Bernard Edmond v. United States

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided August 22, 2022·No. 20-1929·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 22a0346n.06

No. 20-1929

FILED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Aug 22, 2022 FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk

)

BERNARD THOMAS EDMOND, )

Petitioner - Appellant, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT v. ) COURT FOR THE EASTERN ) DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, )

Respondent - Appellee. ) OPINION )

Before: GIBBONS, WHITE, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges.

HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Petitioner-Appellant Bernard Edmond appeals the denial of his motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The district court granted a certificate of appealability on the issue whether Edmond’s carjacking offenses, presented to the jury under a coconspirator theory of liability, constitute “crimes of violence” under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3)(A). The government filed a motion to vacate the certificate of appealability as improvidently granted. Because Edmond’s carjacking offenses are crimes of violence under § 924(c)(3)(A), we AFFIRM the denial of Edmond’s § 2255 motion, and DENY AS MOOT the government’s motion to vacate the certificate of appealability.

I.

From 2010 to 2011, Edmond’s associates engaged in a carjacking scheme to obtain luxury vehicles. United States v. Edmond, 815 F.3d 1032, 1038 (6th Cir. 2016), vacated on other grounds, 137 S. Ct. 1577 (2017). Usually wielding guns, they threatened valet employees and car owners,

took the keys to the luxury vehicles, and drove the vehicles away. Id. Intermediaries then delivered the cars to Edmond, who altered the vehicle identification numbers, paid others to falsify title documents, and sold or traded the vehicles. Id. at 1038, 1040. There was evidence that, although Edmond neither ordered nor took part in the carjackings, he knew that some of the vehicles were obtained through violent means. Id. at 1041. Testimony also showed that Edmond sought, and paid more for, vehicles with keys. Id. at 1040.

A federal grand jury indicted Edmond and others on, as relevant here, one count of conspiracy to violate federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 371; three counts of carjacking and causing carjacking under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2119(1) & 2; one count of attempted carjacking and causing attempted carjacking under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2119(1) & 2;1 and four counts of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence2 under 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c) & 2.3

1 The third superseding indictment titled the carjacking counts as “[c]arjacking [and] [c]ausing [c]arjacking”

under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2119(1) & 2. R. 109, PID 442–44. The indictment titled the attempted-carjacking count as “[a]ttempted [c]arjacking [and] [c]ausing [a]ttempted [c]arjacking.” Id. at PID 447. The carjacking counts alleged that Edmond “caused and induced [other defendants] to take a motor vehicle from [another person] with the intent to cause serious bodily harm and death,” and the attempted-carjacking count alleged that Edmond “caused and induced [another defendant] to attempt to take a motor vehicle from [another person] with the intent to cause serious bodily harm and death.” Id. at PID 443–44, 447; see also id. at PID 442. The jury instructions described the carjacking charges as “carjacking or causing and aiding carjacking,” and the attempted-carjacking charge as “attempted carjacking.” R. 181, PID 3320, 3328. The verdict form titled the carjacking charges against Edmond as “[c]ausing carjacking,” and the attempted-carjacking charge as “[c]ausing attempted carjacking.” R. 137, PID 733–34. The carjacking statute does not reference “causing” carjacking, see 18 U.S.C. § 2119, but 18 U.S.C. § 2 states that “[w]hoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal,” and “[w]hoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal.”

2 The third superseding indictment titled the § 924(c) counts as “[u]sing and [c]arrying a [f]irearm [d]uring and in [r]elation to a [c]rime of [v]iolence.” R. 109, PID 442–44, 447. Those counts alleged that Edmond “caused and induced [other defendants] to intentionally use and carry a firearm during and in relation to the commission of a crime of violence.” Id. at 443–44, 447; see also id. at PID 442. The jury instructions described the § 924(c) counts as “using or causing or aiding the use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.” R. 181, PID 3323. The verdict form titled three of the § 924(c) charges against Edmond as “[c]ausing use or carrying of a firearm during and in relation to carjacking,” and the other § 924(c) charge as “[c]ausing use or carrying of a firearm during and in relation to attempted carjacking.” R. 137, PID 733–34.

3 Edmond was also indicted on two counts of causing interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2312 & 2; one count of falsification and removal of motor vehicle identification numbers under 18 U.S.C. § 511; three counts of trafficking in motor vehicles with falsified, altered, or removed identification numbers under 18 U.S.C. § 2321; and one count of operating a chop shop under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2322(a)(1) and (b). Count 16—causing

The case went to trial. The government did not suggest that Edmond had committed the carjackings directly; rather, its theory was that, with knowledge of the carjackings, Edmond sought and acquired the vehicles, altered their identifying information, and sold or traded them.

The district court instructed the jury that it could convict Edmond of the carjacking and § 924(c) charges under a coconspirator, or Pinkerton,4 theory of liability—that is, under the rule that “all members of a conspiracy are responsible for acts committed by other members, so long as those acts are committed to help advance the conspiracy[,] occurred after a defendant joined the conspiracy, and are [within the] reasonably foreseeable scope of the agreement.” R. 181, PID 3318. The district court also provided an aiding-and-abetting instruction.

The jury convicted Edmond on all the relevant charges except Count 13—using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence (attempted carjacking) on March 12, 2011. Edmond was sentenced to a total of 900 months, or 75 years. This court affirmed Edmond’s conviction, holding that there was sufficient evidence to support Edmond’s carjacking and § 924(c) convictions under a Pinkerton theory of liability. See Edmond, 815 F.3d at 1040–41. Edmond argued on direct appeal that “the jury instructions offered two paths to conviction: Pinkerton co-conspirator liability or aiding and abetting liability,” and that the district court “did not correctly state the advance-knowledge requirement for aiding and abetting.” Id. at 1041. We reasoned that “[a]ny such mistake would not alter the conviction” because “[g]iven the abundant evidence that would permit the jury to convict on the Pinkerton co-conspirator theory, any error in the aiding and abetting instructions did not prejudice him and thus did not affect his substantial rights” under plain-error review. Id. We added that “several circuits have addressed this

interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle between November 17, 2010, and December 1, 2010—was dismissed at trial.

4

See Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 646–48 (1946).

situation—where the judge gave a correct Pinkerton instruction and a faulty aiding and abetting instruction—and each one upheld the convictions so long as the Pinkerton theory supported them.” Id. (collecting cases).

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