US v. Moody

• Decision Date: 24 April 1991
• Docket Number: Crim. A. No. 90-41-MAC.
• Citation: 763 F. Supp. 589
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Walter Leroy MOODY, Jr.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

763 F. Supp. 589

UNITED STATES of America v. Walter Leroy MOODY, Jr.

Crim. A. No. 90-41-MAC.

United States District Court, M.D. Georgia, Macon Division.

April 24, 1991.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Louis J. Freeh, Sp. Prosecutor, Samuel A. Wilson, Asst. U.S. Atty., U.S. Attorney's Office, Macon, Ga., for plaintiff.

Edward D. Tolley, Athens, Ga., for defendant.

ORDER

ALAIMO, District Judge, sitting by designation.

On December 14, 1990, a jury found Walter Leroy Moody guilty of one count of conspiracy and multiple counts of subornation of perjury, obstruction of a criminal investigation, obstruction of justice, tampering with a witness and bribery. This case is presently before the Court on Moody's motion for a new trial. Moody alleges five grounds of error. First, he contends there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction. Second, he argues that the Court erred in admitting certain documents which he claims were illegally seized. Third, he claims that the Court improperly allowed Tommy C. Mann, an attorney who represented Moody in 1972, to testify. Fourth, he asserts that the Court erred in admitting evidence of extrinsic acts pursuant to Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Finally, Moody contends the Court erred in granting his request to withhold a jury instruction on insanity. As discussed below, the Court finds that each ground is without merit. Accordingly, Moody's motion for a new trial must be denied.

BACKGROUND FACTS

The first link in the chain of events surrounding Moody's conviction was forged nearly 20 years ago. In 1972, Moody was convicted of possessing a pipe bomb which exploded and seriously injured his ex-wife, Hazel Moody, on May 7, 1972. Moody's principal defense at his 1972 trial was that a man he called "Gene Wallace" had secretly planted the bomb in Moody's Macon home. The Gene Wallace defense was unsuccessful, and upon conviction Moody served three years in prison for possession of the pipe bomb. Moody's improper efforts to reverse his 1972 conviction form the backbone of the present perjury, obstruction, bribery, tampering and conspiracy crimes.

In late 1985, Moody met Julie Linn West, a 34-year-old single parent who has been confined to a wheelchair since the age of 14. At the time, West was plagued with financial problems. Moody offered to pay West $100.00 a month if she would give perjured testimony about the 1972 pipe bomb explosion. West agreed. Over the course of the next few years, Moody concocted and coached West to memorize the following story:

In May of 1972, West and her mother, Joanne Ekstrom, traveled to Atlanta from their Wisconsin home. While staying at a motel, West, who was a teenager at the time and already paralyzed from the waist down, met a man named Gene Wallace. Wallace asked West for a date and, after pleading with her mother, West was allowed to go. Wallace drove to Macon. He proceeded to a house, retrieved a package from his car, and placed the package inside the house. While driving away, he exclaimed, "I forgot, he doesn't have a phone," and doubled back to the house. As they pulled in front of the house, emergency vehicles were already lining the street, and it looked as though some sort of explosion or fire had occurred inside the house.

When West questioned Wallace about the package, he beat her. He took her back to her motel, and she never saw him again. However, the memories of that day haunted her. She had frightful dreams for years. Finally (after 14 years), she could stand it no longer. West, who lived in Atlanta in 1986, decided to go to the Macon library to discover whether anyone had been injured in the explosion. Aided by helpful librarians, West and her mother learned of the fate of Hazel Moody, and eventually got in touch with Walter Moody, who at last had someone to corroborate his "Gene Wallace defense."

Moody went to great lengths to ensure West would appear credible when relating her story. Aside from helping her memorize the details, he instructed West to go to the Macon Library and conspicuously ask for assistance in using the microfilm equipment. He also instructed West to pretend to have lost a pen bearing her initials. West was to ask the librarians about the pen, and make sure the librarians were apprised of West's initials. Apparently, West's mother was not available to go to Macon, so Susan Moody, Walter's wife, donned a wig to impersonate West's mother and drove West to the library.

