United States v. Kirkland Charles

626 F. App'x 691
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 23, 2015
Docket13-50233
StatusUnpublished

This text of 626 F. App'x 691 (United States v. Kirkland Charles) 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. Kirkland Charles, 626 F. App'x 691 (9th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

*693 MEMORANDUM *

Kirkland Charles appeals his convictions and sentence for thirteen counts of bank fraud, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2(a), 1344(2), and one count of making a false statement to a federally insured bank, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2(a), 1014. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

1. Charles correctly argues that the Amended Trial Indictment was multiplicitous because it charged four executions of bank fraud in thirteen counts. To determine whether counts of bank fraud are multiplicitous, we look to how the indictment defines the scheme and examine how many executions of the scheme are alleged, a factually intensive inquiry. United States v. Molinaro, 11 F.3d 853, 859-60 (9th Cir.1993). Here, the indictment charged Charles as a knowing and willful participant in a scheme to fraudulently obtain and deplete business lines of credit from Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank. The allegations and proof support four executions of the scheme, one for each of the four lines of credit that was fraudulently obtained and depleted by Charles and various of his co-schemers. The additional nine counts of bank fraud, which charged individual withdrawals from the four lines of credit, do not amount to separate executions of the scheme, but are “act[s] in furtherance of [the] scheme to defraud.” Id. at 860. Each withdrawal “depended on the [fraudulently obtained lines of credit] for its existence”; did not involve “a new and independent obligation to be truthful”; and did not create a new and independent risk for the banks. Id. at 860 & n. 16. Because acts in furtherance of a scheme to defraud do not constitute separate bank fraud offenses, these nine counts were multiplicitous. Id.; United States v. Stewart, 420 F.3d 1007, 1012 (9th Cir.2005). Although we vacate Charles’s convictions for the multiplicitous counts, we do not vacate the first count of conviction for each of the four lines of credit— counts 1, 3, 5, and 10—and we remand for resentencing. See Stewart, 420 F.3d at 1021-22; United States v. Nash, 115 F.3d 1431, 1438 (9th Cir.1997).

2. The district court correctly concluded that sufficient evidence supported Charles’s convictions for bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2(a), 1344(2). “[T]he relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Here, the evidence demonstrated that checks were made out to Charles and Bareka Holdings, a company controlled by Charles, from the fraudulently opened lines of credit for A & A Development Corporation, California Podiatry of Diabetes Foot, and Howling Moon, Inc. A co-schemer also testified that he overheard Charles and Andrea Avery, the undisputed leader of the scheme, arguing about what percentage of each line of credit Avery would receive. And a former Bank of America employee, Quin Westbrook, testified that Charles helped schedule a site visit to a fictitious office of California Podiatry of Diabetes Foot in connection with his application for a credit line for that company. Drawing all inferences from the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a rational jury could have concluded that Charles was a knowing *694 member of the scheme, had the intent to defraud, and acted in furtherance of the scheme. See Rosemond v. United States, — U.S. —, 134 S.Ct. 1240, 1245, 1247-48, 188 L.Ed.2d 248 (2014); United States v. McNeil, 320 F.3d 1034, 1037, 1039 (9th Cir.2003).

A rational jury also could have concluded that Charles was vicariously liable for Avery’s establishment of the Lithium Mi-crosystems line of credit, and subsequent withdrawal of funds from that line, because Avery’s actions would have been reasonably foreseeable to Charles as a “knowing participant in [the] scheme to defraud.” United States v. Stapleton, 293 F.3d 1111, 1117 (9th Cir.2002); see also United States v. Green, 592 F.3d 1057, 1071 (9th Cir.2010).

3. Sufficient evidence also supported Charles’s conviction for making a false statement to a federally insured bank, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2(a), 1014. See Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781. Charles concedes that he falsely represented to Bank of America that Kathryn Nemitz was the owner and guarantor of De La Style, Inc. on an application for a line of credit. A rational jury also could have concluded that Charles made this false representation “for the purpose of influencing” Bank of America. 18 U.S.C. § 1014. The application itself, and Bank of America’s loan review process, would have made it clear to Charles that the identity of the guarantor was relevant to the bank’s decision-making process.

4. The district court did not plainly err in admitting copies of two California driver’s licenses issued to Charles (Exhibits 200 and 201) without authentication, because the driver’s licenses were “cumulative of other evidence admitted at trial without objection.” United States v. Musacchio, 968 F.2d 782, 791 (9th Cir.1991). Charles concedes that the applications for his driver’s licenses (Exhibits 245 and 248) were properly admitted as certified public records. These applications contained Charles’s handwriting and signatures, and the jury' could have used the applications, like the driver’s licenses, as exemplars when identifying Charles’s handwriting on contested documents.

5. The district court did not plainly err when it declined to sua sponte instruct the jury that it was required to compare alleged instances of Charles’s handwriting to an authenticated exemplar to identify his handwriting. “[A] jury may make handwriting comparisons except under extreme or unusual circumstances.” United States v. Jenkins,

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Garner v. Jones
529 U.S. 244 (Supreme Court, 2000)
United States v. Forrester
616 F.3d 929 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Ted A. Musacchio
968 F.2d 782 (Ninth Circuit, 1992)
United States v. Christopher Eric McNeil
320 F.3d 1034 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
Peugh v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2072 (Supreme Court, 2013)
United States v. Green
592 F.3d 1057 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Treadwell
593 F.3d 990 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Rosemond v. United States
134 S. Ct. 1240 (Supreme Court, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
626 F. App'x 691, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kirkland-charles-ca9-2015.