USA. v. Mathis
| Decision Date | 30 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | N,No. 99-3012,No. 99-3014,99-3012,99-3014 |
| Parties | (D.C. Cir. 2000) United States of America, Appellee v. Eddie J. Mathis, Appellant United States of America, Appellee v. Maurice T. Lee, Appellant United States of America, Appellee v. Walter Mathis, Appellant o. 99-3013, |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeals from the United States District Courtfor the District of Columbia(No. 97cr00334-01)(No. 97cr00334-02)(No. 97cr00334-04)
David Schertler argued the cause for appellant Eddie J. Mathis. Barry Coburn, appointed by the court, was on brief.
Adam H. Kurland, appointed by the court, argued the cause for appellant Maurice T. Lee.
Mary M. Petras, appointed by the court, argued the cause for appellant Walter Mathis.
Barbara J. Valliere, Assistant United States Attorney, argued the cause for the appellee. Wilma A. Lewis, United States Attorney, and John R. Fisher, William M. Blier and Valinda Jones, Assistant United States Attorneys were on brief.
Before: Ginsburg, Henderson and Rogers, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge Henderson.
Appellants Eddie Mathis, Walter Mathis and Maurice Lee were convicted on a single count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute heroin and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. 846. The appellants challenge their convictions, claiming that the government's evidence at trial proved multiple conspiracies and that the variance between the single conspiracy charge on which they were indicted and the evidence against them substantially prejudiced them. Additionally, Walter Mathis claims that the district court erroneously admitted other crimes evidence at trial and committed two sentencing errors. Appellants Eddie Mathis and Lee also challenge the district court's application of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (Guidelines) in sentencing them. Finally, Lee claims that the district court erroneously admitted his handgun and certain legal documents into evidence. We conclude that while the government's conspiracy evidence varied from the conspiracy charged, the variance did not substantially prejudice the appellants. We affirm the district court in all other respects except for its application of section 4A1.1(d) of the Guidelines in sentencing Walter Mathis. Accordingly, we affirm all three appellants' convictions and Eddie Mathis's and Lee's sentences but vacate Walter Mathis's sentence and remand to the district court to resentence him in accordance with this opinion.
Viewed most favorably to the government, see United States v. Thomas, 114 F.3d 228, 244 (D.C. Cir. 1997), the evidence showed that in about May 1996 Eddie Mathis, with his nephew Lee's assistance, reestablished a preexisting drug distribution network. Eddie Mathis obtained cocaine and heroin from different suppliers and sold it to Eugene Matthews, who then resold it on the streets of the District of Columbia (District). On September 18, 1996 Eddie Mathis's brother, Walter Mathis, finished his parole term and "between September and October" of 1996 joined the conspiracy by delivering an ounce of heroin to Matthews. Trial Tr. 4/30/98 at 128. During this time, agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were investigating another cocaine dealer, Robert Andrews (Eddie Mathis's father-in-law).By wiretapping Andrews's telephones, DEA agents learned that Andrews and Eddie Mathis shared the same New York drug supplier, Miguel Franklin Castro. Andrews had introduced Eddie Mathis to Castro's initial courier, Elias Rodriguez, to whom Eddie Mathis expressed an interest "in dealing with heroin." Trial Tr. 5/6/98 (a.m.) at 56. Andrews and Eddie Mathis pooled their money to buy enough cocaine and heroin from Castro (through Rodriguez) to make it "worth it for [Rodriguez] to come" to the District. Trial Tr. 5/6/98 (p.m.) at 12. Castro's new courier, Vladimir Perez, at first delivered the drugs to Andrews's house and also delivered cocaine and heroin to Harold Corbett, another drug dealer operating in the District. Soon Eddie Mathis himself ordered heroin from Castro.
