United States v. Gerry Sanders

638 F. App'x 946
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 29, 2016
Docket15-10577
StatusUnpublished

This text of 638 F. App'x 946 (United States v. Gerry Sanders) 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. Gerry Sanders, 638 F. App'x 946 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

This is a bank robbery case. On September 19, 2012, Gerry Sanders entered the Citizens Trust Bank in Decatur, Georgia. Pointing at the teller what appeared to be a silver pistol, Sanders demanded all the $100 bills the teller had. When the bank security guard drew his weapon and shouted “freeze,” Sanders turned the pistol on the guard and made a run for the door. The security guard fired several shots. One of the bullets, or shrapnel from the bullet, grazed a teller. Another bullet struck Sanders in the knee, and the guard subdued him. The pistol Sanders appeared to be carrying turned out to be a toy gun.

Sanders' was indicted for attempted bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d). At his arraignment, a magistrate judge appointed counsel for Sanders, who was indigent. A month later, the attorney requested a hearing on Sander’s competency to stand trial. He represented that Sanders was uncooperative, referring to counsel as the Devil, maintaining that Jesus was his attorney, and communicating primarily with religious phrases and quotations. The magistrate judge counsel’s granted the request and ordered Sanders examined.

Sanders was examined by three doctors. 1 All submitted their reports. The magistrate judge thereafter held an evi-dentiary hearing on Sanders’s competency. One of the three doctors, Dr. Buigas, testi *948 fied. The magistrate judge found Sanders competent to stand trial—that he was malingering symptoms of mental illness and that his refusal to participate in his own defense was a deliberate attempt to avoid a trial. Sanders objected to the competency findings, and the magistrate judge overruled it. Prior to the date set for Sanders’s trial, his attorney renewed his objection, this time before the district court. The court overruled it.

A jury subsequently found Sanders guilty as charged, and the district court sentenced him to a prison term of 175 months. Sanders now appeals both his conviction and sentence. He seeks a new trial on the ground that the district court erred in finding that he was malingering symptoms of mental illness and was competent to stand trial. He challenges his sentence on three grounds: the district court erred in (1) enhancing (under the Sentencing Guidelines) the base offense level of his offence by two levels for obstruction of justice because of his malingering; (2) imposing a seven-level firearm-discharge enhancement, because he did not discharge a firearm himself, but only induced a security guard to discharge his firearm; and (3) imposing a substantively unreasonable sentence in light of the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors. We first consider Sanders’s argument that the court erred in finding him competent to stand trial.

I.

Because a district court’s competency determination is primarily factual in nature, we review a court’s decision on competency to stand trial only for clear error. United States v. Izquierdo, 448 F.3d 1269, 1276, 1278 (11th Cir.2006). A finding of fact is considered clearly erroneous only when we are left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. at 1278. We give due regard to the trial court’s opportunity to assess the credibility of witnesses. Id. Accordingly, where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinder’s choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous. Id. at 1279.

The test for determining competence to stand trial is whether a defendant has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and whether he has a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings against him. United States v. Rahim, 431 F.3d 753, 759 (11th Cir.2005). The competency inquiry is functional, and focuses on a defendant’s capacity to sufficiently contribute to his own defense to allow for a fair trial. Watts v. Singletary, 87 F.3d 1282, 1286 (11th Cir.1996). Because the competency determination looks at the capacity of a particular defendant to play a specific role at trial, it requires a case-by-case assessment. Id. at 1289.

We conclude that 'the district court did not clearly err in finding Sanders competent to stand trial. The court reviewed de novo the magistrate judge’s report, which credited the testimony of Dr. Bui-gas. Dr. Buigas concluded that Sanders was malingering his symptoms, because there was no evidence of any symptoms other than his recitation of religious phrases. Dr. Buigas observed that Sanders appeared to recite religious phrases only when he was aware that he was being evaluated for competency purposes. His testimony was plainly sufficient to establish Sanders’s competence. His conviction is therefore due to be affirmed.

II.

In considering whether the district court erred in imposing the obstruetion-of-jus-tice sentencing enhancement, we review *949 for clear error the court’s factual findings and de novo its application of those findings under the sentencing guidelines. United States v. Doe, 661 F.3d 550, 565 (11th Cir.2011). A two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice applies where:

(1) the defendant willfully obstructed or impeded, or attempted to obstruct or impede, the administration of justice with respect to the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of the instant offense of conviction, and (2) the obstructive conduct related to (A) the defendant’s offense of conviction and any relevant conduct; or (B) a closely related offense.

U.S.S.G. § 3G1.1. Because an obstruction-of-justice enhancement would increase the offense level, the government has the burden of proving its applicability. See United States v. Bailey, 961 F.2d 180, 181 (11th Cir.1992).

A defendant “does not have the right to create a doubt as to his competency or to increase the chances that he will be found incompetent by feigning mental illness.” United States v. Patti, 337 F.3d 1317, 1325 (11th Cir.2003) (quotations omitted). Thus, an obstruction-of-justice enhancement is appropriate where a defendant’s feigned mental illness forced his trial to be postponed and caused the government to waste resources on a competency examination. Id.

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Related

United States v. Williams
51 F.3d 1004 (Eleventh Circuit, 1995)
Watts v. Singletary
87 F.3d 1282 (Eleventh Circuit, 1996)
United States v. Patti
337 F.3d 1317 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Ras Rahim
431 F.3d 753 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Javier Izquierdo
448 F.3d 1269 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Hunt
526 F.3d 739 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
Jones v. United States
526 U.S. 227 (Supreme Court, 1999)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Irey
612 F.3d 1160 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Doe
661 F.3d 550 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. McQueen
670 F.3d 1168 (Eleventh Circuit, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
638 F. App'x 946, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gerry-sanders-ca11-2016.