United States v. Kenneth Moreland

574 F. App'x 89
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJuly 18, 2014
Docket13-3691
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 574 F. App'x 89 (United States v. Kenneth Moreland) 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. Kenneth Moreland, 574 F. App'x 89 (3d Cir. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

BARRY, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth Moreland was convicted of aiding and abetting, attempt, and conspiracy to commit robbery under the Hobbs Act, and of using and carrying and aiding and abetting the use and carry of a firearm while committing a crime of violence, all in connection with his role in a home invasion against his former employer. He was sentenced to 300 months in prison, and ordered to pay a fine and restitution.

On appeal, Moreland claims that the government presented insufficient evidence of the firearms offense and of the element of the Hobbs Act which requires that “commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce” be affected. 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a). He also claims that the District Court erred in admitting evidence that he previously stole a safe from the employer’s residence.

We will affirm. 1

I.

We write primarily for the parties and thus only briefly set forth the relevant facts. Ernest Manna (“Manna”), a used car dealer, kept guns, jewelry, and cash from his business in a green safe at his home. In 2009, Moreland began working for Manna as a contractor at Manna’s home. Within days, the safe went missing, and Manna fired Moreland.

Roughly two years later, Moreland recruited two or three men to rob Manna’s home. On the day of the robbery, More-land picked up the men, purchased shotgun ammunition, and headed out. When they arrived at Manna’s street, Moreland pointed out the home. He told the men where to enter, to ask for “Ernie,” and to locate a dresser and safe which he believed contained cash and the titles of cars in Manna’s car lot. The men exited, but Moreland remained in his car.

Manna’s son, also named Ernest, lived in the part of the home entered by the men. When they entered, he was in the shower. The intruders pointed a shotgun at his pregnant girlfriend, fetched him from the bathroom at gunpoint, ordered him to kneel beside his girlfriend, and demanded money, drugs, and guns. As instructed by Moreland, the men asked to speak to “Ernie” and asked where the dresser and the safe were located, warning that they knew about the cash and the auto sales business. The son explained that the cash from the business had already been deposited. The men bound the hands and feet of the son and his girlfriend with duct tape, and fled with $1,200 in cash.

On October 6, 2011, a grand jury indicted Moreland and two of his three accomplices, charging him with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a); attempting and aiding and abetting Hobbs Act robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2; and using, carrying, and aid *91 ing and abetting the use and carry of a firearm while committing a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2.

Before trial, the government moved to admit evidence that Moreland had stolen a green safe from Manna’s home while in his employ. The motion was granted. At trial, Manna’s mother testified that she saw Moreland place a large green box onto his pickup truck, and Pennsylvania State Trooper Robert Kirby, who had investigated the theft of the safe, testified that Moreland’s former girlfriend turned over a necklace that belonged to Manna along with four pieces of wood marred with scuffs of green paint that the police later determined came from the safe.

Manna was convicted after a jury trial, and was sentenced. He now appeals.

II.

A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

We apply a “particularly deferential standard” when reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence challenge. United States v. Caraballo-Rodriguez, 726 F.3d 418, 430 (3d Cir.2013). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, we must sustain a jury’s verdict if “any rational trier of fact could have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted).

1. Hobbs Act

Moreland argues that the government failed to establish the requisite jurisdictional element for a Hobbs Act conviction because the robbery took place at a home and not a business, and because the men “demanded a variety of items not necessarily related to a used car business, including drugs and weapons.” (Appellant’s Br. at 31.)

A defendant can only be convicted of Hobbs Act robbery if he “in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce ... or attempts or conspires so to do.” 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a). As defined in the Hobbs Act, “[t]he term ‘commerce’ means commerce ... between any point in a State ... and any point outside thereof; all commerce between points within the same State through any place outside such State; and all other commerce over which the United States has jurisdiction.” 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(3). Proof that a robbery “deplete[d] the assets” or “specifically targeted the proceeds of businesses engaged in interstate commerce ... satisfies the Hobbs Act’s jurisdictional” element. United States v. Powell, 693 F.3d 398, 404-5 (3d Cir.2012) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Although the robbery at issue here took place at a residence, the evidence at trial demonstrated that it both targeted and depleted the assets of a business engaged in interstate commerce, facts undisturbed by the robbers’ parallel interest in drugs and weapons. Manna’s dealership conducted significant business across state lines. According to Moreland’s accomplices, the object of the robbery was to obtain cash proceeds from the dealership. Those proceeds are precisely what the men, on Moreland’s instructions, demanded Manna’s son turn over during the robbery, and precisely what they ended up taking; indeed, the $1,200 cash they took came from the sale of a car that had taken place just the day before. Moreland’s argument fails.

2. Using and Carrying and Aiding and Abetting the Use and Carry of a Firearm in Violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)

Moreland also argues that the evidence did not establish that he used or *92 carried or aided and abetted the use or carry of the shotgun during the robbery. We disagree.

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574 F. App'x 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kenneth-moreland-ca3-2014.