United States v. Fred Lambert

218 F. App'x 873
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 23, 2007
Docket06-13093, 06-13842
StatusUnpublished

This text of 218 F. App'x 873 (United States v. Fred Lambert) 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. Fred Lambert, 218 F. App'x 873 (11th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Fred Lambert appeals his 27-month sentence for violation of supervised release, arguing that his sentence is unreasonable because the district court’s finding that he possessed marijuana was unreasonable and unsupported by the record and because the district court did not indicate that it was taking the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors into consideration when imposing the sentence. For the reasons set forth more fully below, we affirm.

We review for abuse of discretion the district court’s conclusion that the defendant violated the terms of his supervised release. United States v. Copeland, 20 F.3d 412, 413 (11th Cir.1994). We are bound by the district court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. United States v. Almand, 992 F.2d 316, 318 (11th Cir.1993). We review the sentence imposed upon revocation of supervised release for reasonableness. United States v. Sweeting, 437 F.3d 1105, 1106-07 (11th Cir.2006).

The probation officer alleged that Lambert violated multiple conditions of his supervised release, including the mandatory condition that he not commit another federal, state, or local crime. 1 This violation was based on an arrest on a charge of first degree possession of marijuana, in violation of Ala.Code § 13A-12-213. The evidence presented at the revocation hearing revealed that a Crown Royal bag containing two bags of marijuana and empty plastic bags, which Officer Walkener Hudson, the arresting officer, testified was consistent with packaging for street sale, was found in an Escalade, which smelled of marijuana and which belonged to Lambert and his fiancee. 2 When the police arrived, Lambert’s fiancee was sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, Lambert was standing outside the vehicle near his fiancee, and Marquet Reese was either sitting in the back seat or standing between the rear passenger door and the back seat. The marijuana was subsequently found in the back seat, in the same area where Reese had been. All three were subsequently arrested for possession of marijuana. Although Officer Hudson admitted that he told Lambert and his fiancee that he believed that the marijuana belonged to Reese, nevertheless he had to arrest all three of them because Reese would not admit it. He also testified that state criminal charges had been brought against Lambert.

Reese told Officer Hudson and his probation officer that the marijuana was already there when he got inside the vehicle. However, both at the time of the incident and at the revocation hearing, Lambert and his fiancee maintained that the marijuana belonged to Reese. Lambert, his fiancee, his fiancee’s daughter, and an em *875 ployee at his fiancee’s shop all testified that they saw Reese with the bag. Lambert’s fiancee also testified that, after their arrests, Reese told her and Lambert that, when he went to court, he would say that the marijuana belonged to him.

Lambert and Reese’s probation officer also testified that Reese told him that the car in which Reese and a second person were riding ran out of gas. They saw Lambert pass by and Reese called Lambert on a cell phone for assistance. Lambert picked them up and took them to a gas station near Lambert’s wife’s shop. At Lambert’s insistence, they went to Lambert’s wife’s shop to get his other car. Lambert asked Reese to go into the shop and ask Lambert’s wife for the keys. Lambert’s wife went to remove supplies from the car, and she and Lambert began arguing about Lambert getting a car. They were still arguing when Reese got into the back seat and, within two minutes, the officers arrived.

Lambert’s fiancee also testified that, when Reese and Lambert arrived, Reese exited a Cadillac, entered the shop, and asked for the keys to the truck. She told Reese to wait, because she needed to get work things and her car charger out of the vehicle. She was getting the car charger out of the truck when the police arrived. She also admitted that she told an officer that she smoked marijuana in the vehicle earlier that morning. She explained that she got the marijuana at a gas station from a girl, who she thought was called “Baby Girl,” and that three or four people smoked it together about 10:00 a.m. standing outside the vehicle. She thought that the marijuana odor could have been from this.

Her daughter also testified that Reese was holding a little Ziploc bag of marijuana. Her mother came outside to speak to Lambert, but did not go inside the Esca-lade. However, she saw Lambert get out of the driver’s side of the Escalade. On cross-examination, she testified that she saw Reese with a cloth bag, she never saw a plastic bag, and she figured out that there was marijuana in the bag based on what the police officers said.

Lambert testified that he was sitting in front of his grandmother’s house, Reese passed by, and Reese subsequently called him for a ride to the gas station because he ran out of gas. The first place they went to had gas pumps, but did not sell gas. They got gas at the station across the street from his fiancee’s shop and then stopped to see her. Lambert stated that he saw Reese with the bag, but did not pay any attention to the bag. He further explained, “I really didn’t even see it. I saw it, but I didn’t see it.” Asked about this testimony on cross-examination, Lambert explained that Reese jumped out of the car so fast and Lambert was “like: “What the — what you got to — what you interested to go see my old lady for?’ ”

Lambert further testified that they arrived at the shop and Reese went inside. Lambert went into the shop, Reese and his fiancee were already walking toward him, and they went out to the truck. Lambert’s fiancee gave him the key, Reese sat down in the back seat, and Lambert’s fiancee got in the front seat, took some stuff to the other car, and came back to the truck. Lambert denied having possession of the Crown Royal bag or knowing that marijuana was in the bag.

After finding Lambert’s fiancee’s explanation of the marijuana odor not credible, the district court found that the Escalade was being used that day for the utilization, or possibly the sale, of marijuana. The district court stated that it did not believe Lambert’s testimony, explaining that Lambert was not a believable witness, and his explanation was “totally improbable[,]” *876 “bounced all over the placet,]” and was not what someone who was completely innocent would provide about how the marijuana got there and what they knew about it. The court further found that Lambert was driving around with those people that day, there was marijuana in the car, Lambert knew about the marijuana, and that he violated his supervised release.

A district court may “revoke a term of supervised release ... if the court ... finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant violated a condition of supervised release....

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Related

United States v. David William Scott
426 F.3d 1324 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Ashanti Sweeting
437 F.3d 1105 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Christopher Alan Almand
992 F.2d 316 (Eleventh Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Dwaine Copeland
20 F.3d 412 (Eleventh Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Columbus Giddings
37 F.3d 1091 (Fifth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Rickey Jean Brown
224 F.3d 1237 (Eleventh Circuit, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
218 F. App'x 873, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-fred-lambert-ca11-2007.