United States v. Johnson

195 F. App'x 52
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedSeptember 14, 2006
Docket05-3856, 05-3960
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 195 F. App'x 52 (United States v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third 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. Johnson, 195 F. App'x 52 (3d Cir. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

Appellants Jeffrey Johnson and James Phillips were convicted of involvement in a drug-related conspiracy and Phillips was also convicted of substantive drug offenses. They appeal the order of the District Court denying their renewed motion for a new trial based upon (1) Brady violations and (2) newly discovered evidence.

I.

Appellants’ jury trial was held in December 2000. The trial centered on a drug distribution conspiracy run by Leon Hunt, Gregory Hunt and Jeffrey Hunt (the “Conspiracy”). The Conspiracy sold cocaine base (“crack”) in the area of the Spring Garden Apartments (a public housing facility owned and operated by the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA)). Trial focused on the time period between March 1999 and January 2000. The Conspiracy sold crack in clear plastic gel caps, gel caps labeled “357,” and sections of vinyl or plastic tubing plugged with cork or wooden dowels. The most disputed issue at trial was whether Appellants were in fact members of the Conspiracy.

A. Distinguishing the Conspiracy

The Government sought to provide the jury with the basis to distinguish a member of the Conspiracy from a non-conspirator in a mere “buyer-seller” relationship with the Conspiracy. 1 In its opening statement, the Government stated that “this group would distinguish itself by using [two] typical business techniques,” A844, * namely: (1) selling crack in “a general target area” around the Spring Garden Apartments, and (2) marketing it in a “unique packaging.” A845. The Government described the “unique packaging” as follows:

[From at least March 1999 to the fall of the same year,] the defendants were selling the crack cocaine paekage[d] in little clear gel caps, gel capsules, sort of like what you see in a Contac pill and the crack would be inside there. And that would be the unique packaging that this group would use to sell the crack cocaine. And oftentimes those gel capsules were labeled with 357, which meant three rocks for $5 on 7th Street, so that each capsule would be sold for $5.
.... [T]he packaging changed in about the fall of 1999, and what this group started using were tubes, like tubes that would be cut and the drugs would be put inside the tube and wooden dowels would be placed at each end to close up the tube....

A845; see also App. at 31.

Rashael Harris, a/k/a Rochelle Ross (“Harris”), testified pursuant to a plea agreement with the government that she sold crack cocaine in clear gel caps and gel caps labeled “357” for the Conspiracy. She also testified that “the cocaine was packaged in the clear caps and the 357 labels” because “[i]t was something differ *55 ent, something to separate it from anybody else’s from around there.” A1273. Harris testified that people not involved in the Conspiracy were selling in the area where she sold but “they were selling cocaine packets in other ways .... ” A1288. Similarly, Corporal John Rodriguez of the Philadelphia Police Department testified at trial that what made the gel capsules sold by the Conspiracy distinctive was the fact that there was a “357 on these little capsules .... and the fact that [the drugs] were contained in those plastic capsules initially.” A1139.

Undercover Officer Christina Goodwin-Laws of the Philadelphia Police Department testified that distribution of crack in clear gel caps occurred only in the region where the Conspiracy was based. She testified that she and Officer Israel Morales purchased four gel caps of crack from Johnson near the Spring Garden Apartments on May 13, 1999; two of these gel caps were marked with “357” while two were clear and unmarked.

Philadelphia police officer Leslie Simmons testified that in her experience crack-packed gel capsules generally (“not just the [capsules marked with] 357”) did not “exist anywhere else in the City of Philadelphia.” A1010. She testified that both the capsules themselves and the “357” marking were “indigenous to the [region of the Conspiracy].” A1010. Police undercover officer Richard L. Cujdik of the Philadelphia Police Department testified that “[d]ue to the packaging” of the drugs in the Conspiracy area, the “whole area was considered part of Jeffrey Hunt’s organization.” A1090.

The Government argued to the jury during its rebuttal closing argument that no group other than the Conspiracy sold crack in clear gel caps:

The packaging was unique to the [Conspiracy] area, the caps both marked and unmarked and the gelcaps. Three experienced narcotics officers told you that.... There’s no evidence that any other group was selling even the clear gelcaps anywhere else. It was here.... [T]here was [sic] other sales in that area but no one else but this group was selling the gelcaps____That’s what it tells you and you don’t have to be an expert to know that.

A1586-87.

B. Distinguishing Johnson as a Member of the Conspiracy

In order to link Johnson to the Conspiracy, the Government presented evidence tending to show that Johnson: (1) bought drugs from members of the Conspiracy, and (2) sold drugs in gel caps (both marked and unmarked) and dowel-stopped tubing. Rashael Harris’s testimony provided the Government’s only evidence that Johnson purchased drugs from the Conspiracy. Harris testified that she saw Johnson “[g]etting his packs” from the Conspiracy’s distribution location approximately “three or four or five times a week.” A1277. Harris testified that this frequency of purchase was “[n]ot much,” but did not testify why she thought three to five visits per week was infrequent. A1277.

With regard to Johnson’s sale of drugs, the Government presented four items of evidence. First, Harris testified that she couldn’t “recall the date, [but] between July and September [1999]” she bought crack from Johnson packaged in “gelcaps” in the Conspiracy’s area of operation. A1281-83. Second, on May 13, 1999, Officer Goodwin-Laws testified that she and Officer Morales purchased four gel caps of crack from Johnson, two of which were clear and two of which were marked with “357.” Furthermore, Officer Cujdik testified that shortly thereafter five additional *56 gel caps filled with crack and marked “357” were recovered from a windowsill near the location where Johnson had been dealing. Third, Officer Harold Poles testified that, on September 20, 1999, Johnson was arrested in the Conspiracy’s area in possession of twenty clear gel caps of crack cocaine. Fourth, Officer Harry Wenger testified that, on November 6, 1999, Johnson was arrested in the same area, again in possession of twenty clear gel caps, but also in possession of crack packed in sections of tubing stopped with cork dowels.

C. Distinguishing Phillips as a Member of the Conspiracy

In order to link Phillips to the Conspiracy, the Government presented evidence tending to show that he: (1) bought drugs from members of the Conspiracy, and (2) sold drugs in tubes stopped with wooden dowels. Rashael Harris’s testimony provided the Government’s only evidence that Phillips purchased drugs from the Conspiracy.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
195 F. App'x 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-johnson-ca3-2006.