Armed with West's affidavit describing the details of her fictional date with Gene Wallace, Moody filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. In his petition, Moody asked the Court to vacate, nullify and reverse his 1972 conviction based on West's affidavit. In January 1988, Moody offered to pay Ekstrom if she would confirm her daughter's story. Ekstrom agreed, and Moody began coaching her as well.

On February 1, 1988, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia held a hearing on Moody's petition. West testified as she had been instructed. Ekstrom, too, testified, but she had trouble remembering her lines. To support their claims about the library trip, Moody called the helpful Macon librarian to the stand, who might not have remembered every patron but certainly remembered the paraplegic who left her personalized pen behind. Although Moody still paid Ekstrom (on the Courthouse steps) for her testimony, he was angered by her poor performance and told her that she "lost the case for him." Moody was apparently right, for his petition was denied on February 8, 1988. Moody had exhausted the appeals process by early 1990.

In February of 1990, Moody became aware that federal investigators and a federal grand jury were investigating his connection with West and Ekstrom. Moody repeatedly instructed West and Ekstrom never to admit that they had lied. He delivered detailed instructions on how to conceal their perjurious acts and then burned the instructions. When the women appeared to waiver in their support for Moody, he threatened that the "Miami Mafia" might murder them if they allowed the true facts to come to light.

Unbeknownst to Moody, West eventually agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. A hidden video camera in West's apartment captured the sights and sounds of Moody coaching her on the finer points of obstructing the criminal investigation.

At trial, West testified that the whole Gene Wallace story was fabricated by Moody, who coached her and paid her for her performance. Ekstrom testified to the same effect. To eradicate any doubt of guilt created by the fact that its star witnesses were admitted perjurers, the Government introduced the incriminating video and audio tapes. Furthermore, the Government showed that the Gene Wallace story could not have been true because medical records established that West spent the month of May 1972 in a Wisconsin hospital.

I. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

Moody first contends that there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions. The decision to grant or deny a new trial motion based on the weight of the evidence rests in the sound discretion of the trial judge. However, "motions for new trials based on weight of the evidence are not favored. Courts are to grant them sparingly and with caution, doing so only in those really exceptional cases." United States v. Martinez, 763 F.2d 1297, 1313 (11th Cir.1985). The Court should not reconsider the evidence and set aside a jury verdict simply because it feels some other result would be more appropriate. Id. at 1312-13. Rather, "the evidence must preponderate heavily against the verdict, such that it would be a miscarriage of justice to let the verdict stand." Id. at 1313; accord United States v. Fernandez, 905 F.2d 350, 352 (11th Cir.1990).

In the present case, the evidence strongly supports the jury verdict. As the above recitation of the evidentiary facts shows, there was an overwhelming array of documentary, testimonial and video evidence to support a guilty verdict on all thirteen counts. The Court will not, therefore, disturb the jury verdict.

II. SEARCH AND SEIZURE

Prior to trial, defendant moved to suppress certain evidence seized pursuant to court-authorized search warrants issued on February 8, July 10 and August 17, 1990. The Court adopted the recommendation of Magistrate Claude W. Hicks of the Middle District of Georgia to deny defendant's motion to suppress. See Order of December 10, 1990. Defendant continues to argue that the searches and seizures were illegal and now claims that this alleged illegality mandates a new trial. As discussed below, all search warrants were valid and executed properly. Accordingly, defendant's motion for a new trial on this ground must be denied.

A. Factual Setting

In February of 1990, Moody became the subject of an extensive investigation into the mail bomb murders of Judge Robert S. Vance of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Savannah, Georgia, attorney Robert E. Robinson. Moody was also a suspect in connection with the attempted bombings of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals building in Atlanta, Georgia, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ("NAACP") building in Jacksonville, Florida.

While searching for items which would link Moody to those bombing incidents, federal agents saw, in plain view, evidence which supported Moody's illegal involvement in the coram nobis proceeding. The agents obtained additional warrants to seize the evidence relating to the coram nobis petition. Moody alleges that the searches and seizures were illegal because (1) there was insufficient probable cause to support the issuance of the warrants; (2) the warrants lacked particularity; and (3) the warrants were executed in an overly broad manner.¹

B. February 8 Warrants

United States Magistrate John E. Dougherty of the Northern District of Georgia issued...