rest of the government's evidence, we explained that some was without probative value and that the rest constituted an “accumulation of purely...