United States v. Corey Pasley

629 F. App'x 378
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedOctober 28, 2015
Docket14-1260
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 629 F. App'x 378 (United States v. Corey Pasley) 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. Corey Pasley, 629 F. App'x 378 (3d Cir. 2015).

Opinion

*379 OPINION *

VANASKIE, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Corey Pasley was convicted after trial of three counts in connection with a violent armed robbery at an apartment complex where he was employed as a security guard. He now challenges the sufficiency of the Government’s evidence, as well as the District Court’s admission of certain video footage. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.

I.

In the fall of 2010, Pasley was hired as the sole security guard at the Walnut Lane Apartments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The apartment complex was owned by Barbara and Vladimir Jablokov, a married couple who ran the business from a management office on the premises. During his first few months of work, Pasley learned that the office had a security alarm which could be activated by a switch hidden under a desk in the management office; that the Jablokovs regularly stored a large sum of cash in the office’s safe after rents were paid at the beginning of each month; and that Barbara Jablokov carried a handgun while at work every day.

On November 1,2010, Pasley arrived for his nightly shift shortly before 4:00 p.m., about 30 to 40 minutes earlier than usual. Barbara Jablokov 1 was the only other person present in the management office. After a few moments of conversation with Barbara, Pasley excused himself and went outside to take a call on his cell phone. After Pasley returned, Barbara saw him unlock the outer security door. Almost immediately, Pasley’s co-defendant Amos Singleton entered the management office brandishing a gun.

At trial, Barbara testified that Pasley stood to the side of the door doing “nothing” to deter Singleton from “com[ing] after” her. App. 42. Pointing his gun at Jablokov, and never at Pasley, Singleton grabbed her and yelled, “Don’t go for it. I know what you have. And don’t, don’t hit it.” App. 43. Barbara took this as a reference to the hidden security alarm. Singleton then directed Barbara toward the building’s back office, where the safe was located. Pasley followed them in and closed the door behind them. Singleton then shot Barbara in the face, which eventually resulted in the loss of Barbara’s left eye and other serious facial injuries.

Despite being blinded and staggered by her wound, Barbara had the presence of mind to distract Singleton by emptying her purse on the floor and telling Singleton that he would have to find the keys to the safe himself. While Singleton looked for the keys, Barbara drew her handgun and tried unsuccessfully to shoot Singleton. Singleton turned to Pasley, who was standing by the door, and asked, “What ... is she doing?” App. 48. Singleton then took Barbara’s handgun and continued searching for the key to the safe. Barbara tried to escape, but Pasley lay down and blocked the door, eventually slamming it shut and telling Barbara, “You can’t leave. You have to stay.” App. 49. When Barbara again tried to open the door, Pasley grabbed her leg, but she was able to escape after kicking him in the face. At the office’s front door, Barbara encountered a tenant, to whom she frantically explained that she had been shot and that “the guard was in on it_” App. 50. Singleton even *380 tually fled with Barbara’s pistol and roughly $3500 from the safe.

At the scene of the robbery, detectives found a cell phone that Pasley had left in the pocket of a jacket that he had discarded on the office’s front steps. Phone records showed an incoming call at 4:01 p.m., moments before the robbery. Upon arresting Singleton, police found the cell phone linked to the number that had called Pasle/s phone at 4:01 p.m. Records further established that Singleton’s phone had called Pasley’s phone six other times on the day of the robbery.

In February 2011, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Pasley with one count of conspiracy to commit robbery in obstruction of, delaying, or affecting commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a); one count of robbery in obstruction of, delaying, or affecting commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1951(a) and 2(a); and one count of using and carrying, and aiding and abetting the using and carrying of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c)(1)(A)(ii), (c)(1)(B)(i), and 2(a). 2 The case proceeded 'to trial in March 2012, after which the jury found Pasley guilty on all counts. After a sentencing hearing in January 2014, the District Court sentenced Pasley to 204 months’ imprisonment and 5 years of supervised release. Pasley filed a timely appeal.

II.

The District Court had jurisdiction over this case under 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

III.

Pasley first argues that the District Court erred by denying his pre-verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 based on insufficiency of the evidence. “We apply a particularly deferential standard of review when deciding whether a jury verdict rests on legally sufficient evidence.” United States v. Dent, 149 F.3d 180, 187 (3d Cir.1998). Under this standard, “we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and will sustain the verdict if any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. (citations and quotation marks omitted).

Pasley claims the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction on Count One, conspiracy to commit robbery in obstruction of, delaying, or affecting commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a). “The essential elements of conspiracy are (1) a shared unity of purpose, (2) an intent to achieve a common goal, and (3) an agreement to work together toward the goal.” United States v. Perez, 280 F.3d 318, 342 (3d Cir.2002) (quotation marks and citations omitted). The Government need not produce “direct evidence of an agreement” — instead, a jury may find a conspiracy based on “reasonable inferences drawn from actions and statements of the conspirators or from the circumstances surrounding the scheme.” United States v. McKee, 506 F.3d 225

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629 F. App'x 378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-corey-pasley-ca3-2015.