United States v. Monroe

CourtUnited States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedApril 10, 2020
DocketACM S32547
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Monroe (United States v. Monroe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Monroe, (afcca 2020).

Opinion

U NITED S TATES AIR F ORCE C OURT OF C RIMINAL APPEALS ________________________

No. ACM S32547 ________________________

UNITED STATES Appellee v. Nicholas D. MONROE Senior Airman (E-4), U.S. Air Force, Appellant ________________________

Appeal from the United States Air Force Trial Judiciary Decided 10 April 2020 ________________________

Military Judge: Jennifer E. Powell. Approved sentence: Bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 4 months, forfeiture of $1,000.00 pay per month for 4 months, reduction to E-1, and a reprimand. Sentence adjudged 20 June 2018 by SpCM convened at Beale Air Force Base, California. For Appellant: Captain David A. Schiavone, USAF. For Appellee: Lieutenant Colonel Joseph J. Kubler, USAF; Major Mi- chael T. Bunnell, USAF; Mary Ellen Payne, Esquire. Before MINK, LEWIS, and D. JOHNSON, Appellate Military Judges. Judge LEWIS delivered the opinion of the court, in which Senior Judge MINK and Judge D. JOHNSON joined. ________________________

This is an unpublished opinion and, as such, does not serve as precedent under AFCCA Rule of Practice and Procedure 30.4. ________________________

LEWIS, Judge: A special court-martial composed of a military judge sitting alone convicted Appellant, in accordance with his pleas and a pretrial agreement (PTA), of seven specifications of wrongful use and possession of controlled substances United States v. Monroe, No. ACM S32547

(lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana, and psilocybin) and wrongful distribution of marijuana, in violation of Article 112a, Uniform Code of Mili- tary Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 912a. 1 The military judge sentenced Appel- lant to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for four months, forfeiture of $1,000.00 pay per month for four months, reduction to the grade of E-1, and a reprimand. The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence. 2 Appellant raises two assignments of error: (1) whether he is entitled to sen- tence relief when he was denied access to medications during post-trial con- finement; and (2) whether the staff judge advocate (SJA) provided incomplete advice to the convening authority when Appellant raised concerns about his post-trial confinement conditions during clemency. We find no prejudicial error and affirm the findings and sentence.

I. BACKGROUND Appellant’s Air Force career had a promising start and a troublesome end. While in technical training, Appellant met his future wife who was completing her training in a different career field. The two agreed to attempt a long-dis- tance relationship. Appellant moved to his first assignment at Joint Base An- drews, Maryland, and his future wife headed west for her first assignment at Beale Air Force Base (AFB), California. After a few months of being geographically separated, the couple decided to get married and pursue the Join Spouse Assignment Program 3 where Ap- pellant could move to Beale AFB. They eventually married and secured the join spouse assignment to Beale AFB, but before Appellant could move their marriage began to deteriorate. The couple decided to give their marriage one more chance, and Appellant made the move across country. Unfortunately, their relationship did not improve when Appellant arrived in California. To

1All references in this opinion to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Rules for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) are to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2016 ed.). 2 Pursuant to the PTA, the convening authority dismissed with prejudice one specifi- cation alleging wrongful possession of cocaine, in violation of Article 112a, UCMJ. Also per the PTA’s terms, the convening authority dismissed with prejudice certain words from two specifications: (1) from the wrongful possession of LSD specification, Specifi- cation 1 of the Charge, the words “with the intent to distribute the said lysergic acid diethylamide;” and (2) from the wrongful possession of marijuana specification, Speci- fication 3 of the Charge, the words “with the intent to distribute the said marijuana.” Finally, the PTA’s terms did not affect the sentence the convening authority could ap- prove. 3 Air Force Instruction 36-2110, Total Force Assignments, Attachment 8 (5 Oct. 2018).

2 United States v. Monroe, No. ACM S32547

complicate matters further, Appellant hated his new workplace and began hav- ing suicidal thoughts. In an attempt to cope, Appellant decided to self-medicate by using mariju- ana. Eventually Appellant and his wife divorced. After the divorce, Appellant’s marijuana habit expanded to the point where he used four to six times per week and kept a supply of it at his house. As his civilian friends were well aware of his marijuana habit, one of them asked Appellant to sell her mariju- ana. He agreed and gave her a gram of marijuana at no cost. At trial, Appellant pleaded guilty to use, possession, and distribution of marijuana. In addition to marijuana, Appellant began to seek out other illegal drugs. Around this time, Appellant began living with a new civilian roommate who shared his interest in illegal drugs, specifically LSD and psilocybin mush- rooms. Regarding LSD, Appellant and his roommate agreed to jointly purchase a “sheet” of the drug, between 50 and 100 doses, for $800.00. The civilian seller mailed Appellant the sheet of LSD inside of a birthday card. When Appellant and his roommate attended a rave, they bought more LSD. The roommates stored the LSD obtained from both sources at their house, and Appellant used it multiple times, usually ingesting two or three tabs at a time. At trial, Appel- lant pleaded guilty to using and possessing LSD. For the psilocybin mushrooms, Appellant and his roommate also pooled their money together to obtain the drug. Appellant stored the mushrooms at his house and ingested some of them. At trial, Appellant pleaded guilty to using and possessing psilocybin, a Schedule I controlled substance. In June 2017, Appellant’s drug involvement came to light when he provided a urine sample that tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. In a subsequent search of his house, agents from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) seized tabs of LSD, about three grams of mushrooms, and paraphernalia used to smoke marijuana. After waiving his right to remain silent and to have counsel present, Appellant de- scribed his drug offenses and informed the AFOSI agents that he was consid- ering suicide. The AFOSI agents properly shared Appellant’s suicidal ideations with Appellant’s chain of command, which led to Appellant agreeing to inpa- tient treatment. At trial, Appellant credited this treatment with giving him the coping strategies and communications skills that he was lacking. He summa- rized for the military judge, “I gained a lot from that place and think if I had gone there months sooner, before I resorted to drugs to fix my problems, things would be different now.” After trial adjourned, on 20 June 2018, Appellant was ordered into post- trial confinement. During a medical examination, Appellant was found “fit” for

3 United States v. Monroe, No. ACM S32547

confinement and began his term of confinement at the Sutter County Jail in California. On 11 July 2018, Appellant was transferred to the military confine- ment facility at Vandenberg AFB, California. In September 2018, while post- trial processing in his case was still on-going, Appellant twice raised concerns using the prisoner grievance system that he was running out of an important medication. On 4 September 2018, Appellant filed his first grievance, via a Department of Defense (DoD) Form 510.

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