United States v. Robinson

60 F. App'x 625
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in United States v. Robinson. Read the opinion of the Court — 39 F. App'x 386
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit·Decided March 27, 2003·No. No. 02-2756·Published

Opinion

ORDER

After a jury convicted William Robinson of two counts of distributing crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), the district court sentenced him to concurrent terms of 100 months’ imprisonment. Robinson challenges his conviction on two grounds: (1) that the district court violated the dictates of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), by failing to instruct the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Robinson distributed the quantity of crack cocaine alleged in the indictments; and (2) that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he was the one who distributed the crack cocaine. We affirm.

[626]*626Background

Robinson’s conviction arose from two crack cocaine transactions with an informant under the direction of the now defunct Chicago Housing Authority Police Department (“CHAPD”) in August 1997. That year the CHAPD, in conjunction with federal law enforcement agencies, investigated a crack enterprise operating at the LeClaire Courts public housing complex. CHAPD sergeant John Hersey supervised the investigation. To assist with the investigation, the CHAPD employed a twice-convicted crack dealer and former Le-Claire resident named Anthony Clemmons. In August 1997 the CHAPD targeted Robinson, and asked Clemmons, who had known Robinson for several years as “Sugar,” to buy crack from him. Clemmons, wearing a body wire and accompanied by an undercover CHAPD officer, Charles Mitchell, purchased an ounce (approximately 28 grams) of crack from Robinson on August 11 and 13. Clemmons was paid $600 for each transaction along with relocation and moving expenses.

In April 1998 a grand jury returned indictments charging Robinson with two counts of crack cocaine distribution for the August 11 and 13 transactions. The indictments specifically charged Robinson with knowingly and intentionally distributing “approximately 28 grams” and “approximately 27.7 grams” of crack cocaine respectively. The government filed the indictments a year later in November 1999, and arrested Robinson shortly thereafter. Robinson pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial.

A The Trial

At trial, Hersey, Mitchell, and Clemmons recounted the two transactions for the jury in detail. Clemmons testified that Robinson was the man who sold him the crack cocaine on each occasion, and Officers Hersey and Mitchell corroborated that identification. Hersey and Mitchell testified that upon returning to the CHAPD headquarters after the August 11 transaction, Mitchell identified Robinson as the man who dealt with Clemmons from an array of five photographs. Both officers made in-court identifications of Robinson as the individual they observed with Clemmons during the two buys. The government’s forensic scientists analyzed and confirmed that the off-white, rocky substances Clemmons purchased weighed 28 grams and 27.7 grams respectively, and contained cocaine base. In addition, the scientists testified that, given its consistency, the cocaine base appeared to be in the form of crack.

Defense counsel argued that Robinson did not deliver the crack to Clemmons, suggesting instead that the culprit was Robinson’s older brother Deshon. In support of this theory, counsel pointed to inconsistencies between Officer Mitchell’s descriptions of the perpetrator and Robinson’s actual appearance. Officer Mitchell’s written reports immediately following each transaction described Robinson as 5 feet 8 inches tall and 175 pounds, whereas Robinson is 6 feet 2 inches and then weighed 215 pounds. Robinson also presented evidence that his brother Deshon, who lived at the same LeClaire Courts address and sometimes went by the name “Sugar,” fit Officer Mitchell’s description. Mitchell explained that he simply copied the descriptive information contained in his written reports from a police index file on Robinson; the man he observed was a bit taller at 5 feet ten inches and a bit heavier at 180 pounds. But Robinson argued that that description did not match his actual appearance either and the photo line-up from which Mitchell allegedly identified Robinson was not presented at trial be[627]*627cause it had been inadvertently destroyed when the CHAPD disbanded in 1998.

In contradiction of Robinson’s misidentification theory, the government presented the testimony of another Chicago police officer, Brad Redrick. Officer Redrick patrolled the LeClaire Courts community daily during the previous ten-year period and talked to Robinson, whom he identified in the courtroom, in person on more than one hundred occasions. The government asked Redrick to listen to the tape recordings of the Clemmons transactions to determine whether he recognized Robinson’s voice. Robinson testified that he indeed heard Robinson’s voice on the tapes dealing with Clemmons. Redrick testified that he also was familiar with Deshon Robinson, having talked to him probably twenty times. According to Redrick, Deshon’s voice was “squeakier” than Robinson’s, and he did not hear it on any of the recordings. Redrick said that he never knew Deshon to go by the nickname “Sugar.”

B. Jury Instructions

Without objection from defense counsel, the court accepted the instructions proposed by the government regarding the name, makeup, consistency, and quantity of the drugs sold. The court first instructed the jury that to find Robinson guilty the government must have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly and intentionally distributed cocaine base. The court advised that the government need not prove that the offense actually involved the amount of cocaine alleged in the indictment; rather, the government must prove merely that a “measurable amount” of cocaine base was involved.

Based on Apprendi, the district court went on to instruct the jury that if it found Robinson guilty, then it must further decide whether the government proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the form of cocaine base involved in each count was crack cocaine, and that the amount of crack cocaine sold on each occasion was five grams or more. Accordingly, the verdict forms supplied to the jury asked the jury to check one of three boxes. The jury was to check box one if it found beyond a reasonable doubt that “the form and amount of cocaine base that defendant distributed ... was at least five grams of the form of cocaine base commonly known as crack cocaine;” the jury was to check box two if it found that the defendant distributed a “lesser measurable amount” of crack; and the jury was instructed to check box three if it found “some measurable amount” of “some form of cocaine base other than crack” had been distributed by the defendant.

The jury found Robinson guilty of both counts and checked box one on both verdict forms. Robinson moved for acquittal or, in the alternative, for a new trial, arguing that the verdicts were against the manifest weight of the evidence and that the court erred in not dismissing the indictments because of the destruction of evidence. The district court denied the motions.

C. Sentencing

Robinson was sentenced in this case in June 2002 to two concurrent 100-month prison terms, followed by 5 years’ supervised release also to run concurrent with each other.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

United States v. Robinson, 60 F. App'x 625 (7th Cir. 2003).

60 F. App'x 625 (United States v. Robinson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
United States v. Olano
507 U.S. 725 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Jones v. United States
526 U.S. 227 (Supreme Court, 1999)
Apprendi v. New Jersey
530 U.S. 466 (Supreme Court, 2000)
United States v. Cotton
535 U.S. 625 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Ring v. Arizona
536 U.S. 584 (Supreme Court, 2002)
United States v. Demetrius Jackson, Cross-Appellee
177 F.3d 628 (Seventh Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Noe Mancillas
183 F.3d 682 (Seventh Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Robert P. Crotteau
218 F.3d 826 (Seventh Circuit, 2000)
Richard Dale Talbott, Applicant v. State of Indiana
226 F.3d 866 (Seventh Circuit, 2000)
United States v. Jerome Brough
243 F.3d 1078 (Seventh Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Torrey D. Jones
245 F.3d 645 (Seventh Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Calvin Trennell, A/K/A Meechie
290 F.3d 881 (Seventh Circuit, 2002)
United States v. Danny Smith and Harry D. Lowe
308 F.3d 726 (Seventh Circuit, 2002)
Churchill v. Waters
977 F.2d 1114 (Seventh Circuit, 1992)