United States v. Thomas Walker

272 F.3d 407, 58 Fed. R. Serv. 809, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 24204
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 9, 2001
Docket00-3052
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 272 F.3d 407 (United States v. Thomas Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Thomas Walker, 272 F.3d 407, 58 Fed. R. Serv. 809, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 24204 (7th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge.

After robbing a Chicago bank, Thomas Walker was caught when his two accomplices pointed the police in his direction. While suffering from heroin withdrawal, he confessed to his crime, and was later indicted, tried, and convicted. He now asserts that the district court erroneously rejected his motion to suppress the confession and made a variety of trial errors. While we are not prepared to say that this was a flawless proceeding, a combination of the required standards of review and the harmless error rule, taken in the context of the powerful case against Walker, leads us to affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

Walker was known around his neighborhood as “Charlie Brown.” In October 1999, he approached his friend and later co-defendant, Keith Johnson, and suggested that the two should rob a bank. Keith Johnson agreed, and they decided to rob the TCF National Bank at 3333 W. 26th Street in Chicago on October 8, 1999. Keith Johnson in turn enlisted the help of Willie McLaurin to serve as their driver; McLaurin agreed, and borrowed a blue Dodge Intrepid from his cousin, Kenya Banks, for the job. As the three were proceeding toward the bank, Walker had McLaurin detour so that Walker could pick up a black bag and purchase some heroin. Walker used the heroin as they continued on to the bank. At about 4:30 p.m., Walker entered the bank, drew his gun and ordered everyone to the floor. He then jumped over the counter, emptied two counter drawers, and ordered a teller, at gunpoint, to open a vault. Keith Johnson, also armed, stood guard in the bank lobby. McLaurin stayed in the car. The three fled with about $21,400.

Based on the license plate number provided to officers by a bystander outside the bank, officers traced the getaway car to Banks, and then to McLaurin, who was arrested on October 13. McLaurin talked, providing detailed information about the involvement of two individuals he knew as “Keith” and “Charlie Brown.” The officers then showed photographs of Keith Johnson and Thomas Walker to McLaurin, and he identified them as the individuals who robbed the bank. Officers next arrested Keith Johnson, who corroborated McLaurin’s story of the robbery and pointed to Thomas Walker as the other robber.

Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers arrested Walker at about 4:00 p.m. on October 19 and held him overnight. When he woke up the next morning, he was sick with diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain, and at about 9:00 that morning, he was taken to the hospital emergency room. The doctor there diagnosed him as suffering from heroin withdrawal and gave him an intravenous treatment of morphine and other medications. At 11:05 a.m., the doctor discharged him and returned him to the custody of the CPD, writing on the discharge form that Walker’s condition was «“good.” The doctor later testified that at the time of Walker’s departure, Walker was “alert and oriented,” and that he was “with the program.”

Upon his release, the CPD transported Walker to the FBI headquarters. FBI Agents Daniel Spotts and Nanette Skopel-ja took custody of him at about 12:45 p.m., read him his Miranda rights, and began an interrogation. Walker was still obviously ill at this time; not only had he *411 vomited in the car on the way to the FBI offices, he also vomited three times during the brief interrogation, and Agent Spotts gave him a plastic bag to use. After an ambiguous exchange about Walker’s desire for a lawyer, Walker eventually signed a Federal Advice of Rights form waiving his right to remain silent and confessed both orally and in writing. Agent Spotts prepared a handwritten summary of Walker’s statements, which included the following facts: (1) McLaurin drove Walker and Keith Johnson to the TCF bank on October 8; (2) once inside the bank, Walker vaulted the counter, took cash from a teller and placed it inside a blue book bag; (3) after robbing the bank, Keith Johnson and Walker were driven to another location where they split the money; and (4) Walker spent his share of the money on gambling, clothes, and heroin. Walker also viewed surveillance photos from the bank and identified one of the robbers as Keith Johnson and then, with regard to another robber in the photo whose face was blocked, he stated that it “could have been me.” Walker also looked at a lineup and identified McLaurin as the person who drove him to and from the bank.

After Agent Spotts drafted the written statement, he read it to Walker, who signed it. Walker was then taken for an initial appearance before the magistrate judge; from there, he was moved to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). Upon a visit to the MCC clinic at about 7:00 that night, he was again diagnosed with heroin withdrawal and given some painkillers.

Walker, Keith Johnson, and McLaurin were charged with conspiracy to commit bank robbery and aggravated bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d). Walker and Keith Johnson were also charged with use of a firearm in connection with a violent crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). Keith Johnson and McLaurin entered into plea agreements with the government, while Walker went to trial.

Prior to trial, Walker moved to suppress his confession because it was made involuntarily and in violation of his rights to remain silent and to have a lawyer present. The court held a three-day suppression hearing but ultimately denied the motion to suppress. It also denied Walker’s motion to compel production of Agent Spotts’s notes of his interview with Walker, finding that the notes were cumulative of the FBI report, which had already been produced.

At trial, both Keith Johnson and McLau-rin testified against Walker, and the government used Walker’s own confession. Walker’s defense theoiy was that there were only two people involved in the robbery, or, if there were three people involved, he was not one of them. In order to support this defense, he called Andre Maurice Johnson (no relation to co-conspirator Keith), who had recently been incarcerated on separate drug charges, to testify that he had been with Walker at the time of the robbery. The jury was not convinced by his alibi, and after a three-day trial it convicted Walker on the conspiracy and aggravated robbery charges and acquitted him on the firearm charge. His motions for a judgment of acquittal and a new trial were denied, and he was sentenced to 276 months’ imprisonment.

II

A. Confession

For understandable reasons, the argument Walker has emphasized on appeal concerns the admission of his confession. “The ultimate question of whether a confession is voluntary is a matter of law that must be reviewed de novo in this *412 court.” United States v. Jordan, 223 F.3d 676, 683 (7th Cir.2000). Nonetheless, we review the court’s factual findings only for clear error, id., especially when the suppression decision turned on the credibility of the witnesses. See United States v.

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Bluebook (online)
272 F.3d 407, 58 Fed. R. Serv. 809, 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 24204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-thomas-walker-ca7-2001.