United States v. Rogers

520 F. App'x 727
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedApril 5, 2013
Docket12-3125
StatusUnpublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 520 F. App'x 727 (United States v. Rogers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Rogers, 520 F. App'x 727 (10th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

*728 ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

BOBBY R. BALDOCK, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Defendant Raymond Rogers of robbing a federally-insured bank in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) (Count I); brandishing a firearm during the robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A) (Count II); and possessing a firearm after a felony conviction in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (Count III). The district court sentenced him to 234 months imprisonment. On appeal, Defendant challenges both his convictions and sentence. Defendant argues the district court improperly (1) denied his motion for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Fed. R. Crim P. 29, (2) enhanced his base offense level under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(4)(B), and (3) denied his right to allocution in violation of Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(i)(4)(A)(ii). Our jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742. We reject each of Defendant’s arguments, and affirm.

I.

The Government’s evidence as reflected in the record established that on the morning of December 1, 2010, three black males entered a branch of the Equity Bank in Wichita, Kansas. The branch manager and a teller, both women, were inside the bank. All three men wore masks and gloves. Two of the men brandished handguns; the third man carried a white bag. The first armed man covered the lobby area and provided lookout while periodically pointing his gun at the women. The other two men jumped the counter and ordered the women to “get down on the ground.” After emptying the teller drawers, the two men instructed the women to open the vault. The second armed man yelled, “If you don’t open it, I’ll shoot you. Don’t make me shoot you.” The branch manager testified she thought she was going to be shot. The security video showed that after the vault was opened, the manager crouched in the corner outside the vault:

I just wanted to get as small as possible, ... I didn’t know what to do so I was thinking, what am I supposed to do now, but I wanted to get as small as possible because I was kind of worried that they were going to shoot me on the way out because, you know, even though ... they’re covered up, ... you never know if they’re thinking, oh, she saw me or something, I don’t know. I was worried they were going to shoot me on the way out.

The three men fled in a green Chevy Tahoe that had been reported stolen earlier that morning. A few moments after the robbery, a motorist in the vicinity of the robbery reported red smoke coming from the Tahoe. Among the $102,743 stolen from the bank were bait money and dye-packs. A dye-pack is a bundle of what looks like money, but inside the bundle is a combustible canister of tear gas and red dye. Bait money is marked bills traceable to a specific bank. The responding officer found the Tahoe abandoned but saw a “large sum of money stained in red dye laying on the floor board.”

Meanwhile, other officers were pursuing a blue Ford Escape that had been reported stolen at around the same time and from the same neighborhood as the Tahoe. The Escape neared an apartment complex about fourteen blocks from where the Tahoe had been abandoned. With the Escape still moving, three black men exited the vehicle and fled on foot. The two men *729 who had jumped out of the passenger side of the vehicle ran toward building 12 of the complex. The driver fled in a different direction and was the first to be apprehended. Officers entered building 12 to search for the remaining two suspects. Officers apprehended the second man after they heard screaming coming from apartment 1211. At this point, the third man still remained at large. That man pounded on the door of apartment 1217 and entered uninvited when the tenant answered. According to the tenant, the man “looked like he had been running. He was sweaty.” Officers proceeded to clear the apartments in building 12. In the process of removing five individuals from apartment 1217, an officer “saw a black male stick his head out from the ... southwest bedroom into the hallway and look real quick and then go back ... into the bedroom.” Officers handcuffed that man, identified as Defendant.

Defendant wore a white t-shirt stained with red dye near its midsection. Forensics found the dye on Defendant’s t-shirt to be consistent with the dye contained in a dye-pack. A search of apartment 1217 uncovered $62,300 wrapped in two bags in the bathroom’s toilet tank. Some of the bills were stained with red dye. Some of the bills were bait money from Equity Bank. Inside the Chevy Tahoe investigators found a dye-stained bag, envelopes from Equity Bank, and several thousand dollars in dye-stained bills, including bait money and some specially marked $2 bills the branch manager had intended to give her children. Inside the Ford Escape investigators located numerous items of evidence linking the three men to the robbery including items of clothing, a wool cap with holes cut in it, and two loaded semiautomatic handguns — an Intratec AB-10 and a Bersa.

II.

Defendant first claims the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions because no one directly identified him as a participant in the bank robbery (perhaps because he was wearing a mask). 1 Our review of the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Fed. R.Crim.P. 29 is de novo. See United States v. Vigil, 523 F.3d 1258, 1262 (10th Cir.2008). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, we ask whether “any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In so doing, we do not weigh evidence or credibility; we ask only whether the Government’s evidence, credited as true, suffices to establish the elements of the crime.” United States v. Hutchinson, 573 F.3d 1011, 1033 (10th Cir.2009) (internal citation omitted). Applying this standard to the record facts, we need not belabor the point. Suffice to say the Government presented ample evidence to support the jury’s finding that Defendant was one of the three men who robbed Equity Bank.

Defendant next asserts the district court erred when it applied a two-point sentencing enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(4)(B) to increase his base offense level.

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Bluebook (online)
520 F. App'x 727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-rogers-ca10-2013.