United States v. Claxton

367 F. App'x 326
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedFebruary 23, 2010
DocketNo. 09-3155
StatusPublished

This text of 367 F. App'x 326 (United States v. Claxton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third 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. Claxton, 367 F. App'x 326 (3d Cir. 2010).

Opinion

[327]*327OPINION OF THE COURT

PRATTER, District Judge.

Blaine Claxton (“Claxton”) appeals from the District Court’s denial of his motion to dismiss an indictment on double jeopardy grounds. Claxton contends that the drug conspiracies alleged in the two separate indictments are essentially the same. Because we conclude that the two conspiracies are distinct, we will affirm the District Court’s decision.

I. Background

Claxton’s appeal involves the following two indictments.

A. The Marijuana Indictment — Criminal No.2006-31

The first indictment (the “Marijuana Indictment”), returned on October 17, 2006, charged Claxton and nine co-defendants— Richard Newman, Shusta Gumbs, Randy Simon, Karl Christian, Shermaine Peters, Valencia Thomas, Adila Magras, Charles Francis and Akeem Bloodman — with Conspiracy to Possess Marijuana with Intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a) and 846, as well as other drug related offenses. (Supplemental App. 1-15.) The indictment alleged that Claxton was the leader of a marijuana trafficking enterprise in St. Croix, Virgin Islands from September 1, 2005 to March 2006. In this capacity, Claxton utilized co-defendants Thomas and Francis, two United States Postal Service employees, to hold, track and secure marijuana sent to him by mail. They also were to help the conspirators avoid detection by law enforcement. Claxton also attempted to purchase marijuana from co-defendant Gumbs and received marijuana sent through the mail from the mainland United States by co-defendant Newman. Finally, Claxton used co-defendants Magras and Bloodman to distribute marijuana.

On June 1, 2007, Claxton pled guilty to the conspiracy charge of the Superseding Indictment and stipulated to the following factual basis for his guilty plea:

From September 1, 2005 to about November 18, 2005 in St. Croix, Defendant agreed with other co-defendants to distribute marijuana. Specifically, Defendant arranged for the receipt of approximately 3.8 kilograms of marijuana through the mail that was sent by co-defendant Richard Newman on or about September 29, 2005. Defendant also arranged for the receipt of approximately 895 grams of marijuana through the mails which was retrieved by co-defendant Charles Francis and hand delivered to Defendant. The amount of drugs involved in the conspiracy was between 2.5 kilograms and 5 kilograms of marijuana.

(Joint App. at 91-92.)

Claxton was sentenced to eight months incarceration.

B. The Cocaine Indictment — Criminal No.2006-30

The second indictment (the “Cocaine Indictment”), returned on May 19, 2009, charged Claxton and five co-defendants— Zacheaus Blake, Kalif Berry, St. Clair Li-burd, Karen Blake and Randy Simon— with Conspiracy to Possess Cocaine and Crack with Intent to Distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a) and 846, along with other drug and firearm offenses. (Joint App. 67-89). The indictment alleged that Blake led a drug trafficking enterprise to distribute cocaine or convert cocaine to crack and distribute it from September 1, 2005 to February 2006 in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. In this conspiracy, Blake allegedly used the home of his sister and co-defendant Karen Blake to cook crack cocaine and store and hide cocaine powder and firearms. For his part, Clax-[328]*328ton allegedly stored cocaine powder for co-defendant Berry and subsequently delivered the cocaine powder to Berry.

On May 8, 2007, Claxton and all but one of his co-defendants were convicted by a jury of these offenses.1 On December 15, 2008, the District Court granted Claxton’s motion for a new trial. On June 1, 2009, Claxton went to trial again, but the District Court granted his motion for a mistrial at the close of the Government’s case.2

Claxton then filed a motion to dismiss the Cocaine Indictment on double jeopardy grounds, contending that the conspiracy charged was the same as the conspiracy charged in Count I of the Marijuana Indictment. On July 17, 2009, the District Court denied Claxton’s motion. Claxton filed a timely notice of appeal.

II. Discussion3

The Double Jeopardy Clause guarantees that no person shall “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” U.S. Const, amend. V. Double jeopardy attaches when it is “shown that the two offenses charged are in law and in fact the same offense.” United States v. Felton, 753 F.2d 276, 278 (3d Cir.1985) (citing United States v. Ewell, 383 U.S. 116, 124, 86 S.Ct. 773, 15 L.Ed.2d 627 (1966)). The Double Jeopardy clause prevents the government from splitting one conspiracy into multiple prosecutions. See Braverman v. United States, 317 U.S. 49, 53, 63 S.Ct. 99, 87 L.Ed. 23 (1942).

A defendant is entitled to a pre-trial evidentiary hearing if he makes a non-frivolous showing of double jeopardy. United States v. Liotard, 817 F.2d 1074, 1077 (3d Cir.1987). Once a defendant makes this showing, “the burden of persuasion shifts to the government to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the two indictments charge the defendant with legally separate crimes.” Id. (citing Felton, 753 F.2d at 278).

To ensure that a defendant’s constitutional right against double jeopardy is protected in the context of successive conspiracy prosecutions, we apply a “totality of the circumstances” test in which we consider (1) the “locus criminis” (location) of the two alleged conspiracies; (2) the degree of temporal overlap between the conspiracies; (3) the overlap of personnel between the conspiracies, including unin-dicted co-conspirators; and (4) the similarity in the overt acts charged and the role played by the defendant in each indictment. United States v. Smith, 82 F.3d 1261, 1267 (3d Cir.1996) (citing Liotard, 817 F.2d at 1078). We do not apply these factors rigidly, id., but focus instead on the overarching inquiry of “whether two groups of conspirators alleged by the government to have entered separate agreements are actually all committed to [329]*329the same set of objectives in a single conspiracy.” Id. at 1271.

Although both conspiracies here occurred in St. Croix, Virgin Islands during roughly the same time period, the conspiracies diverge in almost all other respects. Most obviously, the conspiracies had different objectives. The objective of the conspiracy alleged in the Cocaine Indictment was to obtain and distribute cocaine and crack.

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Related

Braverman v. United States
317 U.S. 49 (Supreme Court, 1942)
United States v. Ewell
383 U.S. 116 (Supreme Court, 1966)
United States v. Liotard, Russell
817 F.2d 1074 (Third Circuit, 1987)
United States v. J. David Smith, David Smith
82 F.3d 1261 (Third Circuit, 1995)
United States v. Felton
753 F.2d 276 (Third Circuit, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
367 F. App'x 326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-claxton-ca3-2010.