United States v. Davis

100 F. App'x 571
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit·Decided June 4, 2004·No. No. 02-2979, 02-4134·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

ORDER

Nicole Davis and her husband, Calvin Kuykendoll, were indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin. Davis was also indicted for attempting to possess with intent to distribute the same. On the first day of their joint trial, Kuykendoll moved to sever the trials and the district court granted the motion. Davis was tried first. Separate juries found both Davis and Kuykendoll guilty as charged. Davis, an African-American, appeals her conviction and sentence, alleging selective prosecution on account of her race. Kuykendoll appeals his conviction claiming that the admission of excerpts of Davis’s trial testimony into evidence at his subsequent trial violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause and the Federal Rules of Evidence. Davis’s and Kuykendoll’s appeals were consolidated. For the reasons stated below, we affirm both defendants’ convictions and dismiss Davis’s appeal of her sentence for lack of appellate jurisdiction.

I. Background

Federal law enforcement officers arrested Benjamin Haro in September of 1999 for conspiracy to sell numerous kilograms of cocaine. In exchange for a reduction in his sentence, he cooperated with the government, providing the names of his suppliers and his larger customers, including Davis and Kuykendoll. Haro testified that he had met face-to-face and spoke on the telephone with both defendants and had supplied them with multiple kilograms of cocaine from February to May 1999. Haro also testified that during the course of these drug transactions, he knew Davis as “Coco” and Kuykendoll as “Derrick.”

With this background, Haro, under the supervision of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), arranged a drug deal with Davis. On November 22, 1999, Haro telephoned Davis’s pager and a man returned the call about an hour later. Haro asked the man on the phone if he was “Coco’s husband” to which he replied that he was. Speaking in code, they then discussed what kind of drugs Haro had available for sale, which included heroin and cocaine. During the conversation, the man said his wife just walked in the door. He then handed the phone to his wife, whom Haro knew was Davis. Davis then assured Haro that she would have the cash available to purchase the drugs. Four days later, Davis and Haro spoke again and Davis agreed to purchase between 40 and 50 kilograms of cocaine. On November 29, 1999, Haro spoke with Davis’s husband to arrange the purchase of heroin. During the conversation, the husband handed the phone to Davis to work out the details of the deal, which included keeping the money in separate bags, as Haro told Davis that the heroin was coming from a different supplier than that of the cocaine. Haro and Davis arranged to complete the transaction at the “Rock ‘n Roll” McDonald’s in Chicago. That evening, Davis arrived at the appointed time in the car she had described to Haro in their phone conversation and told the undercover agent posing as Haro’s cousin (whom Haro [573]*573had told Davis would be there to complete the deal on his behalf) that they should go somewhere else because there were people around the McDonald’s parking lot. Davis was then arrested. Law enforcement recovered approximately $380,000 in cash from her car from two separate bags, one of which contained a scrap of paper inscribed with “Calvin, 250,000, June 6, 1999.” Davis was charged with conspiring to purchase in excess of five kilograms of cocaine and more than one kilogram of heroin from Haro between February and June 1999, and with attempting to purchase the same controlled substances on November 29,1999.

After Davis’s arrest, agents proceeded to her home in Chicago where they performed a traffic stop of a car without license plates which police observed circling the block and driving by the residence slowly. Agents discovered Kuykendoll was the driver, although he denied knowing anyone who lived at Davis’s address. In a superceding indictment, the government later charged Kuykendoll with one count of violating 21 U.S.C. § 846 and Davis with two counts of violating the same.

The defendants were initially to be tried together. However, when the district court learned that Davis’s defense would be antagonistic to Kuykendoll, it granted the latter’s motion for severance. Davis was tried first, found guilty as charged, and sentenced to 262 months of incarceration. At Kuykendoll’s trial, Haro and two government agents identified Kuykendoll as Davis’s co-conspirator. When Davis refused to testify at her husband’s trial, the government sought to introduce into evidence trial excerpts of Davis’s testimony from her trial which would positively identify Kuykendoll as the male voice speaking with Haro on the telephone setting up the November 29, 1999 drug transaction. The court denied the government’s request. The government then sought to read in a shorter, fourteen-line excerpt of Davis’s trial testimony which establishes Davis’s marriage to Kuykendoll and their common residence. Those passages were allowed. The jury eventually convicted Kuykendoll as charged.

II. Davis

Davis argues that her equal protection rights were violated by the government’s failure to investigate and charge Haro’s suppliers or customers who were not African-American. Davis contends that the district court erred in rejecting her post-trial motion for a judgment of acquittal or a new trial, or, in the alternative, in refusing to depart downward in her sentence, both based on her selective prosecution claim.

We review the district court’s denial of Davis’s post-trial motions for acquittal or a new trial for abuse of discretion. United States v. Souffront, 338 F.3d 809, 819 (7th Cir.2003). In reviewing a motion for a new trial, we view “the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, we draw all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the evidence and will not set aside the jury’s verdict if there is a reasonable basis in the record which supports that verdict.” Id. While the government alleges that Davis waived her selective prosecution argument when she did not raise it before trial, United States v. Jarrett, 705 F.2d 198, 204-05 (7th Cir.1983), we find that “these issues have been preserved for appeal because the district court effectively “waived’ [Davis’s] “waiver’ when it considered and made findings on these issues after trial.” United States v. Cyprian, 23 F.3d 1189, 1195 (7th Cir.1994). The district court considered and rejected Davis’s selective prosecution argument for failure to make out the claim. Therefore, [574]*574the district court’s denial of her post-trial motion for acquittal or a new trial based on a claim of selective prosecution is reviewable on appeal.

To prevail on her selective prosecution claim, Davis must show that the government’s prosecution had both a discriminatory purpose and effect. United States v. Goulding, 26 F.3d 656, 662 (7th Cir.1994). Additionally, she must overcome the presumption that the prosecution has not violated equal protection by showing “clear evidence to the contrary.” United States v. Armstrong,

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United States v. Davis, 100 F. App'x 571 (7th Cir. 2004).

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