United States v. Natal

849 F.3d 530, 2017 WL 710459, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3246
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided February 23, 2017·No. Docket Nos. 15-94, 15-1012, 15-1020·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In this appeal of judgments of conviction and sentence involving crimes that include arson resulting in death, accessory after the fact to arson, and destruction and concealment of evidence, we write to address three issues:

(1) Whether testimony on how cell phone towers operate must be provided by an expert witness rather than a lay witness;
(2) Whether defendant Morales’s conviction for destruction and concealment of evidence for re-painting his van must be vacated in light of the Supreme Court’s holding in an intervening decision, Yates v. United States, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 1074, 191 L.Ed.2d 64 (2015), that the statutory provision under which Morales was convicted covers “only objects one can use to record or preserve information”; and
(3) Whether, in calculating Morales’s Sentencing Guidelines range, Morales’s convictions for accessory after the fact must be “grouped” pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2.

The essential factual background of this case is as follows:

On the early morning of March 9, 2011, three members of the Roberson family— Jaquetta1 Roberson, Quayshawn Roberson, and Wanda Roberson — died in an intentionally-caused fire at 48-50 Wolcott Street in New Haven, Connecticut. Hector [533]*533Natal, a neighbor of the Robersons, was charged with arson resulting in death, and his father, Hector Morales, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to arson for conduct that allegedly included driving Natal away from the scene of the fire after Natal started the blaze. Both Natal and Morales were charged with conspiring to tamper with, and tampering with, witnesses during law enforcement’s investigation of the arson, including by seeking to cause witnesses to testify falsely to the grand jury. Additionally, Morales was charged with destruction and concealment of evidence for repainting the van that he had allegedly used to drive Natal away from the fire. Natal was also charged with attempted arson for trying to start a fire at the same New Haven building in approximately October 2010.2 Finally, both Natal and Morales were charged with participation in a drug conspiracy.3

Defendants Natal and Morales were tried jointly in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Ar-terton, /.), and on April 18, 2013, a jury found the defendants guilty on all counts. On January 8, 2015, the district court sentenced Morales to 174 months’ imprisonment and 36 months of supervised release. On February 25, 2015, the district court sentenced Natal to life imprisonment on the arson counts, 240 months on each of the other charges that went to trial, and 40 years on the conviction resulting from Natal’s guilty plea to the cocaine possession charge, all to run concurrently. Following the district court’s entry of judgment, both Natal and Morales timely appealed.

On appeal, the defendants raise numerous claims, including allegations that Natal’s Confrontation Clause rights were violated at trial, that there was a prejudicial variance between the indictment and the proof at trial, that the district court erroneously admitted lay opinion testimony concerning the operation of cell phone towers, that Morales’s conviction for destruction and concealment of evidence must be vacated in light of an intervening Supreme Court decision, that Natal’s sentence was imposed in contravention of the Eighth Amendment, and that the district court’s calculation of Morales’s U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range was procedurally erroneous. In a case with many issues, the district court was thorough and meticulous.

We affirm the district court except as to the following claims. First, we hold that testimony on how cell phone towers operate constitutes expert testimony and may not be introduced through a lay witness. However, the admission in the instant ease of lay opinion testimony on the operation of cell phone towers was harmless. Second, we hold that Morales’s conviction for destruction and concealment of evidence must be vacated in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Yates v. United States, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 1074 (2015), handed down shortly after Morales filed the instant appeal. We remand Morales’s case to the district court to vacate Morales’s conviction for destruction and concealment of evidence, and, pursuant to United States v. Powers, 842 F.3d 177 (2d Cir. 2016), to conduct de novo resentencing of Morales. Third, as part of the district court’s calculation of Morales’s Guidelines range at the [534]*534resentencing, Morales’s three counts of conviction for accessory after the fact should be grouped pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2. We reject the defendants’ other claims. Consequently, we uphold all counts of conviction except Morales’s conviction for destruction and concealment of evidence, and we remand Morales’s case to the district court to vacate Morales’s conviction for destruction and concealment of evidence and to resentence Morales de novo.

I. The admission of lay opinion testimony on how cell phone towers operate

Morales and Natal argue that the district court erred in admitting lay opinion testimony on the operation of cell phone towers instead of requiring this testimony to be presented by an expert witness. We review the district court’s eviden-tiary rulings for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Rosemond, 841 F.3d 95, 107 (2d Cir. 2016). “A district court has abused its discretion if it based its ruling on an erroneous view of the law or on a clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence or rendered a decision that cannot be located within the range óf permissible decisions.” United States v. Rowland, 826 F.3d 100, 114 (2d Cir. 2016) (quoting United States v. Fazio, 770 F.3d 160, 165 (2d Cir. 2014)). However, “[w]e will reverse only if an error affects a ‘substantial right,’ meaning that the error ‘had a substantial and injurious effect or influence on the jury’s verdict.’ ” Id. (first quoting Fed. R. Evid. 103(a); then quoting United States v. Garcia, 413 F.3d 201, 210 (2d Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted)). “[W]here a court, upon review of the entire record, is sure that the evidentiary error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand.” Id. (quoting Garcia, 413 F.3d at 210) (alteration in original).

“Historical cell-site analysis,” as the Seventh Circuit recently explained, “uses cell phone records and cell tower locations to determine, within some range of error, a cell phone’s location at a particular time.” United States v. Hill, 818 F.3d 289, 295 (7th Cir. 2016). A cell phone connects to a cell phone tower in order to access the cellular network and communicate with other phones. Id. “Each cell tower covers a certain geographic area[,]” which “depends upon ‘the number of antennas operating on the cell site, the height of the antennas, topography of the surrounding land, and obstructions (both natural and man-made).’” Id. (quoting Aaron Blank,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

United States v. Natal, 849 F.3d 530, 2017 WL 710459, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3246 (2d Cir. 2017).

849 F.3d 530 (United States v. Natal) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State v. Jule Hannah
Supreme Court of New Jersey, 2026
United States v. Constantine
Second Circuit, 2025
State v. Sinnard
543 P.3d 525 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2024)
United States v. Joshua Duggar
76 F.4th 788 (Eighth Circuit, 2023)
United States v. Zhukov
Second Circuit, 2023
State Of Louisiana v. Sidney Phillips, Jr.
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2022
State v. Smith
516 P.3d 1071 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2022)
State of Iowa v. Jacob A. Boothby
Supreme Court of Iowa, 2020
Natal v. United States
D. Connecticut, 2020
United States v. Jason Marley
Second Circuit, 2020
State of Tennessee v. Timothy Leron Brown
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2019
United States v. Nelson
Second Circuit, 2019
United States v. Boles
914 F.3d 95 (Second Circuit, 2019)
People v. Ortiz
2019 NY Slip Op 221 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2019)
United States v. Gentle
Second Circuit, 2018
United States v. Medley
312 F. Supp. 3d 493 (D. Maryland, 2018)
Washington v. Kellwood Company
714 F. App'x 35 (Second Circuit, 2017)