United States v. Renee Garrett

467 F. App'x 864
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 18, 2012
Docket11-10611
StatusUnpublished

This text of 467 F. App'x 864 (United States v. Renee Garrett) 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. Renee Garrett, 467 F. App'x 864 (11th Cir. 2012).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Renee Garrett, a former United States Postal Service employee, appeals her convictions for three counts of mail theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709. She contends that the district court erred in denying her motion for judgment of acquittal on each count because (1) the superseding indictment was facially defective; (2) the evidence was insufficient to support the jury verdict; and (3) the government failed to disclose exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).

I.

A grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Garrett with three counts of mail theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709. Count 1 alleged that between July 3, 2005, and October 24, 2007, Garrett embezzled coupons for free movie rentals at Movie Gallery in Cairo, Georgia. Count 2 alleged that on September 12, 2007, she embezzled mail that had “Free movie tickets ... see inside for details” printed on the outside of the envelope. Count 3 alleged that on November 21, 2007, she embezzled a magazine addressed to John Davis. Each Count also alleged that the embezzled mail was “intended to be carried and delivered by [Garrett] as a Postal Service carrier.”

At trial, a former manager of Movie Gallery testified that Garrett frequently used coupons for free movie rentals. Garrett often used coupons that had the same bar code, which meant they came from the same monthly mailing. Movie Gallery did not send out coupons with the same bar code from one month to the next. Nor did it mail customers multiple copies of the same coupon. A Movie Gallery loss prevention employee testified that between July 3, 2005, and October 24, 2007, Garrett obtained 167 free movie rentals using the coupons. That employee also testified that Movie Gallery sent coupons only to customers with inactive accounts, but Garrett’s account had never been inactive.

Other witnesses at trial testified that Movie Gallery’s coupons were routed through the Cairo Post Office, which is where Garrett worked as a mail carrier. The coupons were sent as a bulk business *866 mailing, and employees at the post office are supposed to put undeliverable bulk business mail into a bin (the “UBBM bin”) for disposal. Employees are prohibited from taking mail from the UBBM bin for personal use.

After learning about Garrett’s Movie Gallery coupon use, a supervisor at the Cairo Post Office, Amy Edenfield, created three decoy “Movie Goers” mailings, which had “Free movie tickets ... see inside for details” printed on the outside of the envelopes. Edenfield testified that she addressed the mailings to undeliverable addresses on Garrett’s delivery route. The envelopes contained a letter stating that the receiver would get a free movie coupon in the mail if he or she completed and returned an enclosed questionnaire.

On September 12, 2007, Edenfield placed the three decoy letters in the bulk business mail pile for Garrett to deliver. Edenfield watched Garrett to see if she put the undeliverable decoy letters into the UBBM bin. She did not. Edenfield testified that she eventually asked Garrett about the decoy letters, and Garrett confessed to taking them. Garrett told Eden-field that she filled out the questionnaires with the names of her father and son, and mailed them in for the free movie coupons using her home address as the return address.

Ellen Massey, a special agent with the Office of Inspector General for the Postal Service, was called in to investigate Garrett. On November 17, 2007, Agent Massey visited the Cairo Post Office with two additional decoy letters. She placed them on a pile of mail for Garrett to deliver and used video surveillance to watch Garrett handle the letters. Garrett picked up the decoys and put them into the side of her hamper instead of into the UBBM bin (where they should have gone), but she later transferred the letters from her hamper to the UBBM bin before going out on her route. Agent Massey testified that she had a videotape of the day’s events, and said it showed Garrett performing her job “the proper way.”

When Garrett returned from her route that day and was about to leave, Agent Massey asked Garrett if she could inspect her vehicle, which Garrett used for personal transportation and to perform her mail carrier duties. Garrett consented to the search, and Agent Massey found a magazine addressed to John Davis on the front passenger seat. The magazine was placed face down beneath a pile of Garrett’s personal mail. John Davis used to live on Garrett’s delivery route, but he had a change of address form on file with the Cairo Post Office. Edenfield testified that there is no reason for a mail carrier to take mail out of the post office if it is addressed to someone with a change of address form on file. The magazine should have been put into a bin with other mail to be forwarded.

Garrett testified in her own defense at trial and admitted to taking Movie Gallery coupons from the UBBM bin and using them in over 100 transactions. She also admitted to taking one of the decoy Movie Goers mailings and completing the questionnaires by using the names of her dead father and her son.

Garrett moved for an acquittal after the prosecution’s case-in-chief and renewed her motion at the close of evidence. The district court denied the motion and the jury found Garrett guilty on all three counts. This is Garrett’s appeal.

II.

Garrett first argues that the district court should have granted her motion for a judgment of acquittal because the superseding indictment is facially defective. *867 She claims the indictment fails to allege all of the essential elements of the charged offenses. We review de novo the sufficiency of an indictment. United States v. Bobo, 344 F.3d 1076, 1083 (11th Cir.2003).

“An indictment is sufficient if it: (1) presents the essential elements of the charged offense, (2) notifies the accused of the charges to be defended against, and (3) enables the accused to rely upon a judgment under the indictment as a bar against double jeopardy for any subsequent prosecution for the same offense.” United States v. Steele, 178 F.3d 1230, 1233-34 (11th Cir.1999) (quotation marks omitted). “It is generally sufficient that an indictment set forth the offense in the words of the statute itself, as long as those words of themselves fully, directly, and expressly, without any uncertainty or ambiguity, set forth all the elements necessary to constitute the offence [sic] intended to be punished.” Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 2907, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974) (quotation marks omitted).

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Related

United States v. Schlei
122 F.3d 944 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)
United States v. Bobo
344 F.3d 1076 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Brenda J. Williams
390 F.3d 1319 (Eleventh Circuit, 2004)
Brady v. Maryland
373 U.S. 83 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Hamling v. United States
418 U.S. 87 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Kyles v. Whitley
514 U.S. 419 (Supreme Court, 1995)
United States v. Naranjo
634 F.3d 1198 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Schmitz
634 F.3d 1247 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. White
663 F.3d 1207 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. William O. Steele, Cross-Appellee
178 F.3d 1230 (Eleventh Circuit, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
467 F. App'x 864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-renee-garrett-ca11-2012.