United States v. Patton

651 F. App'x 423
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 7, 2016
DocketNo. 15-5623
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 651 F. App'x 423 (United States v. Patton) 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. Patton, 651 F. App'x 423 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

COOK, Circuit Judge.

Angry with his superior officers for demoting him, Amos Patton retrieved a gun from his car and opened fire at officers at the Tennessee National Guard Armory. In this appeal, he challenges the federal government’s jurisdiction to prosecute him, claiming that the offense did not occur within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. He also asserts a Speedy-Trial-Act violation and challenges the district court’s restitution order. We affirm.

I.

In 2013, Patton, then a Tennessee National Guard recruiter, met with his superi- or officers at the National Guard Armory in Millington, Tennessee. At the meeting, Patton’s superior officers reduced his rank, relieved him of full-time employment, and afforded him an opportunity to'voluntarily resign. Patton refused. He went to his car, reentered the Armory with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and opened fire on the officers there. He ran out of ammunition after wounding three officers. He was taken into custody after being subdued in the parking lot.

A federal grand jury charged Patton with four counts of assault with intent to commit murder within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 113(a)(1), four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, id. § 113(a)(3), and one count of carrying and using a firearm during a federal crime of violence, id. § 924(c). A jury convicted Patton on all nine counts. He now appeals.

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Patton argues that the court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over his prosecution because the shootings occurred in territory under Tennessee’s exclusive jurisdiction, not “the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” 18 U.S.C. § 113(a)(1), (3). The territorial jurisdiction of the United States includes “lands reserved or acquired for the use of the United States, and under the exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction thereof.” 18 U.S.C. § 7(3) (emphasis added). “[Wjhether a crime is committed within the ‘special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States’ is a question of subject-matter jurisdiction.” United States v. Detcher, 480 Fed.Appx. 360, 361 (6th Cir. 2012) (citing United States v. Gabrion, 517 F.3d 839, 845 n. 5 (6th Cir. 2008)).

The parties disagree on the standard of review. The government deems this a sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge subject to deferential review because the jury found territorial jurisdiction — an element of each offense — beyond a reasonable doubt. See [425]*425Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Patton maintains that subject-matter jurisdiction always receives de novo review. See Gabrion, 517 F.3d at 872 (Moore, J., concurring). We need not determine which standard applies because Patton’s claims fail under either standard.

The United States had exclusive jurisdiction over the land on which the Armory stands until 1998. The United States then signed a retrocession agreement returning parts of the Naval Support Activity to Tennessee while establishing concurrent jurisdiction over the returned land. The Armory fell within the agreement’s purview.

Patton selectively cites the retro-cession agreement to prove that the United States relinquished all interest in the Armory. He quotes language transferring ownership of the land to Tennessee, as well as language noting that “cession of jurisdiction is hereby accepted by the United States.” But he ignores two key facts: the parties (1) titled the retrocession contract a “memorandum of agreement by and between the United States of America and the State of Tennessee for concurrent jurisdiction” and (2) agreed that “all the land as shown and described [in the agreement shall] be subject to the concurt'ent jurisdiction of both the United States and the State of Tennessee.” Because the record is clear that the federal government exercised concurrent jurisdiction with Tennessee over the Armory, the district court had subject-matter jurisdiction over Patton’s prosecution.

III.

Patton challenges .his conviction under the Speedy Trial Act and identifies 87 non-excludable days between his arraignment and the beginning of trial.

The Speedy Trial Act generally requires a criminal defendant’s trial to commence “within seventy days” of arraignment. 18 U.S.C. § 3161(c)(1). The Act excludes delays caused by certain events, including judge-granted continuances where the judge finds “that the ends of justice served by taking such action outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.” Id. § 3161(h)(7)(A). We review ends-of-justice continuances for abuse of discretion and will not reverse absent a showing of prejudice. United States v. Howard, 218 F.3d 556, 563 (6th Cir. 2000); United States v. Cíanciola, 920 F.2d 1295, 1298 (6th Cir. 1990).

The parties agree that 30 non-excludable days passed before September 3, 2014, but Patton argues that 57 additional non-ex-cludable days passed thereafter. Here is how he arrives at that'count. On September 3, the court denied the government’s motion to exclude Patton’s expert testimony regarding Patton’s suicidal ideation just before the shooting. The court anticipated that denying exclusion would lead the government to request its own mental evaluation of Patton, which “may delay the case ultimately getting to trial.” To facilitate that evaluation, the court set “a status/report date” of November 10.

Patton moved to dismiss the indictment under the Speedy Trial Act, arguing that the district court entered no ends-of-justice findings at the September hearing. This omission, Patton argued, kept the speedy-trial clock running and that 57 days1 between that hearing and the November 10 status conference should count [426]*426toward exceeding the speedy-trial allotment. If Patton were correct, 87 non-ex-cludable days would have passed between his arraignment and trial.

The district court denied Patton’s motion. Although it conceded that it made no ends-of-justice findings at the September hearing, the court ruled that its on-the-record findings in September — that the government needed time for a mental evaluation — supported an ends-of-justice continuance. It then entered these findings on the record before denying Patton’s motion to dismiss.

Patton argues that the court could not, in effect, back-date the required findings. But the law is otherwise: a district court must place ends-of-justice findings on the record “by the time [it] rules on a defendant’s motion to dismiss.” Zedner v. United States, 547 U.S. 489

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651 F. App'x 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-patton-ca6-2016.