United States v. Agnes Holbrook

368 F.3d 415, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9893, 2004 WL 1118585
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedMay 20, 2004
Docket02-4844
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 368 F.3d 415 (United States v. Agnes Holbrook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Agnes Holbrook, 368 F.3d 415, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9893, 2004 WL 1118585 (4th Cir. 2004).

Opinions

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Judge DUNCAN joined. Judge KING wrote a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

On March 24, 2001, Agnes Holbrook shot to death her estranged husband, Larry Lee Holbrook. Shortly thereafter, a grand jury sitting in the Western District of Virginia charged Holbrook in a two-count indictment with violating 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(g)(9) (West 2000) (Count One) and 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(a)(6) (West 2000) (Count Two) in connection with the shooting. After a jury had been empaneled and evidence presented as to both counts, Holbrook decided to enter into a plea agreement with the Government, under which she agreed to plead guilty as to Count One in exchange for a number of promises from the Government, including its promise to dismiss Count Two. After Holbrook breached the plea agreement by attempting to withdraw her guilty plea, the Government elected to forego its promise to dismiss Count Two and to oppose any attempt by Holbrook to withdraw her guilty plea as to Count One. The district court found this remedy permissible under the plea agreement, and the case proceeded to trial on Count Two, after which a second, jury found Holbrook guilty. On appeal, Holbrook argues that the Government’s election of remedies violates due process because, Holbrook asserts, she was held to her end of the bargain, while the Government was free not to perform its end of the bargain. Holbrook also argues that the second jury trial on Count Two violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution, and that the district court erred at sentencing in finding that she had acted with malice in killing her husband. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

A.

The facts are taken from Holbrook’s Presentence Investigation Report (PSR), which the district court adopted as its factual findings at sentencing, as well as evidence adduced at trial and at sentencing. We accept these findings as true unless we find them to be clearly erroneous. United States v. Stockton, 349 F.3d 755, 764 (4th Cir.2003).

The charges against Holbrook in this case arise out of the March 24, 2001, shoot[417]*417ing death of her husband, Larry. In the months prior to March 2001, Holbrook and Larry had separated and had become embroiled in a bitter divorce. Both had filed motions for protective orders against each other on numerous occasions, Larry had started a relationship with another woman, Stephanie Gibson, and he had told several individuals that he was removing Holbrook as a beneficiary of his government benefits and life insurance policies. On February 19, 2001, Holbrook purchased a .22 caliber pistol from a federally licensed firearms dealer in Pennington Gap, Virginia. In filling out the required screening paperwork, Holbrook indicated that she never had been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, an offense that disqualifies persons from possessing firearms, see 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(g)(9). In fact, she previously had been convicted of assaulting her former husband, Clay Phillips, with a knife. Because Holbrook committed this prior offense when her name was Agnes Bernice Phillips, the record check performed by the dealer did not reveal the conviction, and the dealer sold her the firearm. After test-firing the pistol several days after purchasing it, Holbrook determined that the gun was in need of repairs and had a friend return it to the dealer.

A few weeks later, on March 5, 2001, Holbrook lost her job. Her employer, the Department of Social Services for Lee County, Virginia, forced her to resign after discovering that she had lied on her job application about her criminal history. Holbrook believed that her employer had made this discovery as the result of a tip from Larry.

That same day, Holbrook set out to acquire a second firearm. Almost immediately after resigning from work, Holbrook called a friend, Jason Gibson (the estranged husband of Larry Holbrook’s paramour, Stephanie Gibson), to inquire about obtaining a firearm. Gibson eventually took Holbrook to the residence of his cousin, Steve Wuderman, who sold Hol-brook a .357 magnum handgun. Wuder-man was not a licensed firearms dealer. Holbrook test-fired the weapon, made payment arrangements, and left the Wuder-. man residence with Gibson.

On March 24, 2001, Holbrook used the .357 magnum to shoot and kill Larry in a dispute in the bedroom of her home. The precise details of the shooting remain somewhat a mystery because Holbrook was the only witness to the shooting, and, as explained below, her version of events has changed significantly over time. Some facts about the events of that date, however, are undisputed. First, record evidence indicates that on the date of the shooting, Larry had been seen in a light-hearted mood, and he had told someone that he was going to pick up his kids to go play ball. Second, although it is unclear from the evidence why Larry drove to Hol-brook’s residence on March 24, the evidence does show that Larry had a firearm in his car when he arriyed at the Holbrook residence and that he left that firearm in the car when he went inside. Finally, evidence in the record shows that Hol-brook did not call the police until shortly after 6:00 pm, although neighbors testified that they heard a single gun shot between 4:00 pm and 4:45 pm.

Initially, Holbrook told investigators that Larry had committed suicide in front of her. The investigators’ examination of the forensic evidence, however, led them to question Holbrook’s truthfulness. For example, their investigation found that Larry Holbrook had no gun-powder residue on his hands and his fingerprints were not found on the weapon; Larry’s body had been moved at least three times after [418]*418death; and evidence indicated that the murder weapon had been wiped clean.

Later, at her first trial, and only after being confronted with the forensic evidence described above, as well as evidence linking the murder weapon to her, Hol-brook admitted that she had shot Larry. According to Holbrook’s trial version of events, Holbrook exited the bathroom of her home, and saw Larry standing in the hallway with her .357 magnum, which, Hol-brook explained, Larry must have found in its hiding place behind her dresser mirror. Larry then threatened to kill her and a stand-off ensued. The couple ended up in the bedroom with Larry on his knees on the floor and Holbrook on the bed. When Larry laid the pistol on the bed, she grabbed the weapon and shot Larry once in the face in an act of self-defense.

At her second trial, Holbrook recanted much of this version of events, testifying that although she may have killed Larry, she had no recollection of exactly what happened.

B.

On April 25, 2001, a grand' jury sitting in the Western District of Virginia charged Holbrook in a two-count indictment with violating 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(g)(9) by possessing the .357 magnum after having been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence (Count One) and 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(a)(6) by making false statements to a firearms dealer in connection with her purchase of the .22 caliber pistol from the federally licensed firearms dealer (Count Two). The Government tried Hol-brook before a jury on these charges from August 21-23, 2001.

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Bluebook (online)
368 F.3d 415, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 9893, 2004 WL 1118585, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-agnes-holbrook-ca4-2004.