United States v. Trevayne D. Jones

608 F. App'x 748
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedApril 15, 2015
Docket13-13352
StatusUnpublished

This text of 608 F. App'x 748 (United States v. Trevayne D. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Trevayne D. Jones, 608 F. App'x 748 (11th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Trevayne Jones and Dontreal Jenkins appeal their convictions for various offenses related to their involvement in a scheme to cash stolen federal income tax refund checks. A jury found Jones and Jenkins guilty of three offenses: conspiracy to embezzle public monies; embezzlement of government property; and aggravated identity theft. The jury also convicted Jones of making misleading statements; and it convicted Jenkins of mail and wire fraud conspiracy, for his participation in an unrelated scheme to fraudulently obtain student loans. Jones and Jenkins appeal each conviction, arguing that there was insufficient evidence presented at trial to support the jury’s verdicts and that the district court improperly denied their motions for judgment of acquittal. After thorough review, we are satisfied that a reasonable' jury could, as it did, find the defendants Jones and Jenkins guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and, therefore, we affirm.

I.

A.

The essential facts are straightforward. Jones and Jenkins were arrested in May 2011 after it came to the attention of state and federal authorities that they had been cashing stolen federal income tax refund checks at a convenience store in Albany, Georgia since January. Over this five month period, Jones and Jenkins cashed 342 stolen checks with a cumulative value of $713,000. On May 11, 2012, a grand jury returned a ten-count superseding indictment charging Jones, Jenkins, Jamal Williams, and another defendant, Kevinall Wheeler, with multiple offenses. Jones was charged with (1) conspiracy to embezzle public monies, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 and 371 (Count One); (2) embezzlement of government property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641 (Count Two); (3) aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A (Count Three); (4) making misleading statements, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3) (Count Nine); and (5) mail and wire fraud conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343, and 1349 *751 (Count Ten). Jenkins was charged with (1) conspiracy to' embezzle public monies, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 and 371 (Count One); (2) embezzlement of government property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641 (Count Four); (3) aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A (Count Five); and (4) mail and wire fraud conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343, and 1349 (Count Ten). Although Jones and Jenkins cashed over 300 checks, the indictment charged each of them with a single act of identity theft. Specifically, Jones was charged with possession and conversion of a check belonging to Anthony Pourhassan, as well as with possessing and using Pourhassan’s name and signature; and Jenkins was charged with possession and conversion of a check belonging to Arnulfo Vasquez Castillo, as well as with possessing and using Castillo’s name and signature. Count Ten, which charged the defendants with mail and wire fraud conspiracy, alleged that they had entered into a single agreement — unrelated to the check cashing scheme — with an individual named Princess Eatmon to fraudulently obtain student loans from the Department of Education.

Jones and Jenkins’s codefendants, Williams and Wheeler, both pled guilty. Jones and Jenkins were tried before a jury in January 2013. Because the defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, we recount the proofs adduced at trial in some detail. Among others, the United States elicited testimony from several witnesses, who explained how Jones and Jenkins procured and cashed over 300 stolen income tax refund checks. The most detailed information came from Nainesh Patel, the owner of the convenience store where the defendants cashed the checks, and from Jamal Williams, a cooperating codefendant. Patel testified that he and his wife have owned and operated a BP gas station and convenience store in Albany since 2004. He has known defendants Jenkins (“Tre”) and Jones (“Dre”) for five or six years, because they often spent several hours per day in his store playing various Georgia Lottery games.

The convenience store also provides check cashing services. Jones first approached Patel with a United States Department of the Treasury check in early 2011. Jones claimed that his sister had a tax business, and that he would be bringing in income tax refund checks belonging to her customers- for Patel to cash. Although Patel never took steps to contact Jones’s sister or to confirm the tax business’s existence, he did verify the authenticity and amount of each check using the Treasury Department’s website. 1 Patel also filed a copy of Jones’s driver’s license with a copy of each Treasury check for his records, and he marked each check “Dre” to indicate that it had been brought in by Jones. After a short time, Jones told Patel that Jenkins also would be bringing in checks to be cashed as part of the same business. When filing copies of checks that Jenkins brought into the store, Patel marked these checks “Tre.”

Patel estimated that Jones and Jenkins brought approximately 300 Treasury checks into his store. Copies of the checks were admitted into evidence, and the jury had the opportunity to see that Patel had marked the checks “Dre” and “Tre” re *752 spectively. Four victims whose cheeks were cashed by the defendants at the Pa-tels’ BP gas station also testified that they had not given anyone else the authority to cash their refund checks and that the signatures appearing on their checks were forged.

Surveillance tapes from the store corroborated Patel’s testimony. The footage showed Patel handing checks to Jenkins— allegedly while trying to verify them on the internet — and then later handing him between $20,000 and $30,000 in cash. Additional footage showed Patel holding a Treasury check and then handing cash to Jones.

The defendants’ co-conspirator, Jamal Williams, provided additional information about the operation.

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Bluebook (online)
608 F. App'x 748, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-trevayne-d-jones-ca11-2015.