United States v. Russell Carrington

700 F. App'x 224
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJuly 25, 2017
Docket15-4244, 15-4349, 15-4400, 15-4482, 15-4605
StatusUnpublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 700 F. App'x 224 (United States v. Russell Carrington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth 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. Russell Carrington, 700 F. App'x 224 (4th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

PAMELA HARRIS, Circuit Judge:

For a number of years, the Black Guer-illa Family (“BGF”), a prison and street gang, ran a criminal enterprise inside the Baltimore City Detention Center. With the help of complicit correctional officers and other Detention Center employees, BGF inmates were able to smuggle narcotics, cell phones, and other contraband into the facility, and to use their dominant position to control other inmates and to support gang members on the outside. Ultimately, a grand jury indicted a group of BGF members and Detention Center employees on charges including racketeering conspiracy, narcotics distribution, and money laundering conspiracy. Eight of the charged defendants went to trial, and after a twenty-day trial and four days of jury deliberation, five defendants—two BGF members and three Detention Center employees—were convicted.

The five appellants now challenge their convictions, focusing primarily on the district court’s jury instructions. Two appellants also challenge their sentences. For the reasons that follow, we affirm all of the appellants’ convictions, but vacate the sentence of one appellant, Joseph Young, and remand to the district court for resentenc-ing.

*226 I.

A.

From 2007 through 2013, the Baltimore City Detention Center was home to a sprawling criminal enterprise led by the Black Guerilla Family. BGF members, correctional officers, and other jail employees all played central roles in the enterprise. BGF members bribed correctional officers to smuggle into the facility contraband supplied by gang members on the outside, including drugs, tobacco, and cell phones. Detention Center employees also facilitated attacks on inmates targeted by BGF, and helped BGF to conceal its gang activities, And BGF used its position within the Detention Center to assist gang members outside the jail, financially supporting BGF with profits from narcotics, trafficking and coordinating outside criminal activity. In exchange for their cooperation in this extensive BGF enterprise, Detention Facility employees were paid with “Green Dot MoneyPak” cards, prepaid debit cards available at retail stores. J.A. 213.

The five appellants in this case played various parts in BGF’s operations. Appellants Joseph Young and Russell Carring-ton were inmates and members of BGF: Young, a high-ranking BGF member, sold controlled substances in the jail, and Car-rington recruited correctional officers to smuggle contraband and to set up drug sales. Appellants Travis Paylor, Ashley Newton, and Michelle McNair all were employees of BCDC. Paylor and Newton were correctional officers who smuggled contraband into the facility, while McNair was a contract kitchen worker who delivered contraband to BGF members.

Count one of the indictment against the appellants—the count most directly at issue in this appeal—charged the appellants and other defendants with racketeering conspiracy. Specifically, the indictment alleged a conspiracy to participate in the affairs of the BGF enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity, in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d). Six predicate racketeering offenses were listed as “A-F” in the “Racketeering Violation” section of the indictment: conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, distribution and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, bribery of a public employee under Maryland law, extortion under Maryland law, money laundering, and retaliation against a witness. J.A. 175-76. And in an embellishment that would prove central to this case, the indictment also detailed 161 “Overt Acts,” describing the specific activities through which BGF operations allegedly had- been conducted. J.A. 185.

The appellants and three co-defendants proceeded to trial on November 17, 2014. Cooperating defendants—members of BGF and correctional officers who previously had pleaded guilty—testified at trial regarding BGF’s drug-dealing operations and use of violence to control the jail, and the role played by correctional officers in smuggling narcotics, cell phones, and other contraband to BGF inmates. Several witnesses testified directly to McNair’s use of her job as a kitchen worker to deliver contraband to. prisoners, Witnesses also testified to the participation of Carrington and Young as BGF members, and to the smuggling activities of correctional officers Paylor and Newton.

B.

Because the appellants’ principal challenge to their convictions concerns the district court’s jury instructions on the RICO conspiracy charge, we describe those instructions and the events surrounding them in some detail. As noted above, the indictment properly listed six “A-F” predi *227 cate racketeering offenses, any two of which would support a RICO conspiracy conviction. It also listed, however, 161 “overt acts,” and the relationship between those two lists—racketeering offenses and overt acts—would end up generating significant confusion at trial.

On January 27, 2015, the district court gave its initial jury instructions on the RICO conspiracy charge. The court explained, correctly, that the government was required to prove a conspiracy that “involved the commission of two racketeering acts,” and properly identified the alleged “pattern of racketeering activity” as the six criminal offenses marked as “A-F” in the indictment. J.A. 2047. But the court also instructed the jury, this time incorrectly, that the “government must prove that at least two of the overt acts alleged in Count One were or were intended to be committed as part of the conspiracy.” Id. (emphasis added).

The district court addressed the jury again the next day, reviewing the verdict form as it pertained to the RICO conspiracy charge. The form, the judge explained, asked first whether the jury had “unanimously agreed” that certain “racketeering acts named in Count One were or were intended to be committed as part of the conspiracy.” J.A. 2223. But instead of stopping there, the court went on to suggest that “racketeering acts” and “overt acts” were the same thing: “There’s a terminology issue. They’re called overt acts in the indictment.... I prefer to call them racketeering acts.... But if you do find ... any racketeering acts or overt acts, as they’re called in the indictment, list them on that line.... ” Id. The district court finished charging the jury, and the jurors began their deliberations.

It became apparent almost immediately that the jury was confused. On the following morning, and about an hour and a half into deliberations, the jury sent a note seeking clarification: “For completion of the Jury Verdict Form, please clarify what is meant by ‘racketeering acts’ found under Count One: Are they A-F found on page 19 of the Instructions? [0]r [a]re they the 161 Overt Acts listed in the Indictment?” J.A. 2362.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
700 F. App'x 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-russell-carrington-ca4-2017.