United States v. Mario Antonio Acosta

421 F.3d 1195, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 18155, 2005 WL 2030767
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 2005
Docket04-16480
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 421 F.3d 1195 (United States v. Mario Antonio Acosta) 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. Mario Antonio Acosta, 421 F.3d 1195, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 18155, 2005 WL 2030767 (11th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

WILSON, Circuit Judge:

Mario Antonio Acosta, who was convicted by a jury for attempting to receive a videotape containing child pornography and attempting to possess a videotape containing child pornography, appeals the denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29. He claims that the government failed to satisfy the jurisdictional requirement that the videotape travel in interstate commerce, and that the district court was thereby obligated to grant his motion. We affirm the district court’s ruling.

I. Background

In April 2004, Acosta logged-on to an Internet website that appealed to people interested in youthful or underage homosexual activity, and made inquiries about how he could purchase pornographic videos. Little did he know that the website was actually part of an undercover operation designed to catch child pornography purchasers over the Internet. A United States Postal Inspector in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, using the undercover name “Sam” obtained an undercover e-mail address to receive communications from individuals during the investigation and began communicating with Acosta.

In some of the e-mails, Sam, graphically describing the child pornography videotapes he had available, told Acosta that he would charge him twenty dollars per tape. Acosta then e-mailed Sam telling him that he sent him a twenty dollar money order for the videotape and asked Sam to mail the videotape to his home in Miami, Florida. In response, Sam told Acosta that he sent the videotape by overnight mail, and that he should expect it the following day. However, instead of mailing the videotape overnight, Sam sent it by registered mail to a postal inspector (Fernandez) in Miami. After receiving the videotape from Sam, Fernandez packaged it in an express mail package to simulate its condition as if it were an actual package mailed from Pennsylvania. Fernandez, dressed as a United States mail letter carrier, personally delivered the package to Acosta, who signed for the package. Fernandez then left Acosta’s home and later returned to arrest him.

The grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Acosta with attempting to receive material containing child pornography “that had been mailed, *1197 shipped or transported in interstate commerce by any means,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(2)(B) and (b)(1), and attempting to possess a videotape containing images of child pornography, as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(8)(A), “that had been mailed, shipped or transported in interstate commerce, by any means,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(5)(B) and (b)(2). 1 After the government rested, Acosta unsuccessfully sought a judgment of acquittal under Rule 29.

II. Standard of Review

We review the district court’s denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal de novo, viewing the facts and drawing all inferences in the light most favorable to the government. United States v. Descent, 292 F.3d 703, 706 (11th Cir.2002). To affirm the denial of a Rule 29 motion, we look to the evidence to determine whether it was sufficient to establish the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. Where, as here, defendant asserts that the government failed to prove a jurisdictional requirement of a statute, we view that as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. United States v. Key, 76 F.3d 350, 353 (11th Cir.1996).

III. Discussion

Acosta claims that the jurisdictional element of the statutes was not met because an undercover postal inspector, rather than an actual mail letter carrier, delivered the videotape to his home. According to Acosta, “actual mailing,” by an “actual mailman” or a delivery at an “actual post office” must take place to satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(2)(B) and 2252A(a)(5)(B).

To consider Acosta’s contention, we examine the language of the statutory provision at issue. “The starting point in construing a statute is the language of the statute itself.” Randall v. Loftsgaarden, 478 U.S. 647, 656, 106 S.Ct. 3143, 3149, 92 L.Ed.2d 525 (1986). The “cardinal cannon” of statutory interpretation is “that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there.” Connecticut Nat’l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-54, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 1149, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992). Moreover, we construe statutes so that “no clause, sentence, or word shall be superfluous, void, or insignificant.” United States v. Ballinger, 395 F.3d 1218, 1236 (11th Cir.2005).

The statutes that Acosta faced unambiguously state that child pornography need only be shipped, transported, or mailed in interstate or foreign commerce by any means, to satisfy the jurisdictional requirement. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(2)(B), 2252A(a)(5)(B). Therefore, all that the government needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to escape Acosta’s Rule 29 motion was that the videotape was mailed, or shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce “by any means.” Id.; see also United States v. Maxwell, 386 F.3d 1042, 1051 (11th Cir.2004) (emphasis added). Certainly, without evidence that the child pornography traveled in interstate commerce, *1198 the government is unable to sustain its burden of proof at trial. But the government’s burden is not as heavy as Acosta suggests — we do not read the statute to require that the government must prove that delivery take place by an “actual mailman” or that there is pick-up at an “actual post office.” The phrase “by any means” obviously evidences Congress’s intention to include alternative avenues of transportation, like a private courier service, Federal Express, United Parcel Service or their equivalent, as long as child pornography is shipped, transported or mailed through the channels of interstate commerce.

Other circuits appear to support this interpretation. We note that the Fourth and Sixth Circuits have addressed the meaning of similar language in other child pornography statutes. In United States v. Dornhofer,

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Bluebook (online)
421 F.3d 1195, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 18155, 2005 WL 2030767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mario-antonio-acosta-ca11-2005.