United States v. Myton

224 F. App'x 125
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided May 22, 2007·No. No. 05-5416-CR·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Defendant-appellant Rasene Myton appeals from the judgments of conviction and sentence imposed by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Block, J.) following two jury trials: After the first trial, on Indictment S — 4,1 Myton was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951, attempted robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951, and three counts of using and carrying a firearm in connection with a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). After the second trial, on Indictment S-6, Myton was convicted of one additional count of attempted robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951 and one additional firearm count in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). We presume the parties’ familiarity with the factual and procedural background of this case and the issues raised on appeal.

Myton presents a number of challenges to his conviction and sentence; we address each in turn.

I. Challenges to Conviction

Myton first argues that the district court erred at both of his trials by admitting out-of-court statements to establish the purpose of the conspiracy and the elements of the Hobbs Act violations, running afoul of the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). The testimony to which Myton objects, however, falls outside the ambit of Crawford, which concerns only “testimonial” statements, that is, those “statements that were made under circumstances that would lead an objective witness reasonably to believe that the statements would be available for use at a later trial.” Id. at 52, 124 S.Ct. 1354 (internal quotation marks omitted). The statements made by Paul Campbell (identified during the trial as “Dabby”), which were admitted during the first trial, were statements made by a [129] co-conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy, and thus “by their nature were not testimonial.” Id. at 56, 124 S.Ct. 1354; see also United States v. Stewart, 433 F.3d 273, 291 (2d Cir.2006). The statements made by robbery victim Orland Davis to witness Raul Simon, concerning the provenance of Davis’s marijuana, were not testimonial because they were patently not made “under circumstances which would lead an objective witness reasonably to believe that the statements would be available for use at a later trial.” Crawford, 541 U.S. at 52, 124 S.Ct. 1354 (internal quotation marks omitted). There was thus no Crawford violation in admitting these statements.

We evaluate the admissibility of non-testimonial, out-of-court statements under the two-part test elaborated by the Supreme Court in Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980); see United States v. Saget, 377 F.3d 223, 227, 230-31 (2d Cir.2004). Roberts requires the prosecution to establish first that the declarant of the statement was unavailable at trial, and, second, that the statement carries some “indicia of reliability.” Roberts, 448 U.S. at 65-66, 100 S.Ct. 2531. Such reliability can be demonstrated where “the statements fall within a firmly rooted hearsay exception or contain particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.” Saget, 377 F.3d at 230. Orland Davis’s statements were permissibly admitted into evidence under Roberts. Davis was dead at the time of the trial and was thus clearly unavailable. His statements, like those statements admitted by this Court in United States v. Matthews, 20 F.3d 538, 546 (2d Cir.1994), bore the requisite indicia of reliability, “given the unofficial setting in which the remarks were made and the declarant’s friendly relationship with the listener.” Saget, 377 F.3d at 230. We thus find no error in the admission of Davis’s statements.

Because the government failed to proffer sufficient evidence at trial to demonstrate adequately Campbell’s unavailability, however, his statements were erroneously admitted under Roberts. This Confrontation Clause error is subject to harmless error analysis. See United States v. Vitale, 459 F.3d 190, 195 (2d Cir.2006). Admission of Campbell’s statements was harmless error because the statements were cumulative of other evidence that had been presented at trial and were fully corroborated by Pessoa, the robbery victim, who himself testified that his store sold marijuana, and by others of Myton’s co-conspirators, who testified that they targeted drug dealers for their robberies. Accordingly, the error was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 684, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986).

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United States v. Myton, 224 F. App'x 125 (2d Cir. 2007).

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