United States v. David Earl Wattleton

296 F.3d 1184, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 13686, 2002 WL 1466422
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 9, 2002
Docket00-13125, 00-14549
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 296 F.3d 1184 (United States v. David Earl Wattleton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. David Earl Wattleton, 296 F.3d 1184, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 13686, 2002 WL 1466422 (11th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

HULL, Circuit Judge:

The defendant David Earl Wattleton was indicted for making bomb threats, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(e), and the jury rendered an insanity verdict. At a post-verdict hearing pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4243(d), the district court determined that Wattleton was not eligible for release. On appeal, Wattleton contends (1) that the government impermissibly imposed the insanity defense on him at trial, (2) that § 4243(d)’s placing the burden of proof on the insanity acquittee at the post-verdict hearing violates his due process rights, and (3) that the court erred in denying Wattleton’s release. After review and oral argument, we affirm both the jury’s verdict and the court’s release decision.

I. FACTS

A. Offense Conduct

On May 27, 1999, Bill Jones, the 'president of U.S. Motivation, fired ■ the defendant Wattleton from his sales position. Upset by the news, Wattleton hit Jones and another employee. That evening, Wattleton made several threatening telephone calls. He left a message on' U.S. Motivation’s voice mail system, threatening to blow up its building and kill Jones and his family. Wattleton also left a message on the home answering machine of Ralph Quinn, a U.S. Motivation supervisor, threatening to kill Quinn and his family. Concerned by these calls, Jones, Quinn, and their families left their respective’residences that evening and called police.

The next day, May 28th, Wattleton made threatening telephone calls to numerous businesses, including AirTran Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and Home Depot. During each call, Wattleton stated ‘his name, spelled his last name, identified himself as a U.S. Motivation employee, and provided- a U.S. Motivation telephone number. In his telephone calls to the airlines, Wattleton stated there was a bomb on one of the planes without identifying a specific flight. In his Home Depot message, Wat-tleton threatened to kill two named Home Depot employees and to blow up a store every hour until Wattleton got the “police off his back.”

Later that day, FBI agents arrested Wattleton for making telephonic bomb threats. Wattleton told an FBI agent, “I’ve been waiting here all day for you guys.” Wattleton subsequently confessed and explained that he had made these threats to prompt an investigation into the conspiracy of police 'harassment against him. At one point, however, Wattleton indicated that he had made the calls out of revenge against his former employer, U.S. Motivation.

B. Wattleton’s Notice of His Insanity . Defense

Wattleton was indicted on one count of making a telephonic threat and conveying false information concerning an attempt to unlawfully damage and destroy property by means of fire or explosives, in violation of .18 U.S.C. § 844(e). The remaining three counts charged Wattleton with making telephonic threats to kill, injure, or intimidate persons, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(e). After pleading not guilty, Wattleton provided notice of his insanity defense, pursuant to Federal Rule of *1188 Criminal Procedure 12.2. That pre-trial notice, which was never withdrawn, advised that Wattleton intended to rely on the insanity defense and to introduce related expert testimony. 1

Consequently, Dr. Artigues, for the government, and Dr. Rand, for the defendant, conducted psychiatric examinations of Wattleton. Both experts concluded that Wattleton suffered from a delusional disorder of a persecutory type that impaired his ability to appreciate the nature, quality, or wrongfulness of his behavior. Specifically, Wattleton believed that the police were harassing him by gathering information about his past mental history and his small genitalia and then sharing this information with his employers who, in turn, would fire him.

After these examinations, the district court granted a joint motion for continuance so that the parties would have additional time to explore plea options. The court noted that “[t]his case is unusual in that both parties’ experts have found the defendant was suffering from a severe mental illness which impaired his ability to appreciate the nature, quality, or wrongfulness of his behavior.” The medical experts’ conclusions tracked the definition of insanity: “[A]t the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts.” 18 U.S.C. § 17(a). 2 Thus, both experts, in effect, agreed Wattleton was legally insane at the time of his offense conduct. However, both experts also determined that Wattleton was competent to stand trial.

As a result, the government filed a motion informing the court that if the defendant was found competent to stand trial, the government would move for a “not guilty only by reason of insanity verdict, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4242(b).” On June 5, 2000, the district court held a hearing regarding Wattleton’s competency and concluded that he was competent to stand trial. In so doing, the district court considered the medical experts’ evaluations and questioned Wattleton about his understanding of the legal process. Wat-tleton’s jury trial then commenced on that day.

C. Opening Statements

In its opening statement, the government acknowledged that to obtain an insanity verdict it would have to prove first that Wattleton was guilty of the charged offenses. Thus, the government described how Wattleton was guilty of making the threatening calls. The government then described Wattleton’s delusional disorder *1189 and how the jury would hear doctors’ testimony. The government proposed that the appropriate verdict was not guilty only by reason of insanity. 3 Defense counsel did not object to the government’s intent to present insanity evidence or to any part of its opening statement. Thus, even the government was conceding insanity and requesting an insanity verdict. This gave the defense the opportunity to focus more on the threshold issue of whether Wattle-ton was guilty of the charged offenses.

In his opening statement, defense counsel first described the progression of Wat-tleton’s delusional disorder, its impact on his behavior, and how Wattleton believed that U.S. Motivation’s firing him was the “culmination of the police conspiracy” after which physical harm- from the police was imminent. Defense counsel specifically proposed that the jury may have to decide between the verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity and not guilty.

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Bluebook (online)
296 F.3d 1184, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 13686, 2002 WL 1466422, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-david-earl-wattleton-ca11-2002.