United States v. Singleton

177 F. Supp. 2d 12, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20061, 2001 WL 1561538
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided December 4, 2001·No. CRIM. 00-0105(PLF)·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

OPINION

PAUL L. FRIEDMAN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the motion of defendant Cornelius Singleton to dismiss Count One of the indictment on grounds of double jeopardy and on his separate motion to dismiss Counts One and Two on grounds of double jeopardy. The government filed oppositions to the motions, and the Court heard oral argument on August 31, 2001 and September 24, 2001.

I. BACKGROUND

Cornelius Singleton was indicted by a grand jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on March 16, 2000. See Exhibit 2 to Defendant’s Memorandum in Support of Motion to Dismiss Count One of the Indictment on Grounds of Double Jeopardy (“Def.Mot.Exh. 2”). He was charged with knowingly and intentionally combining, conspiring, confederating and agreeing with six other named defendants and “with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury” to possess with the intent to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance, a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 841(a)(1), all in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846. Def. Mot. Exh. 2. The conspiracy allegedly ran from on or about January 1, 1996 to February 26, 2000 in Miami, Miami-Dade County, in the Southern District of Florida, “and elsewhere.” Id. In addition to the conspiracy count, the indictment contained two substantive counts charging a number of the defendants with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, but defendant Singleton was charged in neither of these counts. See id. at 2-3.

Superseding indictments were returned in Florida on April 6, 2000, August 31, 2000, and September 21, 2000. See Def. Mot. Exhs. 3-5. In each of the superseding indictments, defendant Singleton was charged with the same conspiracy covering the same time period, and his co-defendants remained largely the same. The forfeiture provision changed from indictment to indictment, and the conspiracy count was modified in the final iteration to take account of the Supreme Court’s decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). Def. Mot. Exh. 5 at 2. Singleton was never charged in any of the substantive counts.

On March 16, 2000, a grand jury in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia returned a one-count indictment charging defendant Singleton and four other individuals — Phyllis Marie Webster, Michael Anthony Johnson, Byron Lamont McDade and Benjamin Gilbert Ashe — “and other persons known and unknown to the grand jury” with unlawfully, knowingly and willfully combining, conspiring, confederating and agreeing to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance, in the amount of *15 five kilograms or more, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a) and (b)(l)(A)(ii), all in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846. Def. Mot. Exh. 16. The conspiracy allegedly began on or about January 1, 1993 and continued to on or about March 16, 2000; it allegedly took place in the District of Columbia, the Eastern District of Virginia, the District of Maryland, the Southern District of Florida and elsewhere. 1 None of the Florida defendants except Singleton was named in this indictment.

A superseding indictment, adding Lionel Nunn as a defendant, was returned on April 20, 2000; the start date of the conspiracy was changed to January 1, 1994. See Def. Mot. Exh. 17. Another superseding indictment, adding Lauren Jefferson (defendant Nunn’s wife) as a defendant and adding an additional count, charging her and Nunn (but not defendant Singleton) with money laundering, was returned on March 29, 2001. See Def. Mot. Exh. 18. Yet another superseding indictment, this one adding a count charging defendant Singleton with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 848(a) and (b), was returned on August 9, 2001. This indictment names only Cornelius Singleton and Byron McDade as defendants. Former co-defendants Webster, Johnson, Ashe and Nunn — all of whom have entered guilty pleas — are now named as unindicted co-conspirators, as are “other persons known and unknown to the grand jury.”

Count Two of the August 9, 2001 superseding indictment charges defendant Singleton with “unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally engaging] in a continuing criminal enterprise” from January 1991 until March 16, 2000, by violating Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 843 and 846, all in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 848(a) and (b). According to the indictment, the predicate violations include (1) the conspiracy charged in Count One; (2) many of the Overt Acts (specifically, Overt Acts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) listed in Count One; and (3) various other narcotics conspiracies in the District of Columbia, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland and New York, all of which are said to be a part of the charged continuing criminal enterprise. All but one of these conspiracies are within the same time frame as Count One of the District of Columbia indictment.

On October 25, 2000, defendant Singleton was convicted by a jury in the Southern District of Florida of conspiring to possess five kilograms or more of cocaine with the intent to distribute it. The evidence at trial showed that during the period from January 1, 1996 to February 26, 2000, defendant Singleton obtained multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine from suppliers in Florida — specifically, from his co-defendant Giraldo Orlando Fernandez and one Marcelino Casasnovas, who testified for the government at Singleton’s trial— and then shipped the cocaine through a courier, Ronald Lucas, to Washington, D.C. for distribution by Phyllis Webster and Michael Johnson. 2 Following his conviction, defendant Singleton was sentenced to 285 months in prison.

Defendant Singleton argues that Count One of the indictment now pending in this Court and the conspiracy count of the indictment on which he was convicted in Florida charge the same conspiracy. Be *16 cause Mr. Singleton has already been convicted and sentenced for his illegal conspiratorial conduct in Florida, he argues that he cannot be prosecuted again here without running afoul of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution. With respect to Count Two, the continuing criminal enterprise or CCE charge, defendant argues that the CCE agreement is in reality the “same offense” as the Florida/D.C. narcotics conspiracy, or that the conspiracy is a lesser included offense of the CCE charge and that the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits prosecution for greater and lesser included offenses in successive prosecutions.

II. THE FACTS

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United States v. Singleton, 177 F. Supp. 2d 12, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20061, 2001 WL 1561538 (D.D.C. 2001).

177 F. Supp. 2d 12 (United States v. Singleton) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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