United States v. Bass

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 16, 2002
Docket00-41224
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Bass (United States v. Bass) 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.

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United States v. Bass, (5th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

__________________________

No. 00-41224 __________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

KERRY L. BASS, also known as Kerry Lerron Bass Defendant-Appellant.

___________________________________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas

___________________________________________________ October 16, 2002

Before WIENER and STEWART, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI*, District

Judge.

Wiener, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Kerry L. Bass appears before this court a

second time, appealing the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C.

§ 2255 motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence. Bass

maintains that his counsel provided ineffective assistance at trial

and on direct appeal by failing to challenge (1) the sufficiency of

the evidence supporting his continuing criminal enterprise (“CCE”)

conviction and (2) on double-jeopardy grounds, his conspiracy and

CCE convictions. Concluding that Bass’s counsel was ineffective in

* Judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade, sitting by designation. failing to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence for his CCE

conviction, we vacate Bass’s conviction on that count. Doing so

makes moot his double jeopardy claim.

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Bass is currently incarcerated in a federal penitentiary in

eastern Texas. His status as federal prisoner no. 66118-079 is the

culmination of a legal process that began on April 14, 1994, when

he was indicted on multiple counts of violating federal narcotics

statutes and failing to file income tax returns.1 Two other

individuals, Troy Donovan Bounds and Paul Anthony Alix, were named

in the indictment.

A jury trial commenced in October 1994. The government

presented evidence showing that Bass was implicated in a web of

drug commerce in several East Texas communities. Bass used his

legitimate chemical business, KLB Environmental Services (“KLB”),

in Houston, Texas, as a cover for his participation in that drug

1 The specific charges were as follows: conspiring from December 1988 to January 1993 to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base (count 1); conspiring from December 1988 to January 1933 to possess with the intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine (count 2); engaging from December 1988 to January 1933 in a CCE, with counts 1-2 and counts 4-11 constituting the predicate offenses (count 3); on various occasions between October and December 1990, aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute more than 5 grams of cocaine base (count 4-9); in January 1991, aiding and abetting possession with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base (count 10); from July 1989 through January 1990, aiding and abetting engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property affecting interstate commerce (count 11); and failing to file income tax returns for the years 1988 through 1991 (counts 12-15).

2 commerce. He employed Bounds (one of his indicted co-conspirators)

at KLB, and he directed Bounds to deliver cocaine to numerous

persons in Houston.

During his involvement in the drug ring, Bass sold cocaine on

a regular basis——either personally or through Bounds——to Steven

Alix, Paul Alix, Bryan Kyles, Shawn Wade, and David Fischer. These

individuals converted the cocaine they purchased from Bass into

cocaine base (known in common parlance as “crack”), which they

resold in Victoria, Texas. They either sold the cocaine base

directly or supplied it to others, such as David Barefield, who

then resold it. Kyles testified that, from the many discussions

that he and Bass had concerning “everything that [they] were

doing,” including “cooking cocaine into ‘crack,’” Bass knew of the

conversion and resale of the cocaine base.

Bass’s knowledge of his purchasers’ activities was confirmed

by his renting of vehicles for Fisher so that Fisher could travel

to Victoria to sell the cocaine base. The car rental fees were

paid with the proceeds from Fisher’s sales. In addition, Bass

advised Fisher not to drive flashy cars lest he be noticed by the

police. When a Cadillac rented by Fisher was seized by police late

in December of 1990, Bass had Kyles drive both Bass and Bounds to

Victoria to retrieve the vehicle.

Bass also used KLB in several other respects related to drug

commerce. First, Bass had Bounds sell cocaine for Bass in the

course of Bounds’s employment at KLB, and Bounds frequently drove

3 KLB-marked vehicles and wore a KLB uniform when making cocaine

deliveries for Bass. Second, Bass told Fisher, Wade, Steven Alix,

and Kyles that they could use KLB as an employment reference, even

though none of them worked there. Third, Bass placed Paul Alix on

the payroll at KLB, even though he did not work there; and when the

police arrested Paul Alix in Victoria, Texas, on December 27, 1991,

they found a KLB business card in his wallet.

The jury convicted Bass on all counts for which he was charged

in the indictment. Bass was sentenced to (1) nine terms of 360

months’ imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised

release for each of the conspiracy and distribution counts; (2) one

term of 360 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by five years of

supervised release for the CCE count; (3) one term of 120 months’

imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release

for the criminally derived property count, and (4) one term of

twelve months’ imprisonment, to be followed by one year’s

supervised release for the income tax evasion counts. All terms

are being served concurrently. Bass was also ordered to pay

separate $50 assessments for each of the conspiracy, distribution,

and CCE counts, and separate $25 assessments for each of the tax

evasion counts, for a total of $650. We affirmed Bass’s conviction

and sentence on direct appeal.2

Bass subsequently filed a pro se 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to

2 United States v. Alix, 86 F.3d 429 (5th Cir. 1996).

4 vacate, set aside, or correct sentence. He alleged, inter alia,

that his counsel at trial and on appeal provided ineffective

assistance by failing to challenge (1) the sufficiency of the

evidence supporting his conviction for conspiring to distribute

cocaine base, (2) the quantity of cocaine base attributed to him

for sentencing purposes, (3) the sufficiency of the evidence

supporting his CCE conviction, and (4) on double-jeopardy grounds,

his conspiracy and CCE convictions. The government moved to

dismiss Bass’s § 2255 motion on the merits. Without holding an

evidentiary hearing, the district court dismissed the case with

prejudice, and denied Bass a certificate of appealability (“COA”).

Bass then sought a COA from this court, which we granted for

the sole purpose of a limited remand to the district court for it

to enter written reasons for the dismissal of Bass’s claim of

ineffective assistance of appellate counsel based on the failure to

challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his CCE

conviction.

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