United States v. Elamin Bashir

Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit·Decided June 15, 2018·No. 16-1168·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Nos. 16-1168 & 16-2200

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

v.

ELAMIN BASHIR,

Appellant

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Nos. 2-14-cr-00284-002 & 2-14-cr-00421-001)

District Judges: Hon. Petrese B. Tucker (No. 2-14-cr-00284-002) and Hon. Stewart Dalzell (No. 2-14-cr-00421-001)

Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)

May 25, 2018

Before: McKEE, SHWARTZ, and NYGAARD, Circuit Judges.

(Filed: June 15, 2018)

OPINION *

*

This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent.

SHWARTZ, Circuit Judge.

El Amin Bashir appeals his conviction and sentence for drug conspiracy, as well as his sentence for violating separately imposed conditions of supervised release. None of the four issues he raises from his drug conspiracy conviction and sentence, nor the two issues arising from his supervised release violation, has merit, and we will therefore affirm.

I

A

1

In April 2014, Moises Parra, a confidential informant for the Chandler, Arizona Police Department (“CPD”), contacted Michael Lewis, a drug trafficker with whom he had previously distributed marijuana, about a potential new drug partnership. Lewis asked Parra if he could sell cocaine in addition to marijuana, and Parra said he could.

Thereafter, Parra met with Lewis, Bashir, Omar Teagle, and an unindicted co-

conspirator, Tony Davis, at the Renaissance Philadelphia Airport Hotel. During the meeting, Parra and Teagle discussed selling approximately fifty kilograms of cocaine and 1000-2000 pounds of marijuana on a weekly basis, and the co-conspirators agreed to travel to Phoenix, Arizona, to continue their discussions regarding the drug transactions.

Four days later, Parra met with Bashir, Lewis, Teagle, and Reginald Irby at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Phoenix. Parra then took them to a warehouse in Tempe, Arizona, where they discussed the price and quantity of the cocaine they wanted shipped to Philadelphia. During the meeting, Parra and Bashir discussed construction supplies

and agreed they could use their construction businesses to launder the drug proceeds. In addition, and as directed by law enforcement, Parra showed three sample kilograms of cocaine to the co-conspirators. Parra and Irby opened the packages of cocaine, and after Teagle, Bashir, and Irby discussed which of the three samples of cocaine they preferred, Parra and Bashir rewrapped the cocaine. Parra and the co-conspirators confirmed the transaction would involve twenty-five kilograms of cocaine. They then left the warehouse, and Bashir and Irby purchased prepaid cell phones, including one for Parra, to use to discuss the cocaine deal.

A few weeks later, Teagle and Irby flew to Phoenix and delivered Parra a $25,000 deposit for the cocaine. Parra thereafter returned to Philadelphia, where he met with Irby. When Irby showed Parra additional money for the cocaine, Irby was arrested, and over $200,000 was seized.

A grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania returned an indictment charging Bashir with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. Six days before the April 8, 2015 trial was set to begin, the Government filed an Information under 21 U.S.C. § 851 charging that Bashir had a prior felony drug conviction, which triggered a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment upon conviction.

In a pretrial order, the District Court directed the Government to disclose exculpatory and impeachment information pursuant to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972), three days before trial. On March 31, 2015, the Government disclosed, among other things: (1) three statements

attributed to Teagle; (2) a report of an August 8, 2014 proffer of Lewis; and (3) Parra’s redacted criminal history and payment history, which the Government supplemented in emails to defense counsel the following week.

Following the presentation of evidence, the District Court instructed the jury on the conspiracy charge. In instructing the jury on the elements of conspiracy, the District Court explained the object of the conspiracy—possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances—and stated that in assessing Bashir’s state of mind, “Your decision whether the defendant knew the material he possessed with the intent to distribute was a controlled substance again involves a decision about the defendant’s state of mind.” No. 16-1168 App. 831. Defense counsel objected to the instruction, which the Court overruled.

The jury convicted Bashir, finding specifically that the quantity of cocaine involved in the conspiracy and attributed to and/or reasonably foreseeable to Bashir was five kilograms or more. He filed a motion for a new trial, alleging the Government violated its Brady obligations by failing to disclose the grand jury testimony of Special Agent Gordon Patten until after trial, which the District Court denied. Bashir was sentenced to 240 months’ imprisonment and ten years’ supervised release.

B

After his sentencing, Bashir addressed a petition for violating conditions of supervised release that were imposed following a 2003 drug conviction in the Middle District of Florida. Bashir’s supervision on the Florida case was transferred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The petition alleged, among other things, that Bashir violated the condition that he commit no other crimes. 1 Bashir admitted that the new drug conviction violated that condition of supervised release. The District Court then moved to sentencing and invited Bashir to address the Court. Bashir stated, “Two things I’d like to say and I’d like to present to the Court. You have in my presentence report it said that Florida notified the district that I was unemployed.” No. 16-2200 App. 53. At that moment, however, the District Court asked, “So what is the Government’s recommendation regarding the [sentence] – it seems to me it’s pretty clear.” No. 16-2200 App. 53. The Government asked for the statutory maximum sentence of twenty-four months’ imprisonment, which was also the advisory Guideline minimum sentence, to be served consecutive to Bashir’s 240-month sentence. After hearing from defense counsel, the District Court stated:

[T]he thing that troubles me is that this is such a cognate offense to what Chief Judge Tucker dealt with. . . . I think under the circumstances and, obviously, subject to your powerful arguments, the Government’s recommendation has a lot going for it. And now the two years is not an insubstantial time. I understand that. And, of course, the sanction that I impose, Mr. Bashir, is something you could appeal. . . . So in light of that, I’m going to impose a revocation sentence of 24 months consecutive to Chief Judge Tucker’s sentence . . . . Look, this is serious business that brings us together and we do not in any way, shape, or form take this lightly. We take your liberty very seriously . . . but I think our hands are pretty much tied here and I think the Government’s position has a lot of force behind it and so that’s what I’m going to do.

No. 16-2200 App. 54-55.

Counsel for the Government then reminded the Court that Bashir had begun his allocution by stating he had “two things” to say to the Court and that he had addressed only one. In response, the Court asked Bashir if there was anything else he would like to say, and the following transpired:

THE DEFENDANT: I would like to appeal.

THE COURT: Okay, [defense counsel] will be happy to do that for you.

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