United States v. Latavis Mackroy

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided January 21, 2025·No. 23-10404·Unpublished

Opinion

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 23-10404

Non-Argument Calendar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus LATAVIS DEYONTA MACKROY,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 6:22-cr-00087-PGB-LHP-1

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Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and BRANCH and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:

Latavis Mackroy appeals his convictions and sentence for bank robbery and attempted bank robbery. 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Mackroy challenges the admission of testimony concerning two interviews and the denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal. He also argues that the district court erred in applying an enhancement for a threat of death, imposed a substantively unreasonable sentence based on an upward variance, and erred by imposing conditions of supervised release not orally pronounced at sentencing. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A superseding indictment charged Mackroy with robbery of Fairwinds Credit Union, Chase Bank, and TD Bank and attempted robbery of Regions Bank. 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Before trial, the government provided notice under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) that it would introduce evidence of Mackroy’s prior robbery conviction for which he was serving his sentence at a halfway house because it was inextricably intertwined with the charged offense and was relevant to his identity.

At trial, the tellers from each bank testified that a man handed them a note stating it was a robbery and took the money they gave him. The teller at TD Bank testified that the robber left the note behind, and the teller at Regions Bank testified that the

23-10404 Opinion of the Court 3

robber left without the money when the teller went to inform his boss about the robbery. Each teller testified that deposits at the bank were insured by the National Credit Union Association or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. And the government introduced a picture of each bank from the day of each robbery with signs stating the bank was insured. Gina Nava, the teller at Chase Bank, testified that a man approached her and handed her a note that stated, “This is a robbery. Don’t try to protect what’s not yours.” She also remembered reading the word “gun.” She stated that the robber left one of his hands in his sweater, which scared her because she believed he had a weapon.

Pamala Woehr, a latent fingerprint examination expert, testi fied that four prints on the note from TD Bank matched Mackroy’s fingerprints. Jimmy Jones, who worked for a halfway house where Mackroy was serving a sentence with the Bureau of Prisons at the time of the robberies, testified that records showed that Mackroy was signed out of the facility when each robbery occurred . Detective Ronald Budde testified that Mackroy’s car was a short distance from TD Bank before the alarm activated for the robbery. Detective Stephen White testified that Mackroy’s cell phone was used to search for banks the day of one of the robberies and for news stories about the robberies. Agent Timothy Pent testi fied that cell-phone data placed Mackroy’s phone close to the relevant banks at the time each was robbed.

FBI Special Agent Jonathan Hannigan testified that he investigated the robberies. He noted similarities between Mackroy and

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the robber from video recordings of the robberies, including his hair, tattoos, complexion, clothing, and hair wrap. Hannigan questioned Mackroy at the halfway house after advising him of his rights. Mackroy did not admit to being involved in the robberies, but he asked to speak with an assistant United States attorney “in order to broker some sort of deal,” and later asked to speak with FBI Special Agent Kevin Kaufman. After reinforming Mackroy of his rights, Hannigan and Kaufman conducted another interview.

Kaufman testified that he knew Mackroy because he had previously investigated him for Hobbs Act robbery. The government moved to introduce the interview recording and transcript into evidence. Mackroy objected to playing portions of the interview , but the district court overruled his objection.

In the interview, Kaufman informed Mackroy that the prosecution had DNA and fingerprint evidence connecting him to the banks. Kaufman also made several comments regarding Mackroy’s previous conviction, including that he had received a 15-year sentence and that he had not “even started federal probation and [was] out committing federal crimes,” “didn’t learn his lesson” because he was “still doing bank robberies,” and was “back doing this sh*t.” When discussing an unsolved homicide Mackroy had information about, Kaufman stated they would not be able to trust Mackroy to obtain information when he was committing other crimes while living in a halfway house and that letting Mackroy meet with potential suspects would “put[] the public at risk.”

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Kaufman explained at trial that he wanted to obtain truthful information about the instant robbery before Mackroy relayed information about other crimes, such as the unsolved homicide, but Mackroy refused to provide information about the instant offense. Kaufman stated that Mackroy did not deny he committed the offense because if he lied, the agents would not be able to trust him. Kaufman stated that it would not be realistic for someone to cooperate with the FBI and not plead guilty. Kaufman also testified that Mackroy did not deny committing the robberies when shown pictures because “he did it,” that Mackroy smiled or smirked in response to being shown an image of the bank robber because he “knew he was caught, that that was him in the picture,” and that Mackroy’s demeanor during the interview “did not resemble a person that was innocent.”

The government rested. Mackroy moved for a judgment of acquittal arguing that the evidence did not establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The district court denied the motion. The jury found Mackroy guilty on all four counts. Mackroy moved for a new trial arguing that there was insufficient evidence the banks were federally insured, which the district court denied.

Mackroy’s final presentence investigation report reported a base offense level of 20, United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2B3.1(a) (Nov. 2021), a 2-level enhancement because the targeted victim was a financial institution, id. § 2B3.1(b)(1), a 2-level enhancement because the note given to Nava at Chase Bank included a threat of death by referring to a gun, id. § 2B3.1(b)(2)(F), a

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2-level enhancement for obstruction of justice for denying under oath that he was the individual in the video of the Regions Bank robbery, id. § 3C1.1, and a 4-level multiple count adjustment because the offenses were counted separately as they involved harm to separate victims, id. §§ 3D1.2(a)-(d), 3D1.4, resulting in a total offense level of 30. The report listed Mackroy’s juvenile adjudications for aggravated assault with a firearm, resisting an officer without violence, battery, battery on a school employee, and carrying a concealed firearm, for which he did not receive any criminal history points. It also listed a prior conviction for interfering with commerce by robbery. It described multiple violations of probation for juvenile and adult offenses and disciplinary sanctions while in prison. It added two criminal-history points because he committed the instant offenses while serving his sentence for interfering with commerce by robbery. The report calculated a total of nine criminal-history points and a criminal-history category of IV. Mackroy’s guideline range was 135 to 168 months and the maximum term of imprisonment as to each of his convictions was 240 months.

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