United States v. Apolonia Galvan, A/K/A Paula Galvan

949 F.2d 777, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29553, 1991 WL 268067
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedDecember 18, 1991
Docket90-2589, 90-2590
StatusPublished
Cited by108 cases

This text of 949 F.2d 777 (United States v. Apolonia Galvan, A/K/A Paula Galvan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Apolonia Galvan, A/K/A Paula Galvan, 949 F.2d 777, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29553, 1991 WL 268067 (5th Cir. 1991).

Opinion

BARKSDALE, Circuit Judge:

Apolonia Galvan appeals her conviction for three counts of attempting to kill a cooperating witness/informer, contending that two are multiplicious and that the evidence was insufficient to support one of them. She also asserts that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction on two counts of illegal possession of a firearm and that the district court relied on erroneous information in sentencing her on these counts and on her guilty plea to a drug offense. We AFFIRM.

I.

As part of an investigation of organizations believed to be trafficking drugs, agents initiated electronic surveillance of the Hernandez Organization. A wiretap conducted between August and October 1987 uncovered a distribution network and implicated over 50 targets. The kingpin, Albert Salinas, Jr., employed Apolonia Gal-van to consummate various narcotics transactions. Between March and October 1987, agents recorded conversations between Galvan and Salinas, in which they discussed transactions involving over 2000 grams of cocaine and over 2000 pounds of marijuana.

Iii the fall of 1986, Raul Herrera, on parole from a state drug conviction involving heroin, contacted the FBI and volunteered to serve as a confidential informer. Over a two year period beginning that fall, and in connection with the FBI’s “Operation White Gold”, Herrera participated in numerous controlled meetings and telephone calls with targeted individuals, including Galvan.

In March 1987, Galvan met with Herrera on several occasions under videotape surveillance at his apartment. On one occasion in early March, she offered to supply him kilogram quantities of cocaine. Later that month, they negotiated a 1000-pound delivery of marijuana. That same day, Gal-van sold a one and one-half pound sample of marijuana to Herrera. In June 1987 at Galvan’s house, they again discussed a kilogram cocaine transaction, while Herrera was wearing a concealed recorder.

Herrera negotiated, however, an illegal cocaine transaction with Salinas, during the course of a wiretap of Salinas. In November 1988, Herrera was arrested and indicted along with other individuals, including Galvan, targeted in Operation White Gold. Both Galvan and Herrera were released on bond.

On May 15, 1989, transcripts of recorded conversations between Herrera and targeted individuals were released. Four days later, Herrera pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a communication device to facilitate the commission of a felony. In exchange, he agreed to testify against the other defendants in the drug conspiracy proceeding.

On May 20, 1989, Herrera was in his apartment. He admitted his brother, Eddie Herrera (Eddie), and Galvan; and Eddie *780 began trying to restrain him. Galvan shouted remarks about Herrera being “wired” and working with the FBI to videotape drug transactions involving her. She fired three shots at him, hitting him each time; she and Eddie then departed. Herrera retrieved his own handgun. He opened the door and overheard Galvan say “I’m going to go back and finish him off”. He shot at her as she opened the front door and at her and Eddie as they fled. Galvan turned herself in to the police, and Herrera recovered from his injuries. Galvan’s gun was never recovered.

In the drug conspiracy proceeding, a March 1990 superseding information charged Galvan with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana, during the period before October 1986 to late October 1987, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(D), and 846. She pleaded guilty in March 1990, after trial earlier that month of the witness tampering proceeding.

In that proceeding, Galvan was charged by superseding indictment in August 1989 with: attempting to kill a person with intent to prevent his attendance at an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(A) (count 1); attempting to kill a person with intent to prevent his communication to law enforcement officials and a federal judge of information about the commission of a federal offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(C) (count 2); retaliation against a witness-informer, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1513(a)(2) (count 3); illegal receipt of a firearm by a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (count 4); and illegal receipt of a firearm while under indictment for a felony, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(n) (count 5). In March 1990, a jury convicted her on all counts.

Galvan was sentenced jointly for both sets of offenses. For the drug offense, she was sentenced (pre-guidelines) to 10 years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently with her sentence in the witness tampering proceeding, a $50 special assessment, and a four-year special parole term, to run concurrently with the supervised release term in the witness tampering proceeding. In the witness tampering proceeding, she was sentenced (under the guidelines) to 188 months each on counts one and two; 120 months each on counts three and four; and 60 months on count five, all to run concurrently with each other and with the sentence in the drug conspiracy proceeding, along with three years’ supervised release, and a $250 special assessment. The district court also ordered that Galvan pay restitution to Raul Herrera for expenses in the amount of $7,721.88.

II.

Galvan contends that her convictions and sentences for the witness offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 1512 are multiplicious. 1 She likewise challenges the sufficiency of the evidence (1) that she attempted to kill Herrera with the intent to prevent his communication of information relating to a federal crime; and (2) that the firearm she was convicted of possessing traveled in interstate commerce. Finally, Galvan contends that the information the district court relied on in sentencing was unreliable and that she should be granted a new sentencing hearing.

A.

Galvan maintains that her convictions and sentences for violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(a)(1)(A) (attempting to kill person to prevent his attendance at an official proceeding) and 1512(a)(1)(C) (attempting to kill person to prevent his communication of information relating to the commission of a federal offense) are multiplicious and, therefore, violate the Fifth Amendment proscription against double jeopardy. 2

*781

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Bluebook (online)
949 F.2d 777, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29553, 1991 WL 268067, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-apolonia-galvan-aka-paula-galvan-ca5-1991.