United States v. Arriola-Perez

137 F. App'x 119
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJune 22, 2005
Docket03-8048
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 137 F. App'x 119 (United States v. Arriola-Perez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Arriola-Perez, 137 F. App'x 119 (10th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

STEPHEN H. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge.

Xavier Arriola-Perez, a/k/a “X,” was convicted, following a three-week jury trial, of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A), and 846, and of possession with intent to distribute between 50 and 500 grams of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A), and 18 U.S.C. § 2. He was sentenced to 400 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and a $5200 fine.

Arriola-Perez appeals his conviction, arguing (1) his case should have been dismissed because the government delayed in bringing him before a magistrate; (2) the trial court erred by refusing to exclude evidence of the violent arrest of an alleged coconspirator; (8) the trial court erred by admitting coconspirator hearsay statements without making formal findings as required by Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E); and (4) he was denied his rights under the Confrontation Clause to confront statements made by his codefendant and an unindicted coconspirator. He also appeals his sentence, arguing that the judge improperly estimated the drug quantity upon which his sentence was based and that the judge engaged in judicial fact-finding in violation of United States v. Booker, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM Arriola-Perez’s conviction and sentence.

BACKGROUND

The facts of this case are set out at length in a companion case, United States *122 v. Encinias, 123 Fed. Appx. 924 (10th Cir.2005) (unpublished), and we incorporate them by this reference. 1 We therefore summarize many of the facts here and detail only those especially pertaining to Arriola-Perez.

On September 16, 2002, Arriola-Perez, Jason Thomas Encinias, and Steven Waite 2 were charged in an eleven-count superseding federal Indictment. The Indictment charged that they had conspired together and with a number of other individuals, including Samuel Urbigkit, Joseph Thomas, Crystal Siegel, Joseph Dax, Vanessa McQueary, and Brett Strong, to distribute methamphetamine in the District of Wyoming between March 2000 and December 2001. Waite was granted a severance, and Encinias and Arriola-Perez were tried together in a jury trial that began January 7, 2003. Most of the other individuals named as conspirators in the Indictment, including Siegel, Dax, McQueary, and Strong, were charged in separate proceedings, reached plea agreements with the prosecution, and testified against Arriola-Perez and Encinias at trial.

Arriola-Perez was charged in the Indictment with four counts besides those of which he was convicted, including: one count of possession and use of an AK-47type rifle during and in relation to a drug-trafficking offense; one count of possession with intent to distribute approximately one pound of methamphetamine; and two counts of using a telephone to facilitate a felony drug offense and aiding and abetting the use of a telephone to facilitate a drug-trafficking offense. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the count of possession with intent to distribute, and it was subsequently dismissed; the jury acquitted Arriola-Perez of the other counts.

Testimony at trial, some of which is challenged as inadmissible hearsay on appeal, established the following facts. In 2000, Encinias, Arriola-Perez, Waite, Urbigkit, Strong, Thomas, and Dax were all incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary on charges unrelated to this case. Each of them was thereafter transferred at various times to a halfway house in either Casper or Cheyenne. While at the Cheyenne halfway house, Dax, Urbigkit, and Waite discussed plans to distribute methamphetamine when they were released. Dax testified that it was originally planned that he would manufacture the methamphetamine, but Urbigkit later told him that Arriola-Perez could furnish their drug supply.

Arriola-Perez moved to Denver upon release from the halfway house in August 2000. Testimony established that he began supplying distribution quantities of methamphetamine to Urbigkit when Urbigkit was released two months later. Brett Strong testified that he was Urbigkit’s roommate at the halfway house and that after he was released, he sold about an ounce of methamphetamine a week for Urbigkit beginning in September 2000. On at least two different occasions, Strong saw Arriola-Perez at Urbigkit’s house, and Strong recounted seeing Arriola-Perez pull out a pound to a pound and a half of methamphetamine, which was “more than [Strong had] ever seen before.” Tr. of Jury Trial at 435, R. Vol. 31. Urbigkit and Arriola-Perez then used a scale to weigh and divide the drugs. Strong witnessed Urbigkit at that time give Arriola-Perez a *123 “pretty good-sized” stack of hundred-dollar bills. Id. at 436.

Crystal Siegel testified that she cleaned Urbigkit’s apartment and was paid in money and drugs. She moved in with Joe Thomas, Urbigkit’s friend, after Urbigkit told her he would pay her $500 a day to do so. She witnessed Thomas sell drugs, and saw Thomas receive methamphetamine from Urbigkit. Siegel said she worked as a “secretary” for the drug-distribution operation by keeping track of debts and by selling drugs from the apartment when Thomas was away. She also at one time transported a duffel bag containing three pounds of methamphetamine and a firearm from the apartment to Urbigkit’s shop. Siegel testified that Urbigkit said “X” was his “main [drug] connection.” Tr. of Jury Trial at 836, R. Vol. 33. Also, while cleaning Urbigkit’s apartment, Siegel said she saw pieces of paper on which “X” and a phone number were written. She and Thomas on one occasion met Arriola-Perez at a motel room where they all got high together. Adam Schaff, another drug user and dealer, testified that over the course of several months, he sold a total of a ten and a half pounds of methamphetamine for Thomas and Urbigkit.

In February 2001, Urbigkit was arrested in Casper after a dramatic shootout with police who were attempting to search his shop. Detailed and voluminous testimony from a number of law enforcement officers about the shootout, search, and arrest of Urbigkit was admitted at the trial over objections from both defendants. Police ultimately seized from the shop a scale, several firearms, including an AX-47-type gun, and around four pounds of methamphetamine, which was admitted as evidence at Arriola-Perez’s trial.

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Related

United States v. Arriola-Perez
449 F. App'x 762 (Tenth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Waite
378 F. App'x 818 (Tenth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Ayala
469 F. Supp. 2d 357 (W.D. Virginia, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
137 F. App'x 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-arriola-perez-ca10-2005.