United States v. Anna Trujillo

376 F.3d 593, 65 Fed. R. Serv. 53, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 15142, 2004 WL 1630518
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 22, 2004
Docket02-1521
StatusPublished
Cited by181 cases

This text of 376 F.3d 593 (United States v. Anna Trujillo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Anna Trujillo, 376 F.3d 593, 65 Fed. R. Serv. 53, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 15142, 2004 WL 1630518 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

MILLS, District Judge.

In this appeal, Anna Trujillo asks this Court to vacate her conviction and sentence and to dismiss the indictment against her, to grant her a new trial, or to remand her case for re-sentencing.

Trujillo contends that she is entitled to the relief which she seeks because the district court committed several substantive and procedural errors which, taken either individually or as a whole, entitle her to a vacation of her conviction and sentence.

For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment and the sentence imposed upon Trujillo by the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

On November 14, 1998, Colorado State Police Trooper Steven Ortiz stopped a vehicle driven by Norma Jean Campos near Pueblo, Colorado, for speeding and for impeding the normal flow of traffic. Beth Ann Rogensues was a passenger in the vehicle. Trooper Ortiz became suspicious of Campos and Rogensues because neither individual was listed on the rental agreement provided to Trooper Ortiz by Campos, 1 because neither Campos nor Rogen-sues could identify who had rented the vehicle, and because Campos and Rogen- *599 sues related inconsistent stories regarding their travel plans. 2

Thereafter, Trooper Ortiz asked for, and received, permission from Campos to search the vehicle. Upon conducting his search, Trooper Ortiz discovered 123 pounds of marijuana hidden in duffle bags in the trunk. Accordingly, Trooper Ortiz arrested Campos and Rogensues and transported the two women to the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) office.

Once at the DEA’s office, DEA task force agents interviewed Campos and Ro-gensues separately regarding their transportation of marijuana. DEA Task Force Agent Ronald Thurston interviewed Campos. Initially, Campos denied any knowledge about the marijuana. However, Campos eventually admitted that this was approximately her fifth or sixth trip transporting marijuana. Specifically, Campos stated that Anna and Julio Trujillo had contacted her about driving to Arizona in order to meet with some people, pick up loads of marijuana, transport it back to Detroit, Michigan, and deliver the marijuana to them.

Meanwhile, DEA Task Force Agent Perry Powell was interviewing Rogensues. Initially, Rogensues told Agent Powell that she and Campos had been approached by a man at a bus station who had asked them to transport the duffle bags for him. However, after hearing Campos crying in the next room, Rogensues confessed that the story was a lie which she and Campos had made up when they were in the back of Trooper Ortiz’s squad car. Rogensues then admitted that they were transporting the marijuana to Detroit for the Trujillos. 3

After confessing to transporting the marijuana for the Trujillos, Campos and Rogensues provided various details regarding their past marijuana trips for the Trujillos (including providing identifying information which allowed DEA agents in Detroit to confirm the provided information), and they agreed to act as cooperating witnesses and to participate in a controlled delivery of the marijuana to the Trujillos. Thereafter, DEA Task Force Agent Powell telephoned DEA Agent Debra Lynch in Detroit in order to set up a controlled delivery. Based upon the information provided by DEA Task Force Agent Powell, DEA Agent Lynch sought and obtained a search warrant from United States Magistrate Judge Donald Scheer for the Trujillo’s home.

On November 15, 1998, Campos and Ro-gensues returned, under escort, to Detroit. Once in Detroit, Campos told DEA Agent Lynch that she had been introduced to Anna Trujillo through a mutual friend who had made a lot of money transporting marijuana for Anna Trujillo prior to 1998. Campos also informed DEA Agent Lynch that she and Rogensues had driven to and from Arizona in order to transport marijuana for the Trujillos on five prior occasions. Moreover, Campos stated that Shawn Speckman had rented cars for their use on the instant trip and also on two or three prior trips.

*600 In addition, Campos informed the DEA agents that Anna Trujillo had paid her $250.00 to title two cars in her name and, then, to transfer the title back to Trujillo after the cars had been purchased. Finally, Campos and Rogensues advised DEA Agent Lynch that they would either page or call Julio Trujillo on his cellular telephone when they got back to Detroit and that, frequently, they would meet at the Trujillo’s residence in order to deliver the marijuana.

Campos, Rogensues, and DEA Agent Lynch then went to the Rexford Police Department which is in close proximity to the Trujillo’s residence. From there, the Trujillos were paged several times, but no response was ever received. The next day, Anna Trujillo telephonically spoke with both Campos and Rogensues on four occasions which were tape recorded by DEA agents. During the second of these four conversations, Anna Trujillo instructed Campos to “bring the babies in from the cold so that they won’t get cold,” which Campos understood as an instruction to get the marijuana out of the car and place it inside Campos’ home. In the third of these four telephone conversations, Rogen-sues advised Anna Trujillo that they had brought the babies in so that they would not get cold.

In the fourth conversation, Anna Trujillo told Rogensues that she (Rogensues) and Campos had cost her $250,000.00 and that everyone in the house would have to pay for it. Rogensues testified that she understood the comment to mean that Campos and she would have to pay for the marijuana. 4 Ultimately, the DEA agents were unsuccessful in their attempts to establish a controlled delivery of the marijuana to the Trujillos.

On November 16, 1998, DEA agents searched the Trujillo’s home pursuant to the warrant issued by Magistrate Judge Scheer. As a result of the search, DEA agents discovered personal telephone books, titles to two vehicles in Campos’ name which had previously been used to transport marijuana, two digital scales, cellular telephones and pagers, and a fax machine. However, no narcotics were discovered.

Campos and Rogensues ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver marijuana pursuant to a plea agreement which required them to cooperate with the Government. As a result of their pleas and cooperation, the district court sentenced Campos and Rogensues to three months in a half-way house, to three months on electronic tether, and to two years of supervised release.

On September 19, 2000, a federal grand jury indicted Anna and Julio Trujillo for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute in excess of one hundred kilograms of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § § 841(a)(1) and 846. Julio Trujillo pleaded guilty, pursuant to a written plea agreement, to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute in excess of one hundred kilograms of marijuana. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, Trujillo agreed to provide truthful and complete information, in good faith, concerning all of his knowledge about the marijuana trafficking.

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Bluebook (online)
376 F.3d 593, 65 Fed. R. Serv. 53, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 15142, 2004 WL 1630518, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-anna-trujillo-ca6-2004.