United States v. Julius Greer

527 F. App'x 225
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJune 12, 2013
Docket12-1886
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 527 F. App'x 225 (United States v. Julius Greer) 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. Julius Greer, 527 F. App'x 225 (3d Cir. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

CHAGARES, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted defendant Julius Greer of robbery and three related offenses. Greer appeals his conviction on two grounds. First, he argues that the District Court should have dismissed the indictment because of Speedy Trial Act violations. Second, he argues that the jury charge on reasonable doubt was plainly erroneous and demands reversal. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm Greer’s conviction.

I.

The charges against Greer arose from an October 2009 robbery that occurred in the offices of UACT, a property management company located near Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two men, Patrick Hancotte and Sean Stock, entered the office under the guise of looking for an apartment to rent. Once inside, they pointed a gun 1 at one of UACT’s owners, beat her with a crow bar, bound her hands and feet, and covered her mouth with duct tape. They then stole jewelry and other items from the office. Ebony Long, who is Greer’s first cousin and was Stock’s fiancee at the time, assisted the two men. All four individuals were ultimately charged in connection with the robbery. All except Greer pled guilty— Long entered into a plea agreement with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and Stock and Hancotte entered into plea agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The three testified against Greer at trial and claimed that Greer had orchestrated the robbery.

On October 28, 2010, a grand jury returned a four-count indictment that charged Greer with conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery, and two weapons offenses. On August 12, 2011, Greer moved to dismiss the indictment for violations of the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161, et seq. The District Court denied the motion, concluding that only forty-eight days had elapsed on the speedy trial clock. Greer was ultimately tried over five days in October 2011. A jury convicted him on all counts and the District Court sentenced Greer to a total term of 180 months of imprisonment followed by a five-year term of supervised release and ordered him to pay $1,400 in restitution.

Greer appeals, arguing that the District Court erred when it denied his motion to dismiss the indictment and that the jury instruction on reasonable doubt was plainly erroneous. We will address each claim of error in turn.

II. 2

We ordinarily review a district court’s compliance with the Speedy Trial Act de *228 novo and the factual determinations underlying the court’s findings for clear error. United States v. Rivera Constr. Co., 868 F.2d 293, 295 n. 3 (3d Cir.1988). If we conclude that a district court has properly interpreted the Speedy Trial Act, we will review the court’s grant or denial of a motion for a continuance for abuse of discretion. United States v. Lattany, 982 F.2d 866, 870 (3d Cir.1992); see also United States v. Adedoyin, 369 F.3d 337, 341 (3d Cir.2004). When ruling on a defendant’s motion to dismiss an indictment for Speedy Trial Act violations, the district court must identify and tally the days included on the speedy trial clock and count toward the seventy-day limit. Zedner v. United States, 547 U.S. 489, 507, 126 S.Ct. 1976,164 L.Ed.2d 749 (2006).

A.

Greer raises four claims of error with respect to the District Court’s Speedy Trial Act calculations. Though Greer moved to dismiss the indictment before the District Court, the Government argues that by failing to raise these specific claims of error contemporaneously or in his motion to dismiss, Greer has waived — or at least forfeited — the right to pursue those arguments on appeal.

The Speedy Trial Act requires that a defendant be brought to trial within seventy days of his indictment, information, or arraignment, whichever is later. 18 U.S.C. § 3161(c)(1). 3 After the deadline passes, a defendant may move to dismiss the charges against him and the indictment “shall be dismissed.” 18 U.S.C. § 3162(a)(2). A defendant who does not move for dismissal before trial waives his right to appeal on speedy trial grounds. Id. (“Failure of the defendant to move for dismissal prior to trial ... shall constitute a waiver of the right to dismissal under this section.”). As a result, a defendant who does not move to dismiss below has no recourse on appeal. See United States v. Belton, 520 F.3d 80, 82 (1st Cir.2008) (explaining that when a defendant fails to move for dismissal prior to trial, “even plain error review is unavailable” (quotation marks omitted)). However, the Speedy Trial Act does not specify whether a defendant must raise every potential speedy trial violation argument before the district court in order to preserve the issue for appeal or whether moving for dismissal is enough to preserve all Speedy Trial Act-related arguments. The Government contends that Greer has waived the right to assert all arguments not specifically raised below.

The Government primarily relies on a decision from the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, United States v. Gamboa, 439 F.3d 796 (8th Cir.2006). Gamboa involved a provision of the Speedy Trial Act that imposes a thirty-day time limit between arrest and indictment. Id. at 803-04. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected the defendant’s Speedy Trial Act challenge, concluding that Gam-boa “waived his right to appeal this particular speedy trial issue by failing to move for dismissal of Count Four on this ground prior to his trial in the district court.” Id. at 804. However, the procedural posture that brought Gamboa before the Court of *229 Appeals is unclear. Though the opinion refers generally to “motions to dismiss,” id. at 800, it does not specify whether Gamboa moved for dismissal of Count Four, contained in a superseding indictment, on any ground below. Id. at 804.

The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has also suggested — without deciding — that a “pretrial motion to dismiss ... [based on] an entirely separate 104-day period” from the period contested on appeal would not preserve all Speedy Trial Act arguments for appeal. United States v. Valdivia, 680 F.3d 33, 41-42 (1st Cir. 2012) (declining to decide the waiver argument because the defendant could not establish plain error); see also United States v. O’Connor,

Related

United States v. Kamal J. James
712 F. App'x 154 (Third Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Julius Greer
645 F. App'x 205 (Third Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Melvin Taplet, Jr.
776 F.3d 875 (D.C. Circuit, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
527 F. App'x 225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-julius-greer-ca3-2013.