United States v. Pedro Hernandez, United States of America v. Jose Mario Hernandez

952 F.2d 1110, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 10074, 91 Daily Journal DAR 15979, 21 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1502, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29819, 1991 WL 271381
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 24, 1991
Docket90-50556, 90-50589
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 952 F.2d 1110 (United States v. Pedro Hernandez, United States of America v. Jose Mario Hernandez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Pedro Hernandez, United States of America v. Jose Mario Hernandez, 952 F.2d 1110, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 10074, 91 Daily Journal DAR 15979, 21 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1502, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29819, 1991 WL 271381 (9th Cir. 1991).

Opinion

TROTT, Circuit Judge:

Pedro and Jose Hernandez (respectively, “Pedro” and “Jose”) appeal their convictions of four felonies relating to the counterfeiting of audio cassettes and labels. They both claim there was insufficient evidence to convict them, and they both appeal their sentences. Jose makes two additional claims: first, he appeals the district court’s refusal to sever his trial from Pedro’s; second, he appeals the court’s refusal to grant him a mistrial based on a gesture he made to a witness. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1988) and 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) (1988), and we affirm.

I

In December of 1989, the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (“RIAA”) 1 received an anonymous telephone tip that Pedro Hernandez was running an audio cassette counterfeiting ring in southern California. The RIAA transmitted their information to the United States Customs Service, and sent their Western Representative, Ralph Vaughan, to surveil a warehouse at 3802 Main Street in Chula Vista, California. The lease for that warehouse was signed by Pedro Hernandez. Vaughan watched the warehouse “very infrequently],” whenever he was in the San Diego area.

*1112 On January 18, 1990, Vaughan knocked on the door of the warehouse. When the door was opened, Vaughan saw inside the warehouse twenty-four cartons with the words “250 count library boxes” printed on the side of each carton. A “library box” is the plastic box in which a cassette tape is packaged.

On February 6, 1990, Vaughan saw Jose Hernandez leave the warehouse through the cargo door, get into a brown van, and back the van up to the cargo door. Vaughan saw Jose load three 250-count-library-box cartons into the van. Vaughan also observed Pedro Hernandez drive up to the warehouse in a silver van. Pedro and Jose had a discussion, and then loaded approximately eighteen more cartons from the warehouse into the brown van.

Vaughan followed as Jose drove the brown van to 2385 Main Street in Chula Vista, a self-storage park. Vaughan observed Pedro drive up in the silver van, and watched the brothers loading the cartons of library boxes into one of the storage units. Some of the cartons were open, and Vaughan saw they contained library boxes with cassette tapes in shrink wrap.

On March 16, 1990, Vaughan saw Jose Hernandez drive up to the warehouse in the brown van, and back up to the cargo door. Jose went into the warehouse and came out with a carton which he put into the van. He repeated this procedure twice more, loading a total of three cartons into the brown van. Jose then entered the warehouse and brought out the trash, which contained broken tape boxes, and five counterfeit J-cards. A J-card is “the piece of paper that wraps up the cassette inside the plastic [library] box.... [and] contains the photo of the group performing on the tape and trademark.” Cross-examination of U.S. Customs Special Agent Gordon Slavik.

Beginning in December 1989, Special Agent Gordon Slavik also surveilled the warehouse. During his surveillance, Slavik occasionally observed Jose driving the brown van to the warehouse, and Pedro driving the silver van from the warehouse.

On March 21, 1990, Special Agent Slavik obtained search warrants for both the warehouse and the self-storage unit. At the self-storage unit, agents discovered 124 cassette tapes, miscellaneous documents, and several display boxes for cassette tapes.

At the warehouse, agents discovered the following: 2.6 million counterfeit J-cards, 11,700 completed counterfeit cassette tapes, 40,000 partially-completed counterfeit cassette tapes, a wall of blank cassette tapes in boxes, an imprinter used to apply ink to cassettes, plates for use with the imprinter, a shrinkwrap machine, and tape duplicating machines which could produce thirty-one copies of a cassette tape every forty seconds.

Later that day, while the search was in progress, Jose drove up to the warehouse in the brown van. The van contained the following: a receipt for payment at the self-storage unit, a receipt for payment for 11,000 blank tapes signed by Jose, cassette tapes, library boxes, and a counterfeit J-card. The key to the brown van was on the same keychain as a key to the warehouse.

One of the four workers discovered at the warehouse, Antonio Casilla-Lopez, told agents and testified at trial that Jose Hernandez had originally brought Casilla from Los Angeles to Chula Vista, and had taught him how to use one of the machines at the warehouse. Casilla stated that he once took his pay from cash given to him by Jose. Casilla and another warehouse worker, Jorge Gonzalez-Gomez, testified that they knew they were engaged in a tape-counterfeiting operation.

Pedro and Jose Hernandez were indicted on March 28, 1990. The indictment charged conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit labels and goods, and criminal infringement of a copyright, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 2318-2320 (1988), and 17 U.S.C. § 506(a) (1988).

Jose Hernandez moved to sever his trial from Pedro’s. In support of this motion, Pedro submitted an affidavit saying he would not take the stand in a joint trial, but that he would testify at Jose’s separate trial that Jose was not involved in “my *1113 business.” Pedro owned a legitimate recording business, J.R. Records, to which he referred in his affidavit. 2 The district court denied Jose’s motion. Jose and Pedro did not testify at their joint trial.

During the trial, Pedro Hernandez made a gesture which one juror interpreted as “a slit across his throat, a motion to the witness who was on the stand.” The district court questioned the juror and instructed him to consider only the evidence, not the gesture. The court admonished the entire jury panel to consider only the evidence, and asked if there were any jurors who could not follow that instruction, to which there was no reply.

The jury convicted the Hernandezes on all counts. On September 14, 1990, Pedro and Jose Hernandez each were sentenced under the United States Sentencing Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) to seventy-one months in prison. Jose and Pedro each timely filed a notice of appeal.

II

Both Pedro and Jose claim there was insufficient evidence to sustain the verdicts against them. We “uphold [the] conviction[s] if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, any rational trier of fact could have found the defendants] guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of each element of the crime[s] charged.” United States v. Sanchez-Mata, 925 F.2d 1166, 1166 (9th Cir.1991). The government is also entitled to “ ‘all reasonable inferences which could be drawn from [the evidence], when viewed in the light most favorable to the government.’ ”

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952 F.2d 1110, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 10074, 91 Daily Journal DAR 15979, 21 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1502, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 29819, 1991 WL 271381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-pedro-hernandez-united-states-of-america-v-jose-mario-ca9-1991.