United States v. Leslie Chin

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 31, 2018
Docket16-14691
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Leslie Chin (United States v. Leslie Chin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Leslie Chin, (11th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Case: 16-14691 Date Filed: 05/31/2018 Page: 1 of 21

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________

No. 16-14691 ________________________

D.C. Docket No. 2:14-cr-00135-SPC-CM-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

versus

LESLIE CHIN,

Defendant - Appellant.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ________________________

(May 31, 2018)

Before TJOFLAT, ROSENBAUM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Following a jury trial, Leslie Chin was convicted of cocaine-trafficking

charges. He appeals the denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal and motion Case: 16-14691 Date Filed: 05/31/2018 Page: 2 of 21

for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. Chin also appeals his

sentence, arguing that it is substantively unreasonable and creates a sentencing

disparity between him and one of his co-defendants. For the reasons that follow,

we affirm.

I.

In December 2014, a grand jury charged Chin and two co-defendants with

conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it, in violation of 21

U.S.C. § 846 (Count I), and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute it, in

violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a) and (b) (Count II). Both co-defendants pled guilty

to the conspiracy charge, but Chin pled not guilty and went to trial.

At trial, the Government presented a number of witnesses. Among others,

Harold Coleman, one of Chin’s co-conspirators, testified. Coleman explained that

he knew Chin by his nickname “Bless” and that he introduced him to co-defendant

Jerome Vaughn, who was looking to make some money selling cocaine. He

further recounted a March 2012 trip he took with Vaughn to Atlanta, Georgia, with

$20,000 to $30,000 in tow to buy cocaine from Chin. About a week after that trip,

Coleman stated, he met with Chin and Vaughn in Sumter, South Carolina, and they

2 Case: 16-14691 Date Filed: 05/31/2018 Page: 3 of 21

distributed 1 “key” 1—36 ounces—of cocaine Chin had brought with him to sell.

According to Coleman, Chin charged about $1,000 per ounce.

Coleman testified that Chin went to Sumter two or three more times over a

six- to eight-month period, bringing with him two to three keys of cocaine each

time. But Sumter was not the only place Coleman saw Chin. Coleman also

traveled to Atlanta periodically to buy drugs from Chin. In Atlanta, on between 20

and 30 occasions, Coleman bought cocaine at an apartment, and he saw Chin there

about 10 of those times.

Coleman explained that Chin contacted Coleman and Vaughn when he had a

supply of cocaine, and they would arrange a specific time for Coleman to come to

Atlanta to purchase the cocaine, usually two to three times a month. As Coleman

recalled, he received about 20 keys of cocaine from Chin over the period they dealt

in both Atlanta and Sumter. Coleman often pooled money with two or three

people to buy from Chin because Chin would never sell less than one key at a time.

Besides recounting his drug-trading interactions with Chin, Coleman also

testified about two Florida arrests Chin told him about. In the first instance, Chin

said he was driving someone to the airport when police stopped them and found a

1 A kilogram of cocaine is made up of 35.274 ounces. “Key” is generally considered a reference to “kilogram” when used in the context of discussing cocaine. Kilo (or Key), Urban Dictionary, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kilo%20%28or%20Key%29 (last visited May 25, 2018).

3 Case: 16-14691 Date Filed: 05/31/2018 Page: 4 of 21

gram of cocaine in his car, which he had forgotten to drop off before going to the

airport. Chin was charged, and the police confiscated about $80,000 to $90,000 he

had with him, which Chin said he was sending to Atlanta through a flight attendant

who was a friend of his.

The second Florida incident occurred when the police stopped Chin on his

way to court. Chin was driving his brother’s car with “stash boxes” in it: the air

bag had been removed and placed under the spare tire in the trunk to accommodate

storage for drugs.

Another witness, Gary Williams, confirmed these two stories. Williams

identified Chin in the courtroom and testified that they met while housed in the

same pod in the Charlotte County Jail. During that time, Chin said he used to hide

cocaine in compartments in cars and while he was in Florida, he was pulled over in

a car with a hidden compartment inside it.

To further corroborate the story about the first traffic stop, the Government

called Florida Highway Patrol Officer Christopher Adkinson to testify. Adkinson

recalled that on September 21, 2011, when he conducted the traffic stop on Chin,

Chin stepped out of the vehicle upon the Officer’s request, gave him his driver’s

license, and told him he was headed to Fort Myers airport. When the Officer went

to get the registration documents from the car, the passenger seated inside, Brian

Dicks, jumped out unrequested. Dicks donned a blue flight-attendant uniform and

4 Case: 16-14691 Date Filed: 05/31/2018 Page: 5 of 21

identification patch, and Adkinson testified that the passenger was “a little nervous

and began to fidget with the outer coat jacket, at which point I observed a large

bundle of cash in the left pocket of the passenger’s jacket.” Dicks had $7,000 in

cash on him. And Adkinson became more suspicious when Chin reached for his

registration papers and placed them on the floorboard instead of on the passenger’s

seat.

At that point, Adkinson called for back-up. Once the additional officers

arrived, a police K-9 sniffed around the car and alerted Adkinson to the presence of

drugs. He and another officer then searched the car and found a small, clear,

plastic bag containing three smaller bags of cocaine on the passenger-side

floorboard, in plain view, under some registration papers. In the trunk, Adkinson

also found luggage with clothes, a flight manual, and a little over $50,000 in cash

in bundles. The car was registered to Chin and his then-girlfriend.

Adkinson added that at the time of the stop, he was not aware that either

Chin or his passenger was suspected of having any involvement in a drug

conspiracy, and he found no drugs or money on Chin’s person. Finally, Adkinson

agreed he had no reason to believe the passenger was not a real flight attendant.

The Government also entered into evidence a video taken from the patrol car

in which Chin and his passenger were placed while the officers conducted their

search of Chin’s car. In the video, Chin made a call to his brother Andrew, a co-

5 Case: 16-14691 Date Filed: 05/31/2018 Page: 6 of 21

defendant, and told him that he had “it” in his pocket and that he never would have

had that “coke” on him and would have thrown it out the window. He later stated

in the video that he was worried the K-9 would smell “the bread” and

paraphernalia. Then Chin said he had it in his pocket and threw it to Dicks to get

rid of, but Dicks did not touch it. Chin asked his brother for advice on what they

should say about the money found in Dicks’s bag in the truck.

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