United States v. Valencia

55 F. App'x 264
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 8, 2003
DocketNo. 01-1212
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 55 F. App'x 264 (United States v. Valencia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Valencia, 55 F. App'x 264 (6th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

COLE, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted defendant-appellant Tobias Valencia of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and distribution of methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the conspiracy involved more than 500 grams of methamphetamine. Valencia now appeals the verdict, sentence and judgment, based on the district court’s refusal to include on the verdict form provided to the jury an additional interrogatory as to whether the conspiracy involved 500 grams or less of methamphetamine. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

In July of 2000, J. Isabel Sandoval Bara-jas contacted Tobias Valencia to arrange a visit to Valencia’s home in Chicago to collect $8,000.00 that Valencia owed Barajas from a land purchase in Mexico years earlier. Shortly after arranging the visit, Ba-rajas was contacted by a man named Rafa about performing an “errand” during his visit with Valencia in Chicago. Barajas agreed to travel from Washington to Chicago for the sum of $2,000.00. On the day before he was to leave for Chicago, Rafa and Barajas met. Rafa took Barajas’s car for a number of hours. When Rafa returned, he brought Barajas to meet Armando Evangelista, who was waiting with Barajas’s car. Rafa told Barajas that Evangelista would be traveling with him to Chicago. Prior to leaving, Rafa advised Evangelista, but not Barajas, that there were drugs hidden in the gas tank of Bara-jas’s car. The following morning, Barajas and Evangelista left Washington and drove to Chicago. Upon arriving in Chicago, the men contacted Valencia.

The following morning, July 14, 2000, the men traveled from Chicago to Lansing, Michigan in Valencia’s truck and Barajas’s car. In Lansing, Barajas and Valencia delivered Barajas’s car to David James Kenney at his motorcycle shop. Approximately two hours later, Kenney returned Barajas’s car to Barajas and Valencia, and informed them that the methamphetamine shipment had been soaked in gasoline and significantly damaged. Barajas, Evangel-ista, and Valencia returned to Chicago. On July 16, 2000, a confidential informant notified DEA agents that Kenney was in possession of a large amount of methamphetamine.

On July 17, 2000, Barajas, Evangelista, and Valencia returned to Lansing and discussed the problem with the drugs with Kenney. During this discussion, Kenney’s shop was under surveillance by DEA and FBI agents. Kenney explained that he wanted to remove the drugs from their packaging to dry them out. After some deliberation, the drugs were placed in the bed of a pickup truck at Kenney’s shop to dry.

[266]*266That night, after the three men left the shop, the confidential informant initiated a purchase of methamphetamine. While making the purchase, the informant saw seven packages of methamphetamine that Kenney told him were to be removed from the packaging to dry overnight. The informant made the purchase and left.

The next morning, the three men traveled to Kenney’s residence but did not find him home. After waiting for some time, they decided to return to Chicago. Shortly after leaving Kenny’s residence, the trio was stopped by law enforcement agents and all three men were arrested. A search warrant was also executed on Ken-ney’s shop. In addition to finding several items indicating an intention to distribute drugs, agents confiscated six piles of dry methamphetamine located on a board in the bed of a pickup truck together having a weight of 1,278 grams, and another small bag of methamphetamine that was saturated with gasoline weighing 384 grams. Including the methamphetamine purchased by the informant, the total weight of the confiscated drugs was 2,280 grams.

Valencia, Barajas, and Evangelista were subsequently charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture containing methamphetamine pursuant to 21 U.S.C §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. Barajas and Evangelista executed plea agreements in exchange for their testimony and cooperation.

Valencia was tried before a jury in October 2000. At trial, Valencia made multiple objections to the wording of the verdict form. In particular, Valencia requested that the verdict form include an interrogatory as to whether the jury found that the conspiracy involved less then 500 grams of methamphetamine. The district court ultimately refused to alter the proposed verdict form to accommodate Valencia’s objection, finding that the proposed verdict form was properly designed to require the jury to make a finding as to drug quantity beyond a reasonable doubt. The verdict form provided to the jury at the conclusion of Valencia’s trial read:

1. As to the charge that the defendant, Tobias Valencia, was engaged in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, we, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, Tobias Valencia:
_Not Guilty_Guilty
If your answer is “Not Guilty,” your foreperson should date and sign this verdict.
If your answer is “Guilty,” you must proceed to question number 2.
2. Do you unanimously find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, To-bias Valencia, was involved with the following amount of controlled substances:
500 grams or more of methamphetamine mixture: ._No_Yes

Valencia was convicted on October 3, 2000. On January 30, 2001, Valencia was sentenced to serve 188 months in prison to be followed by five years supervised release, and he was required to pay a fine of $3,340.00 and a special assessment of $100.

On appeal, Valencia claims that the district court improperly refused to provide a lesser-included-offense instruction. In particular, Valencia argues that the crime of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute less than 500 grams of methamphetamine is a lesser included offense of the charge against him — ■ conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 or more grams of methamphetamine. Further, Valencia argues that he was denied a fair trial by the district court’s refusal to give such an instruction. We find that because Valencia never requested a lesser-included-offense instruc[267]*267tion, he cannot demonstrate reversible error.

II. ANALYSIS

Valencia never requested that the district court provide the jury with a lesser-included-offense instruction; nor did Valencia object to the jury instructions given by the trial court. Rather, Valencia strenuously objected to the wording of the verdict form. We must, therefore, reject Valencia’s argument on appeal that he was entitled to a lesser-included-offense instruction in this case.

Where a “defendant neither requested nor submitted a lesser-included-offense instruction, and did not object to the instructions given by the trial judge, the jury instructions are reviewable only for plain error.” United States v. Donathan,

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Related

United States v. Roberge
Sixth Circuit, 2009
Valencia v. United States
188 F. App'x 395 (Sixth Circuit, 2006)
Valencia v. United States
538 U.S. 1047 (Supreme Court, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 F. App'x 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-valencia-ca6-2003.