United States v. Gregory Lee Melina

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 29, 1996
Docket95-1802
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Gregory Lee Melina (United States v. Gregory Lee Melina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Gregory Lee Melina, (8th Cir. 1996).

Opinion

_____________

No. 95-1802 _____________

United States of America, * * Plaintiff-Appellee, * Appeal from the United States * District Court for the v. * District of Minnesota. * Gregory Lee Melina, * * Defendant-Appellant. *

Submitted: June 12, 1996

Filed: November 29, 1996 _____________

Before LOKEN, JOHN R. GIBSON, and HANSEN, Circuit Judges. _____________

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

Gregory Melina appeals from the final judgment entered by the district court1 upon his conviction of aiding and abetting arson. He claims that (1) the district court erred by failing to sever his case from a nontestifying codefendant's, (2) the district court erroneously excluded evidence that would have shown that a third party was responsible for the fires, (3) the government failed to show any connection between the building that was burned and interstate commerce, and (4) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction. We affirm.

1 The Honorable Richard H. Kyle, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota. I.

This case arises out of two deliberately set fires that destroyed Eddy's Hamburger and Malt Shop (Eddy's), located in Long Lake, Minnesota, and owned and operated by John Charles Flaherty. The fires occurred approximately two weeks apart, the first on December 31, 1988, and the second on January 12, 1989. Flaherty and appellant Melina were charged in connection with the fires in a three-count indictment. The first two counts charged the defendants pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) and § 2 with aiding and abetting each other in malicious damage and destruction and attempted damage and destruction of a building being used in interstate commerce. Each of the two aiding and abetting counts represented one of the fires. The defendants were also charged with a conspiracy count under 18 U.S.C. § 371.

Melina and Flaherty pleaded not guilty to the charges in the indictment, and the case proceeded to trial. At the conclusion of the evidence, the district court dismissed the conspiracy count on the basis of insufficient evidence. Flaherty was found guilty of both aiding and abetting counts, but Melina was found guilty of only the second count, which concerned the January 12 fire. A more complete recitation of the facts and the circumstances surrounding the arsons can be found in this court's opinion affirming Flaherty's conviction on direct appeal. See United States v. Flaherty, 76 F.3d 967, 969-70 (8th Cir. 1996).

II. A.

Melina contends that the district court erred in failing to sever his trial from Flaherty's. Melina first argues that the district court's failure to sever his trial violated the Bruton rule because, even though Flaherty did not testify, the court

-2- admitted out-of-court statements made by him that implicated Melina in the crime. See Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968).

In Bruton, the Supreme Court held that in a trial where two or more defendants are tried jointly, the admission of a nontestifying codefendant's confession that expressly implicates the defendant violates the defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation rights, even if the district court gave the jury limiting instructions to consider the confession only against the codefendant who confessed. Id. at 126; United States v. Escobar, 50 F.3d 1414, 1422 (8th Cir. 1995) (applying Bruton). However, "[i]f a codefendant's confession does not incriminate the defendant on its face, but does so only when linked to additional evidence, it may be admitted if a limiting instruction is given to the jury and the defendant's name is redacted from the confession." Flaherty, 76 F.3d at 972 (citing Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 211 (1987)). Furthermore, Bruton does not apply at all when a codefendant's statements do not incriminate the defendant either on their face or when considered with other evidence. Escobar, 50 F.3d at 1422.

In the instant case, Melina points to three out-of-court statements made by codefendant Flaherty that serve as the basis for his Bruton argument. The first was Flaherty's denial that he had contact with Melina during the time frame when the arsons occurred; this statement was made in a deposition in a civil case in which Flaherty was seeking to recover insurance benefits for the destruction of Eddy's. The second was Flaherty's statement to law enforcement officers concerning the nature of his relationship with Melina. The third was Flaherty's statement to one Liz Sorenson, shortly after the fires occurred, that he was trying to locate Melina. The district court expressly instructed the jury that it was to consider the out-of-court statements made by Flaherty and Melina only with respect to the guilt of the individual who made the statements. See Flaherty, 76 F.3d at 971 n.4.

-3- We find no Bruton violation here. The statements that Melina challenges do not in any manner on their face inculpate Melina but, at most, inculpate Melina when considered with other evidence received at trial. In fact, they do not refer to either the December 31 fire or the January 12 fire on which Melina's conviction rested and do not refer to any wrongdoing at all. Assuming that Flaherty's statements are incriminating when considered with other evidence received at trial, the district court's limiting instructions effectively cured any risk of harm to Melina. See id. at 972.

In any event, even if we were to conclude that the admission of Flaherty's statements constituted a Bruton violation, such a conclusion would not advance Melina's case, because the error in admitting the statements was harmless. See Flaherty, 76 F.3d at 972 (harmless error analysis applicable to Bruton violations). As we outline more fully below, the evidence against Melina is overwhelming, even if these statements are not considered.2

2 Similarly, we reject Melina's argument that the jury must have used Flaherty's out-of-court statements as substantive evidence against Melina because the two defendants were not linked by any other evidence, and that accordingly, under Lee v. Illinois, 476 U.S. 530, 546 (1986), his conviction must be reversed. The Lee Court held that where a fact finder relies in part on an inadmissible confession in determining the defendant's guilt, the conviction must be reversed. However, Lee is inapposite in this case because Lee applies only in instances in which the codefendant's statement inculpates the accused and, as we noted above, Flaherty's statements did not inculpate Melina.

We likewise reject Melina's claim, based on United States v. Alonzo, 991 F.2d 1422, 1427 (8th Cir. 1993), that the circumstances surrounding the admission of Flaherty's denials of contact with Melina suggest that the jury "inevitably used" the statements as substantive evidence against Melina. In Alonzo, we recognized that a coconspirator's statements presented for the purpose of providing background, see Fed. R. Evid.

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Related

Schaffer v. United States
362 U.S. 511 (Supreme Court, 1960)
Bruton v. United States
391 U.S. 123 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Lee v. Illinois
476 U.S. 530 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Richardson v. Marsh
481 U.S. 200 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Zafiro v. United States
506 U.S. 534 (Supreme Court, 1993)
United States v. Lopez
514 U.S. 549 (Supreme Court, 1995)
United States v. Dale Lynn Ryan
41 F.3d 361 (Eighth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Rodney L. Shivers
66 F.3d 938 (Eighth Circuit, 1995)
United States v. James P. Shoffner
71 F.3d 1429 (Eighth Circuit, 1995)
United States v. John Charles Flaherty
76 F.3d 967 (Eighth Circuit, 1996)
United States v. Ronald D. Jenkins
78 F.3d 1283 (Eighth Circuit, 1996)
United States v. Kenneth Howard Koskela
86 F.3d 122 (Eighth Circuit, 1996)
United States v. McMasters
90 F.3d 1394 (Eighth Circuit, 1996)

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United States v. Gregory Lee Melina, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gregory-lee-melina-ca8-1996.