United States v. Frank Dennis Felix

926 F.2d 1522, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 3112, 1991 WL 23377
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 28, 1991
Docket89-7058
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 926 F.2d 1522 (United States v. Frank Dennis Felix) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Frank Dennis Felix, 926 F.2d 1522, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 3112, 1991 WL 23377 (10th Cir. 1991).

Opinions

HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge.

In No. 89-7058, defendant Felix appeals his conviction in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Oklahoma, on various counts of a multi-count indictment charging him, inter alia, with conspiracy, manufacture, and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He alleges that this conviction forced him to “run the gauntlet” again following a previous conviction in the United States District Court, Western District of Missouri, for a single count of attempt-to-manufacture methamphetamine, in violation of the protections afforded by the Double Jeopardy Clause as recently construed in Grady v. Corbin, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 [1524]*1524(1990). We agree that Felix has shown that his conviction on several counts in the Oklahoma trial entailed impermissible successive prosecutions for conduct underlying his Missouri conviction, and therefore we reverse his conviction on particular counts as enumerated below.

I

Defendant Felix was convicted following a jury trial in the Eastern District of Oklahoma for violations of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1) (“the Oklahoma trial”).1 He had previously been convicted in the Western District of Missouri on a single count of attempt-to-manufacture methamphetamine, in violation of §§ 841(a)(1) and 846, (“the Missouri trial”).2 Both convictions arose from the following course of conduct and events:

Sometime in the Spring of 1987, a meeting (or meetings) between defendant Felix and unindicted co-conspirator Paul Roach resulted in an agreement whereby Felix would provide financing and other support to Roach, in exchange for Roach’s instruction and assistance in “cooking” methamphetamine. A laboratory for the illegal enterprise was established in mobile trailers parked on an oil lease near Beggs, Oklahoma.

Felix and Roach obtained the chemicals and equipment for the Beggs lab in Tulsa, from George Dwinnells, a DEA confidential informant operating out of Tulsa Scientific, a chemical company. As a result of information provided by Dwinnells, the DEA seized the unattended Beggs lab on July 13, 1987, while a “cook” was in progress. Seized at the site were methamphetamine oil, illegal precursor chemicals, manufacturing equipment, and other evidence, some of which inculpated Felix.

Shortly thereafter, Felix phoned Dwin-nells and arranged a meeting in a Tulsa bar. At the bar, under the observation of DEA agents, Felix ordered more chemicals and equipment from Dwinnells, secured by a $7,500 down payment. At Felix’ behest, [1525]*1525Dwinnells transported the newly purchased chemicals and equipment by trailer to a hotel in Joplin, Missouri. Under the watchful eyes of the DEA, tipped off by Dwin-nells, a controlled transfer of the trailer and its contents to Felix occurred. He was arrested shortly thereafter.

Felix was tried before a jury on the attempt-to-manufacture charge in Springfield, Missouri on November 30, 1987 and convicted. Before his April 1989 Oklahoma jury trial, Felix moved to dismiss the instant indictment on double jeopardy grounds arising from the Missouri conviction. See Defendant Felix’ Plea of Double Jeopardy and Motion To Dismiss The Indictment, TR. Vol I, Tab 2. The trial judge in the Eastern District of Oklahoma denied Felix’ motion by Order, dated March 20, 1989, holding:

The § 846 offense in this indictment is for Conspiracy to Manufacture, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.... None of the other substantive counts charge Attempting To Manufacture, and they are all alleged to have occurred in the Eastern District of Oklahoma. The court finds the offenses herein are separate and distinct from defendant’s conviction in Missouri, and his double jeopardy argument is without merit.

TR. Vol. I, Tab 24, at 9 (emphasis in original).

II

On appeal, Felix raises only one issue— that he was subjected to double jeopardy in violation of the Fifth Amendment, specifically the guarantee against being twice put on trial for the same offense. He premises this claim of error on the denial of his motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy grounds. For reasons given below, we are convinced that the Double Jeopardy Clause as interpreted recently in Grady v. Corbin, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), requires the reversal of most of Felix’ convictions. The trial judge did not have the benefit of that recent opinion.

The Double Jeopardy Clause affords three guarantees: “It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction. And it protects against multiple punishments for the same offense.” North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) (footnotes omitted). Moreover, “it has long been understood that separate statutory crimes need not be identical — either in constituent elements or in actual proof — in order to be the same within the meaning of the constitutional prohibition.” Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 164, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 2225, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977). It is the second protection that Felix relies upon, namely, that he not be forced to undergo successive prosecutions for the same conduct.

General double jeopardy analysis earlier focused on the so-called traditional “Block-burger test” which states that:

[Wjhere the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not.

Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). The focus of that test is on the elements of the crimes, and “[i]f each requires proof of a fact that the other does not, the Blockburger test is satisfied, notwithstanding a substantial overlap in the proof offered to establish the crimes.” Iannelli v. United States, 420 U.S. 770, 785 n. 17, 95 S.Ct. 1284, 1294 n. 17, 43 L.Ed.2d 616 (1975) (citation omitted).

Recently, two significant opinions from the Supreme Court have shaped the double jeopardy analysis — first, Dowling v. United States, 493 U.S. 342, 110 S.Ct. 668, 107 L,Ed.2d 708 (1990), decided January 10, and second, the Grady case decided on May 29, 1990. Grady in particular makes clear that the Double Jeopardy Clause protections extend beyond the limitations expressed in the much earlier Blockburger test.

In Dowling, the defendant had been convicted of bank robbery in part on the basis [1526]*1526of testimony of Mrs. Henry.

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Bluebook (online)
926 F.2d 1522, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 3112, 1991 WL 23377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-frank-dennis-felix-ca10-1991.