Young v. United States
| Decision Date | 10 December 2019 |
| Docket Number | Criminal No. ELH-13-0151 (#25) |
| Parties | JOSEPH YOUNG, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
Related Civil No.: ELH-19-2174
This Memorandum Opinion resolves a motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, filed in July 2019 by Joseph Young, the self-represented Petitioner. ECF 2159 (the "Petition"). The government opposes the Petition. ECF 2164. Young has replied. ECF 2166.
No hearing is necessary to resolve the Petition. For the reasons that follow, I shall deny the Petition.
At the relevant time, Young was a member of a gang known as the Black Guerilla Family ("BGF"). In 2013, Young was one of 44 defendants indicted on charges that included racketeering conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d), under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. He was also charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and money laundering conspiracy, under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h).
The criminal charges were rooted in a pervasive criminal enterprise at the Baltimore City Detention Center ("BCDC"), a facility for pretrial detainees. The defendants generally consisted of two groups: BGF members who were inmates at BCDC, and corrupt correctional officers who worked at BCDC and helped to facilitate the enterprise. The Second Superseding Indictment (ECF 869), which was the operative charging instrument, alleged that the racketeering enterprise spanned the period from 2007 to November 2013. Id. ¶ 11 at 6.1
Eight of the defendants, including Young, proceeded to a jury trial at which Judge J. Frederick Motz presided.2 The trial began on November 17, 2014. On February 5, 2015, Young was convicted on all charges. Four other defendants were also convicted. ECF 1425; ECF 1426. Two of the five defendants who were found guilty were BGF gang members who had been inmates at BCDC. The other three were correctional officers who worked at BCDC.
On June 24, 2015, Judge Motz sentenced Young to a total term of imprisonment of fifteen years. See ECF 1709 (Judgment, docketed 6/30/15). On appeal to the Fourth Circuit, the court affirmed all of the convictions but vacated Young's sentence and remanded for resentencing. ECF 1992; see United States v. Carrington, et al., 700 F. App'x 224 (4th Cir. 2017). I presided at the resentencing.3 In connection with the resentencing, I held several hearings and issued a lengthy Memorandum Opinion. See ECF 2085.
On March 28, 2018, I sentenced Young to a guidelines sentence of 170 months' imprisonment. See ECF 2089; ECF 2091 (Amended Judgment of 3/29/18). That sentence was affirmed by the Fourth Circuit in a per curiam opinion issued on January 9, 2019. ECF 2144.
On February 5, 2015, a jury convicted Young of racketeering conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d); conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846; and money laundering conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). The jury also convicted four codefendants of racketeering conspiracy and related offenses.
As noted, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the convictions in an unpublished opinion. See United States v. Carrington, 700 F. App'x 224 (4th Cir. 2017). In its opinion, the Fourth Circuit said, id. at 225-26 (emphasis added):
For a number of years, the Black Guerilla Family ("BGF"), a prison and street gang, ran a criminal enterprise inside the Baltimore City Detention Center. With the help of complicit correctional officers and other Detention Center employees, BGF inmates were able to smuggle narcotics, cell phones, and other contraband into the facility, and to use their dominant position to control other inmates and to support gang members on the outside . . . From 2007 through 2013, the Baltimore City Detention Center was home to a sprawling criminal enterprise led by the [BGF]. BGF members, correctional officers, and other jail employees all played central roles in the enterprise. BGF members bribed correctional officers to smuggle into the facility contraband supplied by gang members on the outside, including drugs, tobacco, and cell phones . . . And BGF used its position within the Detention Center to assist gang members outside the jail, financially supporting BGF with profits from narcotics trafficking and coordinating outside criminal activity. In exchange for their cooperation in this extensive BGF enterprise, Detention Facility employees were paid with "Green Dot MoneyPak" cards, prepaid debit cards available at retail stores . . . Joseph Young and Russell Carrington were inmates and members of BGF: Young, a high -ranking BGF member, sold controlled substances in the jail . . . Witnesses also testified to the participation of Carrington and Young as BGF members . . . .
Although the Fourth Circuit affirmed Young's convictions, it vacated his sentence. In its view, the original sentencing court failed to resolve disputed factual matters that were pertinent to the calculation of Young's advisory sentencing guidelines range. Id. at 234.
