United States v. Jean Edward Packwood

848 F.2d 1009, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 7819, 1988 WL 57498
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 9, 1988
Docket87-1305
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 848 F.2d 1009 (United States v. Jean Edward Packwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Jean Edward Packwood, 848 F.2d 1009, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 7819, 1988 WL 57498 (9th Cir. 1988).

Opinion

BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judge:

OVERVIEW

The government appeals the district court’s dismissal of the indictment against Packwood on the ground that a 1980 plea agreement barred prosecution. We affirm.

FACTS

On July 23, 1979, United States Park Police found the body of Janette Pimentel *1010 in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. She had been shot to death. In an August 6,1979 interview, both Donald Desbiens, Pimentel’s boyfriend, and Packwood, Desbiens’ roommate, denied knowledge of the murder.

In March 1980, Packwood was arrested in New York and confessed to three bank robberies in San Francisco in the summer of 1979, all committed with Desbiens. In interview statements Packwood described the bank robberies and Desbiens’ relationship with Pimentel. Packwood claimed that Desbiens had talked about killing her and had asked Packwood to do it because Pimentel knew too much about the robberies. Packwood stated that he had refused Desbiens’ request.

Packwood was indicted on the bank robbery charges. On June 5, 1980, he entered into a written plea agreement that provided he would plead guilty to one count of bank robbery and cooperate and testify in the investigation of the robberies and Pimen-tel’s murder, in return for freedom from prosecution for the other robberies and the murder. The next day Packwood entered his guilty plea.

On June 19, 1980, FBI agents Hopkins and Mahoney interviewed Packwood. Each agent filed a Form 302 report of his interview. Hopkins’ 302 reported that when asked about his activities on July 23, 1979, the day of Pimentel’s murder, Packwood recited his movements beginning with waking up at 10 a.m. Before reciting Pack-wood’s description of his movements on July 23, Mahoney’s 302 reported that Pack-wood “provide[d] information concerning the murder of ... Pimentel.”

Packwood was sentenced to six years imprisonment on the bank robbery charge.

In December 1980, a former cellmate of Packwood’s told the FBI that Packwood had confided that he had murdered Pimen-tel in another male’s presence. No prosecution followed this information.

Five years later, Desbiens, who was in prison in Canada, confessed to Canadian police and to FBI agent Hopkins that he and Packwood had conspired to murder Pimentel. Desbiens indicated that the murder took place very early on the morning of July 23, 1979. Desbiens was tried and convicted of murder. In October 1986, Packwood was indicted for the murder of Pimentel.

In June 1987, shortly before Packwood’s trial, defense counsel discovered the plea agreement and moved to dismiss the indictment. The district court granted the motion holding that (1) the agreement did not provide that it would be void or could be invalid if Packwood breached, (2) Pack-wood’s breach was not clearly established, (3) the breach alleged by the government was not material, and (4) even if there had been a material breach, the government failed to give Packwood the necessary notice and an opportunity to cure. The government filed a motion for reconsideration, requesting an evidentiary hearing to resolve an “apparent discrepancy” in the evidence. The district court denied the motion.

DISCUSSION

1. Was it an abuse of discretion to deny the government’s request for an evi-dentiary hearing?

This court reviews the denial of an evidentiary hearing for an abuse of discretion. United States v. DiCesare, 765 F.2d 890, 895 (9th Cir.), amended, 777 F.2d 543 (9th Cir.1985). The moving party’s allegations must be “sufficiently definite, specific, detailed, and nonconjectural, to enable the court to conclude that a substantial claim is presented.” Cohen v. United States, 378 F.2d 751, 761 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 897, 88 S.Ct. 217, 19 L.Ed.2d 215 (1967). General or conclusory factual allegations are not enough to require a hearing, id. at 760, but where “sworn statements and exhibits present directly contradictory accounts” of events, a hearing is required. DiCesare, 765 F.2d at 895-96.

The government contends that an “evidentiary discrepancy” required an evidentiary hearing. While Agent Hopkins’ 302 report indicated only that Packwood described his actions beginning at 10 a.m. on *1011 July 23, 1979, the day of the murder, Hopkins’ declaration, prepared seven years after the interview in support of the government’s opposition to the motion to dismiss the indictment, stated that in the June 19, 1980 interview Hopkins told Packwood he wanted to “interview him about his specific knowledge of the murder of Pimentel” and that Packwood “denied any participation in and knowledge of the murder.”

This court has held that an evidentiary hearing was necessary to resolve a factual dispute between the parties over what they reasonably understood when entering into a plea agreement. United States v. Arnett, 628 F.2d 1162, 1164-65 & n. 4 (9th Cir.1979). Hearings have been held to determine whether a defendant, as he claimed and the government denied, was illiterate and thus unable to understand that he signed an agreement requiring him to testify, United States v. Carrillo, 709 F.2d 35, 36 (9th Cir.1983), and to resolve conflicting accounts by the prosecution and the defense whether an agreement gave blanket immunity for all criminal charges. United States v. Krasn, 614 F.2d 1229, 1232-33 (9th Cir.1980). The inconsistency claimed here is not between the parties’ versions of events, but within the statements of one government witness. Hopkins’ 302 and his declaration do not seem directly contradictory. The vague statement that Packwood denied participation in the murder could mean that, when asked about his movements on July 23,1979, the day of the murder, Packwood did not say anything about the murder in accounting truthfully about his activity from the time he awakened at 10 a.m. The government’s motion for reconsideration did not provide any further detail, such as a supplementary declaration, about any specific question by Hopkins which was answered untruthfully by Packwood. Further, the defense initially requested an evidentiary hearing on its motion to dismiss the indictment, but the prosecution in its reply suggested that the court could decide the motion on the declaration and affidavits.

Under these circumstances, it was not an abuse of discretion not to hold an evidentiary hearing on the government’s motion to reconsider.

2. Did the district court err in finding that Packwood did not breach the agreement and in dismissing the indictment?

Plea bargains are “contractual in nature and must be measured by contract law standards.” United States v. Sutton,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
848 F.2d 1009, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 7819, 1988 WL 57498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jean-edward-packwood-ca9-1988.