United States v. Phaknikone

605 F.3d 1099, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 621, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9475, 2010 WL 1838935
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 10, 2010
Docket09-10084
StatusPublished
Cited by104 cases

This text of 605 F.3d 1099 (United States v. Phaknikone) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Phaknikone, 605 F.3d 1099, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 621, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9475, 2010 WL 1838935 (11th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

The main issue presented in this appeal is whether the district court abused its discretion by admitting the profile page, subscriber report, and photographs from the MySpace.com account of Souksakhone Phaknikone to prove that he committed a string of bank robberies “like a gangster.” Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Phaknikone appeals his fifteen convictions of armed bank robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), (d), carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, id. § 924(c), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, id. § 922(g)(1), and his sentence of 2,005 months of imprisonment for those convictions. Phaknikone argues that the district court abused its discretion by admitting the MySpace evidence because it was offered to prove that he acted in conformity with his bad character. We agree, but in the light of the overwhelming evidence of Phaknikone’s guilt, the error was harmless. We also reject Phaknikone’s remaining arguments that the district court abused its discretion in its answer to a question of the jury; that section 922(g)(1) violates the Commerce Clause; that the district court misinterpreted section 924(c); and that his sentence is unreasonable. We affirm Phaknikone’s convictions and sentence.

*1102 I. BACKGROUND

Between November 2006 and March 2007, armed men robbed six banks within a 40-mile radius in Northeast Georgia. Two masked men robbed two of the banks; a single masked robber robbed the other four. The proximity of the banks, as well as evidence that the robberies were carried out in a similar manner, suggested to law enforcement agencies that the robberies were related. Eyewitnesses reported that the robbers “entered the bank brandishing, waving, and pointing semi-automatic pistols, and shouting profane language at employees,” and one robber “always jumped the teller counter.”

On April 6, 2007, two masked robbers, described by eyewitnesses as Hispanic or Asian men who carried handguns, robbed a seventh bank in the area, the Wachovia Bank in Suwanee, Georgia. One of the robbers, Rickey Lavivong, forced all bank employees into the lobby of the bank. The other robber, later identified as Phaknikone, a 27-year-old Laotian male living in Dacula, Georgia, jumped over the teller counter, ordered the tellers to lie on the floor, and demanded money from the cash drawers. As the tellers emptied the drawers, Phaknikone made specific commands that the tellers not give him “the ink thing,” that is, a dye pack that explodes after a robbery and permanently marks bills with red or blue ink. Phaknikone took the money from the drawers, removed the dye packs, and ran with Lavivong out of the bank. The two men left in a car they had parked in an adjacent parking lot of a supermarket.

Police officers followed the car, and after a six-mile, high-speed pursuit, Phaknikone crashed the car and fled on foot while Lavivong remained in the car. While he ran, Phaknikone dropped money, a backpack, and a handgun. He tried to scale a chainlink fence, but he became entangled in barbed wire at the top. The officers arrested Phaknikone and found a gun clip and $10,000 in cash in his pockets, as well as a handgun nearby and $6,000 in cash in the backpack. In the getaway car, officers found another handgun and ski masks.

Officers transported Phaknikone to a field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation where Phaknikone waived his rights to remain silent and to counsel and confessed to Agents Ray Johnson, Douglas Rambaud, and Scott Stefan that he had robbed the Wachovia Bank in Suwanee. The agents also questioned Phaknikone about some of the other similar robberies. Phaknikone confessed to robbing three of the banks.

Phaknikone described his earlier robberies in detail. He confessed that he and an accomplice stole approximately $5,000 from a bank in Lawrenceville, Georgia, before Christmas 2006. He and his accomplice were armed and left the bank in a stolen car that they later abandoned at a nearby trailer park. Phaknikone confessed that he and an accomplice stole approximately $14,000 from a bank in Lawrence-ville in mid-January 2007. They used the same handgun as in the December 2006 robbery, intimidated the bank tellers, and left the stolen getaway car at a nearby shopping center. Phaknikone confessed that he also robbed a bank “near Old Norcross Road” in “late February or early March 2007.” He used the same handgun as in the other two robberies and again used a stolen car to flee the scene. Phaknikone recounted to the agents that, as he left the bank, a dye pack exploded, and he had to discard all the stolen money. During the interview, the agents seized the hooded sweatshirt and black athletic shoes Phaknikone was wearing so that they could compare the evidence to surveillance photographs and shoe prints taken from the other robberies.

*1103 Phaknikone was charged with seven counts of armed bank robbery, id. § 2113(a), (d), seven counts of carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, id. § 924(c), and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, id. § 922(g)(1). Each count of carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence was tied to each count of armed bank robbery. The robbery counts charged the robberies of seven financial institutions in the state of Georgia: (1) Bank of America in Lilburn on November 21, 2006; (2) First Bank of the South in Lawrenceville on December 19, 2006; (3) Wachovia Bank in Lawrence-ville on January 11, 2007; (4) People’s Bank in Braselton on January 31, 2007; (5) Hometown Community Bank in Braselton on February 15, 2007; (6) Wachovia Bank in Duluth on March 9, 2007; and (7) Wachovia Bank in Suwanee on April 6, 2007. Phaknikone pleaded not guilty to all fifteen counts.

At trial the prosecution argued that all the bank robberies shared a signature trait, a modus operandi, that linked them to the same robber. Each robbery lasted less than three minutes and involved one or two masked robbers who carried guns and shouted profanities at bank tellers. One of the robbers vaulted the teller counter, demanded that the tellers empty then-cash drawers, and sometimes instructed them not to give him any “ink thing” or “funny money.” In each robbery, at least one robber wore a black ski mask, a hooded sweatshirt, white-topped gloves, black athletic shoes, and held his handgun “gangster-style” in his left hand. The prosecution also contended that one of the signature traits of the common culprit in all seven robberies was to rob the banks like a gangster.

Before trial, the government moved to admit photographs obtained from Phaknikone’s MySpace account. The government argued that the photographs were inextricably intertwined with Phaknikone’s charged offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and, alternatively, the evidence was admissible to prove knowledge, identity, intent, and motive as to possession of the firearm. Phaknikone moved in limine to exclude the evidence. He argued that the photographs were not linked in time or circumstances to the charged offenses and were inadmissible character evidence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
605 F.3d 1099, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 621, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9475, 2010 WL 1838935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-phaknikone-ca11-2010.