United States v. Roy L. Johnson

986 F.2d 134, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 2269, 1993 WL 34862
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided February 16, 1993·No. 91-1200, 91-1201·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinions

ALAN E. NORRIS, Circuit Judge.

Defendant, Roy Lee Johnson, appeals his jury convictions resulting from a five-count indictment. Because the overriding issue on appeal concerns his claim that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment prevents his being convicted and sentenced on two counts charging him with use of a firearm in relation to drug trafficking crimes (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)), we discuss that below. All other issues raised by the appeal are addressed in an unpublished appendix to this opinion.

On February 7, 1989, acting upon information that defendant was a felon in possession of firearms, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms obtained a search warrant for defendant’s residence in Detroit, Michigan. While executing the warrant, agents found a rifle, a derringer handgun, 150 Dilaudid (hydromorphone) tablets, approximately fourteen grams of cocaine, a triple-beam scale, ledgers, and a beeper.

Under Count 1 of the indictment, defendant was charged with possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute; Count 2 charged him with use of the rifle and the handgun in relation to the drug trafficking crime specified in Count 1, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c); Count 3 charged possession with intent to distribute Dilaudid; and Count 4 charged him with a second § 924(c) violation on the basis of his use of the same two firearms, in relation to the drug trafficking crime charged in Count 3. Under Count 5, defendant was alleged to be a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The jury convicted on all five counts. In sentencing defendant on Counts 2 and 4, the district court levied a term of five years’ incarceration per count, totalling ten years, to run consecutively to the sentences on the other three counts.

In arguing that his two convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)1 for use of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime run [136] afoul of the Double Jeopardy Clause,2 defendant contends, without elaboration, that there was only a single use of the two firearms and that one use cannot be punished twice. He represents that the evidence the government must produce to obtain convictions on Counts 2 and 4 is identical.

It is true that the Double Jeopardy Clause protects against multiple punishments for the same offense. North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969). However, when one examines this court’s prior case law, it will be seen that defendant was not, as he contends, punished twice for what was really just a single violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1).

Defendant was convicted of two separate and distinct predicate drug trafficking crimes. Indeed, he does not argue that his convictions for Counts 1 and 3 (possession with intent to distribute cocaine and hydromorphone, respectively) amounted to his being punished twice for the same offense. Nor could he persuasively do so, since he was charged with two distinctly different kinds of conduct which amounted to separate violations of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a). United States v. Pope, 561 F.2d 663, 669 (6th Cir.1977). This was not a situation where the government was charging that the same conduct violated two distinct statutory provisions. See Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). The result, then, was that in the course of obtaining convictions under § 924(c)(1) in Counts 2 and 4, the government proved two different sets of facts, since the predicate offense for Count 2 (cocaine) manifestly required proof of conduct different from the predicate offense for Count 4 (hydromorphone). Accordingly, as we pointed out in United States v. Nabors, 901 F.2d 1351 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 871, 111 S.Ct. 192, 112 L.Ed.2d 154 (1990), the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar defendant’s multipie convictions and sentences on Counts 2 and 4.

In Nabors, the defendant fired two shots from a rifle at a federal agent as a search warrant was being executed at defendant’s residence. The search yielded cocaine and distribution paraphernalia, as well as a pistol. The defendant was convicted of assaulting a federal agent, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, use of a firearm during a crime of violence, and use of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. He received a five-year sentence for each of his § 924(c)(1) convictions, the ten years to run consecutively to the sentences received for the other convictions. Nabors, 901 F.2d at 1353-54.

This court rejected Nabors’ argument that he was being punished twice for what was truly only one offense. The court pointed out that two separate and distinct predicate offenses for triggering § 924(c)(1) were charged and the proof of each required different facts. Since there was no double jeopardy bar, and nothing was evident in the statute or its legislative history providing that separate convictions should not result in separate and consecutive sentences, the court upheld both the convictions and sentences. Id. at 1357-59.

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United States v. Roy L. Johnson, 986 F.2d 134, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 2269, 1993 WL 34862 (6th Cir. 1993).

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