On March 8, 1997 DEA agents, acting undercover, ordered 250 grams of heroin from Andrews. After Perez delivered the heroin, the police arrested both Andrews and Perez.They pleaded guilty and Perez identified Castro, Rodriguez and Eddie Mathis as coconspirators. On July 9, 1997 DEA agents arrested Castro as he was preparing to sell Eddie Mathis 300 grams of heroin. Castro pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and cooperated with the DEA by making several monitored telephone calls to Eddie Mathis to arrange a drug deal. Castro arranged a heroin sale to Eddie Mathis.Eddie Mathis dispatched Lee to purchase the heroin and a DEA agent arrested Lee on August 20, 1997. DEA agents were unable to arrest Eddie Mathis before he went into hiding but they subsequently filed a complaint against him and obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Meanwhile, in July 1997 Eddie Mathis contacted Rodney Patterson and Terry Kelton, who were then inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, about arranging a drug transaction. Patterson and Kelton introduced Eddie Mathis to Peter Coley, a fellow inmate. Unbeknownst to Eddie Mathis, Coley had agreed to assist DEA agents in setting up a drug sale to Eddie Mathis. Through monitored telephone calls, Coley spoke to Eddie and Walter Mathis several times. With the help of DEA agent Samuel Bates, Coley arranged a drug transaction at the Landover Mall in Landover, Maryland. On November 5, 1997 Bates and an undercover Baltimore City Police detective, carrying a five kilogram package of sham cocaine, met Walter Mathis and Dee Smith at the Landover Mall. Walter Mathis then dispatched Smith, who drove a gold and tan Geo vehicle, to pick up Eddie Mathis. Eddie Mathis arrived at the Mall fifteen minutes later. Smith then left the Mall in his Geo.Bates showed Eddie Mathis the cocaine, who replied "Okay," and DEA agents then arrested both Eddie and Walter Mathis. Trial Tr. 5/12/98 at 148. Less than an hour later DEA agents spotted Smith's gold and tan Geo parked in front of the Glenarden Apartments adjacent to the Landover Mall.Inside an apartment the officers found and searched Smith, recovering a semiautomatic handgun magazine. In the glove compartment of the Geo the officers recovered Smith's loaded semiautomatic handgun. A search of Smith's apartment uncovered copies of court documents related to Lee which Lee had mailed to a Maryland post office box and letters from Kelton to Smith regarding Lee's court proceedings.
The government secured a six-count indictment against Eddie Mathis, Walter Mathis, Lee and Rodriguez, charging each of them with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute heroin and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. Additionally, Eddie Mathis was charged individually with two counts of possession of heroin with intent to distribute and one count of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) & (b)(1)(B)(i); he and Lee were jointly charged with one count of possession of heroin with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) & (b)(1)(B)(i). Eddie Mathis was also charged with one count of conspiracy to launder money in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) & (b)(1)(B)(ii). On May 22, 1998 a jury found Eddie and Walter Mathis and Lee guilty of conspiracy.1 After the district court sentenced the appellants, they filed their timely appeals.
The indictment charged Eddie and Walter Mathis and Lee with participating in a single conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and heroin from "at least in or about May 1996 to on or about November 5, 1997." Indictment at 1.The appellants concede that the evidence establishes a conspiracy among themselves, Castro, Rodriguez, Perez and Matthews (the Mathis-Castro conspiracy) but contend it ended with Lee's arrest on August 20, 1997,2 after which date all participants except Eddie and Walter Mathis were under arrest. They contend that evidence of the transaction culminating in the November 5 reverse sting involving Coley and the Mathises constituted a separate conspiracy (the MathisColey conspiracy) which materially varied from the conspiracy on which they were indicted. In addition, Eddie Mathis contends that evidence of Castro's drug deliveries to Andrews involved a separate conspiracy (the Andrews-Castro conspiracy) from the Mathis-Castro conspiracy.
In order to establish that a variance between the indictment and the evidence requires a reversal of their convictions, the appellants must demonstrate
(1) that the evidence at trial established the existence of multiple conspiracies, rather than the one conspiracy alleged in the indictment, and
(2) that because of the multiplicity of defendants and conspiracies, the jury was substantially likely to transfer evidence from one conspiracy to a defendant involved in another.
United States v. Gaviria, 116 F.3d 1498, 1516 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (quotation omitted). To determine whether the evidence supports a single conspiracy as opposed to multiple conspiracies, the court, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, see Thomas, 114 F.3d at 244, looks at "whether the defendants shared a common goal, any interdependence among the participants, and any overlap among the participants in the allegedly separate conspiracies." Gaviria, 116 F.3d at 1533 (citation omitted). The participants shared a common goal to distribute drugs for profit in the District. Further more, Eddie and Walter Mathis's involvement with participants Castro, Andrews and Coley established coconspirator overlap. See id. at 1533 (); United States v....
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