On remand, counsel for both sides filed numerous motions, exhibits, and memoranda. See Docket, beginning at ECF 2006. Between November 28, 2017 and March 28, 2018, I conducted several hearings. See ECF 2019; ECF 2021; ECF 2036; ECF 2041; ECF 2046; ECF 2078; ECF 2089. And, on March 22, 2018, I issued a forty-five page Memorandum Opinion (ECF 2085), in which I reviewed, inter alia, the evidence as to the drug quantity foreseeable to Young. Id. at 12-35. I concluded, id. at 35:
Based on the evidence as to Young's personal involvement with drug trafficking during his incarceration; Young's stature in BGF, as a Bushman who outranked White and a person with considerable authority, particularly as to the floor of BCDC where he was detained; BGF's extensive drug trafficking organization at BCDC, of which Young was a part; and the many participants in the conspiracy, I am satisfied that the smuggling of Percocet pills into BCDC was within the scope of the jointly undertaken criminal enterprise and in furtherance of it. Moreover, as to Young, the criteria of U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B)(i)-(iii) have been met with respect to a drug quantity of at least Level 20, which only requires 300 Percocet pills of 30 milligrams each, or 600 Percocets of 15 milligrams each. Put another way, this drug quantity was clearly foreseeable to Young.
In addition, I found that Young was subject to certain upward adjustments under the United States Sentencing Guidelines ("U.S.S.G."), including a two-level upward adjustment based on evidence that he used violence, made a credible threat to use violence, or directed the use of violence, and a two-level increase as to the racketeering count, under U.S.S.G. § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B). Id. at 35-38. Further, I found that Young was subject to a three-level upward adjustment based on his role in the offense, although the Presentence Report (ECF 1643, "PSR") awarded a four-level upward adjustment. See ECF 1643, ¶ 29. Therefore, I found that Young had a final offense levelof 31. ECF 2085 at 41-43. And, although the PSR (ECF 1643) concluded that Young had a criminal history category of V (id. ¶ 44), I determined that his criminal history category was a IV. ECF 2085 at 43-44.
As noted, at the resentencing on March 28, 2018, I sentenced Young to concurrent terms of imprisonment of 170 months. That sentence was below the government's recommendation of 188 months and below the original sentence of 180 months. An amended judgment was entered on March 29, 2018. ECF 2091.
Young filed a notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit on April 4, 2018. ECF 2095. On January 9, 2019, in per curiam decision, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the sentence. ECF 2144. The mandate issued on January 31, 2019. ECF 2147.
Section 2255(a) of Title 28 of the United States Code provides relief to a prisoner in federal custody only on specific grounds: that the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States; that the court was without jurisdiction to impose such a sentence; that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law; or that the sentence is otherwise subject to collateral attack.
Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255(b), the court must hold a hearing "[u]nless the motion and the files and records conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief. . . ." See, e.g., United States v. White, 366 F.3d 291, 302 (4th Cir. 2004). Courts have determined that a hearing is not necessary where "the motion . . . fail[s] to allege sufficient facts or circumstances upon which the elements of constitutionally deficient performance might properly be found [or] where the defendant has failed to present any affidavits or other evidentiary support for the nakedassertions contained in his motion." United States v. Taylor, 139 F.3d 924, 933 (D.C. Cir. 1998) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); accord United States v. McGill, 11 F.3d 223, 225-26 (1st Cir. 1993). On the other hand, a hearing is generally "required when a movant presents a colorable Sixth Amendment claim showing disputed material facts and a credibility determination is necessary to resolve this issue." United States v. Robertson, 219 Fed. App'x 286, 286 (4th Cir. 2007); see United States v. Ray, 547 Fed. App'x 343, 345 (4th Cir. 2013).
In reviewing the Motion, the Court is mindful that a self-represented litigant is generally "held to a 'less stringent standard' than is a lawyer, and the Court must liberally construe his claims, no matter how 'inartfully' pled." Morrison v. United States, RDB-12-3607, 2014 WL 979201, at *2 (D. Md. Mar. 12, 2014) (internal citations omitted); see also Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94 (2007); Haines v. Ker...
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