United States v. Randy Eugene Greene

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided January 8, 2021·No. 19-13631·Unpublished

Opinion

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

No. 19-13631

Non-Argument Calendar

D.C. Docket No. 5:18-cr-00503-AKK-SGC-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

RANDY EUGENE GREENE, Defendant-Appellant

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama

(January 8, 2021)

Before JILL PRYOR, LAGOA and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:

Randy Eugene Greene appeals his convictions, following a jury trial, and 30-

month sentence for 11 counts of odometer tampering and three counts of bank fraud. He contends that there was insufficient evidence presented at trial to support his convictions and argues that, at sentencing, the district court erred in calculating the loss amount and in applying a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice. After careful review, we affirm Greene’s convictions and sentence.

I. BACKGROUND

A federal grand jury indicted Greene on 12 counts 1 of odometer tampering, in violation of 49 U.S.C. §§ 32703(2) and 32709(b), and three counts of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344. The indictment alleged that Greene “knowingly disconnected, reset, and altered and had disconnected, reset, and altered” the odometers of 12 motor vehicles he sold, three of which were financed by Redstone Federal Credit Union. Doc. 1 at 1–13.2 The three counts of bank fraud were based on the three vehicles purchased with loans the buyers obtained from the credit union. The indictment alleged that Greene knowingly defrauded Redstone when he received funds from the credit union for the sale of these three

1 The government dismissed one of the 12 odometer tampering counts, Count 6, because the alleged victim was unavailable to testify at trial.

2 “Doc.” numbers refer to the district court’s docket entries.

vehicles, whose odometers displayed lower mileage than the vehicles actually had. Greene pled not guilty and proceeded to trial.

A. The Criminal Trial Over the course of a four-day jury trial, the government presented evidence establishing that Greene sold 11 vehicles whose odometers had been altered to reflect lower mileage, three of which were financed by Redstone Federal Credit Union. The jury heard from Greene’s former employees, who testified about his practice of altering odometers on the cars sold by Greene’s sales lot, RJ’s Auto Sales.

Joseph Gaudet testified that he bought a car from Greene and then came to work for him at RJ’s as a salesperson. Gaudet testified that while working for Greene he became concerned about the accuracy of odometers in vehicles they sold because he saw “odometers laying everywhere” and heard “customers complaining about the[ir cars’] miles.” Doc. 75 at 28–29. This prompted Gaudet to investigate the mileage of the car he had purchased from RJ’s, and he found paperwork indicating that his vehicle actually had higher mileage than the odometer indicated when he purchased it. Gaudet also testified that Greene asked him to hide documents and a computer disc showing that Greene altered odometers on the cars RJ’s sold because Greene was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.

Julian Curry, Greene’s former repair person, testified that Greene instructed him to change the mileage shown on the odometer of at least five vehicles. On all but one such occasion, Greene instructed him to lower the mileage. Curry explained that typically when he repairs or changes the mileage on an odometer, the repair shop will provide documentation from Carfax—a service that provides a report of the vehicle’s history—indicating the car’s true mileage, but Greene never provided him with documentation. Instead, while working at RJ’s, Curry would set the mileage to “[w]hatever [] Greene told [him].” Doc. 75 at 89.

The government also introduced evidence about the investigation into Greene. The United States Secret Service agent who performed the investigation testified that he identified 11 vehicles Greene purchased from auto auctions and then sold to consumers with lower mileage listed on the odometers than when Greene purchased them. The buyers of these 11 vehicles each testified that the mileage shown on the odometer of the car they bought was lower than the car’s actual mileage and confirmed they would not have purchased the vehicle had they known its true mileage.

The jury also heard from Tara Perez, the senior assistant vice president of consumer lending at Redstone, who testified that for the three vehicles Redstone financed, the credit union received documents showing mileage that was lower than when Greene purchased the vehicles. Perez explained that the mileage was

used to determine the value of the cars, and, consequently, how much Redstone was willing to lend the buyers to purchase the cars.

Greene testified in his defense. He denied giving Gaudet any documents and said Curry was lying when he testified that Greene instructed him to lower vehicles’ mileage. Greene told the jury that for all but two cars (the subjects of Counts 12 and 14), the reason for the differences in the mileage between when he purchased the vehicles and when he sold them was that the odometers did not work and thus had to be replaced. He testified that he personally did not participate in the three transactions with Redstone, but he confirmed that he made money from them. He also testified repeatedly that his salespeople told the credit union that the odometers in the three financed vehicles were inaccurate; however, he was unable to identify any Redstone personnel with whom his employees spoke.

At the close of the government’s case, and again at the close of all evidence, Greene moved for a judgment of acquittal. Both times the district court denied Greene’s motion because the evidence in the record was sufficient for the jury to find Greene guilty on all counts. The jury returned a verdict convicting Greene on all counts.

B. Presentence Investigation Report and Sentencing Before sentencing, the probation office prepared a presentence investigation report (“PSR”). Based on Greene’s convictions, the PSR applied a base offense

level of seven pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(a)(1). The PSR recommended several enhancements to the base offense level. It determined that the aggregate loss amount was $109,103.95—the total purchase price of the 11 vehicles that were the subject of the trial, the vehicle belonging to the witness who was unavailable for trial, and two additional vehicles that were identified post-indictment. See U.S.S.G § 1B1.3(a)(2) (providing that enhancements “shall be determined on the basis of . . . all acts . . . that were part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the offense of conviction”). The PSR contained a chart listing the purchase price of each vehicle. The PSR applied an eight-level enhancement because the loss amount was more than $95,000 but less than $150,000. Id. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(E). The PSR also recommended a two-level enhancement because the offense involved more than 10 victims. Id. § 2B1.1(b)(2)(A). And it applied a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice because Greene perjured himself when he testified at trial. See id. § 3C1.1, cmt. n.4(B). After application of the three enhancements, Greene’s total offense level was 19. The PSR arrived at a criminal history score of zero, resulting in a criminal history category of I. Based on his total offense level and criminal history category of I, Greene’s recommended range of imprisonment under the Sentencing Guidelines was 30 to 37 months.

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