United States v. Mazzio

48 F. App'x 120
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 27, 2002
DocketNo. 00-1244, 01-1699
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 48 F. App'x 120 (United States v. Mazzio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Mazzio, 48 F. App'x 120 (6th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Defendant-Appellant Anthony Mazzio appeals from the judgment entered on February 29, 2000 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, of conviction and sentence of 240 months, imposed on two counts relating to the possession of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846; and from the trial court’s denial of his motion for a new trial.

Mazzio raises three assignments of error. First, he claims the district court judge abused its discretion by refusing to grant his motions for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. Second, he claims the judge committed plain error, in violation of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), in imposing his sentence based on [122]*122an amount of drugs not charged in the indictment and proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Finally, he claims the statutes he was convicted under, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846 are facially unconstitutional.

We find Mazzio’s contentions without merit for the following reasons. First, the judge did not abuse his discretion in denying Mazzio’s motion for a new trial because the evidence proffered by Mazzio was neither newly discovered, exculpatory, nor material. Second, the judge did not commit plain error at sentencing under Apprendi because the sentence did not exceed the statutory maximum, and alternatively, although not proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, the amount of drugs was otherwise shown by “overwhelming and essentially uncontroverted” evidence. Finally, §§ 841 and 846 are not facially unconstitutional because there exist circumstances where the statutes, as written, can comply with the requirements of Apprendi and the Constitution. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court on all issues.

I.

On April 29, 1999, a multi-jurisdictional drug interdiction task force, including members of the Wayne County, Michigan Sheriffs Department (“Task Force”), received a tip that an individual staying at the Hilton Suites near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport was possibly involved in narcotics. The only clue the Task Force had to the man’s identity is that he was a resident of Illinois. Deputy Tyrone Jackson of the Wayne County Sheriffs Department proceeded to the area of the hotel and observed two vehicles in the hotel parking lot with Illinois plates. One of the vehicles, a green Dodge Intrepid, was registered to an Illinois man, Rogelio “Roger” Agguire, who had two previous drug arrests in Illinois, as well as an outstanding bench warrant for drug activity in Wayne County. Deputy Jackson learned that, instead of Agguire, another Illinois man, Timothy Coop, Jr., had registered at the hotel with Agguire’s ear, in Room 439. The task force set up surveillance.

Task Force members waited and eventually observed an unknown man knock on the door of Room 439. This man, later identified as Darrel Steel, subsequently left the hotel with the man identified as Coop. Steel drove an Oldsmobile Alero, while Coop followed in the Intrepid. Coop and Steel drove to a location in Romulus, Michigan, where the two engaged in what may have been drug activity.1 Subsequently, Coop left the location and returned to the hotel alone in the Intrepid. Shortly thereafter, the Intrepid left the hotel again, this time followed by a white Grand Am. This time, the Intrepid was driven not by Coop, but by a man later identified as Appellant Anthony Mazzio. The Grand Am was driven by a female, later identified as Alicia Harrington. The Intrepid and the Grand Am drove north on the Southfield Expressway into Dearborn.

Members of the Task Force, wishing to know the identity of the driver, requested that a Dearborn police unit find a reason to stop the Intrepid. Dearborn Police Officer Michael Ball observed the Intrepid, driven by Mazzio, following too closely behind the car in front of it. With some difficulty, Officer Ball initiated a traffic stop on the Intrepid.2 Mazzio produced [123]*123his driver’s license but failed to produce any papers for the vehicle, claiming the car was not his, but instead belonged to a friend of his named Roger, whose last name Mazzio did not know. Mazzio claimed he had borrowed Roger’s car to go to the Fairlane Mall, apparently unaware the vehicle had been under observation for some time.

Officer Ball cited Mazzio for following too closely and requested Mazzio’s consent to search the vehicle. Mazzio consented to the search, including the participation of a canine unit. The dog sniff led to the discovery of approximately ten kilograms of cocaine hidden in a secret compartment beneath the back seat of the car. Ball arrested Mazzio and administered the Miranda warnings. Officers seized two cellular phones from the scene, one on Mazzio’s person, the other in the backseat of the Intrepid. After learning that narcotics had been discovered in the Intrepid, Deputy Jackson and his partner returned to the hotel and arrested Coop. In Coop’s hotel room, police discovered a hand-written map with directions from Chicago to Detroit as well as a hand-written pager number and a hand-written cellular phone number (hereafter collectively known as “the contact numbers”).

At trial, Coop testified against Mazzio. In exchange, the government offered Coop a reduced sentence from his statutorily imposed minimum sentence of 120 months to approximately 40 months.3 Coop alleged that on two occasions, within the span of five days, he was hired by a man in Chicago named Ricardo, and paid $1500 to make a drug run to Detroit. Both times, Coop followed the same routine. He drove the same green Intrepid to a hotel near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.4 Coop then called the pager number written on the map, and both times a man known to him as “D”, and later identified as Steel, arrived a short time later. Coop, in the Intrepid, drove behind “D” to the residence in Romulus, where Coop handed the keys to “D.” “D” took the keys and drove the Intrepid into the garage and closed the door behind him. A short time later “D” returned the Intrepid and the keys to Coop. Coop then drove the Intrepid back to the hotel, where he again called the contact number. Mazzio arrived a short time later, and Coop handed him the keys. The first time, Mazzio returned a while later and handed the keys and the car over to Coop. The second time was when Mazzio and Coop were arrested.

The officers were in possession of the telephone records associated with the two cellular phones found on or near Mazzio at the time of his arrest. The records indicated both cell phones were registered to a Stacey Hunter, and both had been used to call obvious transpositions of the contact numbers several times.5 At trial, the par[124]*124ties stipulated Stacey Hunter had supplied Mazzio with both cell phones. Coop indicated that the contact numbers were the numbers which he used to contact the Chicago supplier, Ricardo. This evidence regarding the cell phones apparently linked Mazzio to the Chicago supplier.

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Related

In re Mazzio
756 F.3d 487 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)
In re: Anthony Mazzio v.
Sixth Circuit, 2014
Mazzio v. United States
538 U.S. 968 (Supreme Court, 2003)
United States v. Bordayo
59 F. App'x 653 (Sixth Circuit, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
48 F. App'x 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mazzio-ca6-2002.