United States v. Sergeant JOHN R. WILLIAMSON, JR.

65 M.J. 706, 2007 CCA LEXIS 265, 2007 WL 2141824
CourtArmy Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedJuly 25, 2007
DocketARMY 20030855
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 65 M.J. 706 (United States v. Sergeant JOHN R. WILLIAMSON, JR.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Army Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Sergeant JOHN R. WILLIAMSON, JR., 65 M.J. 706, 2007 CCA LEXIS 265, 2007 WL 2141824 (acca 2007).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

SCHENCK, Senior Judge:

A general court-martial composed of officer and enlisted members convicted appellant, contrary to his pleas, of wrongfully possessing 3.79 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute, in violation of Article 112a, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 912a [hereinafter UCMJ], The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for two years, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. This ease is before the court for review pursuant to Article 66, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 866.

Appellant asserts several assignments of error. Two, alleging Sixth Amendment violations, require discussion, but merit no relief. Specifically, appellant contends he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel because his defense team, consisting of detailed military counsel and civilian defense counsel, failed to move to suppress the marijuana as the “fruit of an unlawful search.” We disagree and hold that appellant has not shown such a motion would have been meritorious and, therefore, has not met his burden of demonstrating a deficiency with resulting prejudice. Appellant also contends the military judge erred by admitting a laboratory report (identifying the substance appellant possessed as marijuana) as a business record pursuant to Military Rule of Evidence [hereinafter Mil. R. Evid.] 803(6). He argues the military judge’s ruling contradicts the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause requirements set forth in Crawford, v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), 1 because the laboratory report is testimonial in nature. We agree and hold that, under the circumstances of this case, the laboratory report is testimonial under Crawford and, therefore, was improperly admitted under Mil. R. Evid. 803(6). We further find, however, the military judge’s error in admitting the laboratory report was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

FACTS

In August 2003, appellant was convicted of wrongfully possessing 3.79 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute, on or about 27 November 2002, for possessing a box containing three bundles of marijuana, which he received through Federal Express while he was on leave in New Orleans, Louisiana. At trial, the government called Detective (Det.) Joel Pena from the El Paso, Texas, Police Department during its case-in-chief. Without defense objection, the military judge recognized Det. Pena “as an expert in the field of narcotics interdiction ... to include distribution and transportation.” Detective Pena, then assigned to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force, testified regarding the seizure and controlled delivery of the marijuana that ultimately led to appellant’s arrest. Detective Pena’s testimony was consistent with and supplemented by his affidavit supporting the request for a search warrant (admitted into evidence as Prosecution Exhibit (P.E.) 3 without defense objection), and by the DEA Task Force police report (admitted into evidence as Defense Exhibit (D.E.) R without government objection).

On 25 November 2002, Det. Pena was part of a three-officer DEA Task Force working at the El Paso International Airport. El *708 Paso Police Department Officers Sal Vargas and Douglas Fairbanks 2 completed the team. During the day, the officers conducted a drug interdiction operation in the Federal Express outbound freight terminal. They chose outbound freight because law enforcement agencies generally consider El Paso a narcotics source city due to its location near the Mexican border. Oftentimes, freight leaving El Paso contains narcotics for distribution in other cities.

While at the Federal Express terminal, Officer Fairbanks was using his drug detection dog, “JB,” to sniff outbound packages for narcotics. The DEA Task Force team became suspicious of a particular outbound package because JB alerted on a box, which was on the ground with several other packages. Affixed to the box was a “FedEx USA Airbill®” 3 that, in Det. Pena’s opinion, contained obviously incomplete information; sender and recipient telephone numbers were missing, and the sender identified the recipient only as “Will” without including a last name. Detective Pena commented that “most people ... sending ... an article to someone else ... will [include] a full name” on the Airbill.®

Once the DEA Task Force team “determined the box was suspect,” the team moved the box from the Federal Express terminal to the DEA Task Force office near the airport. At the office, Det. Pena personally prepared an affidavit and a warrant application to obtain a warrant to search the box and seize its suspected illegal contents, i.e., narcotics.

In his affidavit supporting the request for the search warrant, Det. Pena asserted the following facts under oath:

There is in El Paso County, ... inside the El Paso DEA Task Force Office[,] ... one (1) cardboard box, wrapped in brown paper, sealed with clear tape.
It is the belief of [the] affiant ... that [the box contains] ... marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
Affiant has probable cause for the said belief by reason of the following facts, to wit: ... Officer Douglas Fairbanks is employed as a police officer by the City of El Paso and has been so employed for the past 15 years. Officer] Fairbanks’s K-9 partner, “JB,” is a six (6) year old male chocolate Labrador Retriever. K-9 “JB” was tested under standards set forth by the North American Police Work Dog Association (NAPWDA), and the National Narcotic Detector Dog Association (NNDDA) and was certified by both associations to detect the odor of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Canine “JB” has been working in the El Paso area along with Officer Fairbanks for the past six months and since that time has alerted successfully on over 40 occasions where narcotics or narcotic related currency has been seized.
Officer Fairbanks was utilizing his narcotics detector canine “JB” to sniff through the freight for the presence of narcotics. At approximately 1440 [hours], Officer Fairbanks advised the affiant that canine “JB” alerted on the above described box for the scent of narcotics. The box was on the ground with several other boxes at the time of the alert.

Detective Pena testified that, in his opinion, he thought the drug dog, JB, was certified, and made that assertion in his affidavit. On cross-examination, however, he stated he learned after the Article 32 investigation that JB was not certified. When civilian defense counsel asked Det. Pena about this “misinformation,” Det. Pena said he gave the judge who issued the warrant the information “in good faith [and fit’s not like I knew beforehand and I[was] trying to mislead the judge.” 4 On redirect, Det. Pena stated: “JB *709

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Bluebook (online)
65 M.J. 706, 2007 CCA LEXIS 265, 2007 WL 2141824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sergeant-john-r-williamson-jr-acca-2007.