Montana v. Cross

829 F.3d 775, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13179, 2016 WL 3910054
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 19, 2016
DocketNo. 14-3313
StatusPublished
Cited by96 cases

This text of 829 F.3d 775 (Montana v. Cross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montana v. Cross, 829 F.3d 775, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13179, 2016 WL 3910054 (7th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

In 1998, Darwin Montana was convicted of aiding and abetting a bank robbery in which an accomplice used a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113 and 924(c). The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois sentenced him to 322 months’ imprisonment: 262 months on the bank robbery charge and 60 additional months on the weapons charge. On direct review, we affirmed his conviction and sentence. United States v. Montana, 199 F.3d 947 (7th Cir. 1999). He thereafter filed several unsuccessful postconviction petitions, including a motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.

In September 2014, Mr. Montana filed a new petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, in whose jurisdiction he currently is incarcerated. Challenging only his § 924(c) conviction for use of a firearm in a crime of violence, he contended that the Supreme Court’s decision in Rosemond v. United States, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 1240, 188 L.Ed.2d 248 (2014), had narrowed the scope of criminal liability for aiding and abetting § 924(c) offenses and that the trial court therefore had erroneously instructed the jury on the elements of the offense in his earlier trial. The district court dismissed the petition on the merits at the screening stage under Rule 4 of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases. Mr. Montana timely appealed.

The road to possible postconviction relief for Mr. Montana is a complicated one, given his prior § 2255 motion and the con[777]*777sequent statutory bar on successive petitions. Rosemond significantly changed the landscape for his offense of conviction and therefore applies retroactively. Nevertheless, Mr. Montana cannot avail himself of the savings clause in 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e) because he could have brought the argument he now wishes to make in this § 2241 petition at an earlier time. Our earlier interpretation of the statute did not preclude Mr. Montana from raising the issue. Accordingly, we must affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

A.

In January 1998, Mr. Montana gave James Dodd a ride to various locations in the near-west suburbs of Chicago. According to Mr. Montana, on the day of the bank robbery, he had car trouble and pulled into a Jewel-Osco parking lot in Stickney, Illinois, to check the engine. Dodd then exited the vehicle and walked to a nearby bank, where he pointed a gun at the teller and demanded money. After the teller handed him more than $2,300, Dodd walked back to Mr. Montana’s car. He got into the car and placed his weapon and the cash on the center console and instructed Mr. Montana to drive him away from the scene. Mr. Montana contends that it was at this moment that he learned of both the robbery and the weapon. He proceeded to follow Dodd’s instruction and speed away. Meanwhile, the teller had triggered a silent alarm alerting law enforcement. She could view Mr. Montana’s car through a window and therefore was able to give the police a description of the vehicle. The police undertook a high-speed chase for several minutes and quickly caught up. Mr. Montana lost control of the vehicle, and the officers apprehended both men.

B.

1.

Mr. Montana and Dodd were charged with (1) conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, (2) bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113, and (3) use of a firearm during a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).

Prior to trial, Dodd pleaded guilty and made a proffer to law enforcement in which he stated that he had told Mr. Montana of his intent to rob a bank and that the two had scouted locations in the days leading up to the robbery. At Mr. Montana’s trial, however, Dodd’s testimony did not reflect his proffer. Instead, he testified that Mr. Montana had no prior knowledge of his intent to rob the bank. His prior statement to law enforcement was used to impeach his testimony. The jury also heard from a federal marshal who overheard Dodd, while in custody, demanding a bribe of $10,000 from Mr. Montana’s family, and also heard a stipulation from defense counsel that Dodd had passed a note to Mr. Montana’s mother with the same demand in exchange for favorable testimony. Mr. Montana did not testify in his own defense.

At the close of the evidence, the court instructed the jury. On the bank robbery charge, the court told the jury that it should find Mr. Montana guilty if it concluded that Dodd had robbed the bank and that there was a conspiracy between the two, or that, in the absence of conspiracy, Mr. Montana had aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, or procured the commission of the robbery. On the firearms charge, the court instructed the jury as follows:

[T]he defendant is charged [with] knowingly using and ... ear[ry]ing a firearm during and [in] relation to a crime of violence. To sustain that charge the government has to prove each of [the fol[778]*778lowing] propositions beyond a reasonable doubt.
The first one is that the defendant is guilty of the charge of bank robbery in Cou[n]t 2 in either or both of the ways that I have just covered.
And the second one is that James Dodd knowingly used or carried a handgun during and in relation to the bank robbery.[1]

On two separate occasions during the deliberations, the jury sent the judge a note indicating that it believed it was deadlocked, but after a supplemental instruction to continue deliberations, see United States v. Silvern, 484 F.2d 879, 883 (7th Cir. 1973) (en banc), it returned a verdict of guilty as to both the bank robbery and the firearms offense and not guilty as to the conspiracy count. The district court sentenced Mr. Montana to 262 months’ imprisonment on the bank robbery and 60 consecutive months on the § 924(c) offense.

Mr. Montana thereafter appealed his conviction. He contended principally that his trial counsel was ineffective because counsel unwittingly had passed the note demanding a bribe from Dodd to Mr. Mon--tana’s mother and, further, because he had called Dodd as a witness. Mr. Montana also challenged the admission of the marshal’s statement concerning’ Dodd’s request for a bribe. We affirmed, rejecting each of his arguments and specifically concluding that, although Dodd proved to be an “uncontrollable” witness, it was not ineffective assistance to have called him. Montana, 199 F.3d at 949-50.

2.

In 2001, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
829 F.3d 775, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13179, 2016 WL 3910054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montana-v-cross-ca7-2016.