United States v. Watkins

667 F.3d 254, 2012 WL 232968, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 1428
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 26, 2012
DocketDocket 10-2971-cr
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 667 F.3d 254 (United States v. Watkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Watkins, 667 F.3d 254, 2012 WL 232968, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 1428 (2d Cir. 2012).

Opinions

MINER, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-appellant Anthony Watkins appeals from a judgment of sentence entered June 23, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Kahn, /.). Watkins was convicted, after a guilty plea, of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a). The District Court sentenced Watkins principally to a 233-month term of imprisonment. In reaching that sentence, the court applied three two-level sentencing enhancements pursuant to § 2G1.3 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.” or the “Guidelines”) because the offense involved: (1) the commission of a sex act, U.S.S.G. § 2G1.3(b)(4)(A); (2) use of a computer to entice a minor to engage in prohibited sexual conduct, U.S.S.G. § 2G1.3(b)(3)(A); and (3) misrepresentation of identity “to persuade, induce, entice, [or] coerce ... a minor to engage in prohibited sexual conduct” and/or undue influence to engage in such conduct, U.S.S.G. § 2G1.3(b)(2)(A) and (B).

On appeal, Watkins challenges the three sentencing enhancements and contends that his 233-month sentence is substantively unreasonable. For the following reasons, we conclude that the District Court did not err in applying the sentencing enhancements and in imposing a 233-month term of imprisonment.

[257]*257BACKGROUND

The following description of the conduct underlying Watkins’ conviction is drawn from the findings of the District Court, the court expressly having found the facts described in Watkins’ Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”) supported by a preponderance of the evidence. These facts are not disputed on appeal.

At the time of the conviction of the offense charged, Watkins was 48 years’ old, homeless, unemployed, and living in a baseball dugout at Schenectady County Community College in Schenectady, New York. By his own account, he supported himself by selling drugs and stolen property. From the age of 14, he had spent his life in and out of jail. Watkins was a frequent visitor to the public library in Schenectady. He often went there to use the Internet and to listen to free music on Jango.com. Jango encouraged social networking by identifying for each user other Jango users with similar musical tastes. Jango enabled its users to communicate with each other. In April 2008, Watkins began communicating through Jango with a fifteen year-old girl, Jane Doe, a resident of Connecticut. The two shared an interest in rock music. Watkins initially communicated with Doe “a few times a week” using Jango, as well as MySpace and email.

On May 12, 2008, Doe informed Watkins that she was fifteen years’ old and had a boyfriend. She asked Watkins if he “wanted her to talk all sexy to him and get him all horny and shit.” Watkins said “thanks, finally, of course I do want you to ... that’s the point ... remember I only live in New York so if you ever get brave enough.... ” Watkins told Doe that “thinking about her at this innocent age is like an hour of wild sex already____” Watkins asked Doe if she was a virgin, and she stated that she was. Watkins and Doe repeatedly discussed sex and what it would be like to have sex, often in graphic detail. They had “computer sex,” “phone sex,” and they “talk[ed] dirty” to each other online.

In Watkins’ initial communications with Doe, he misrepresented his age, stating that he was 38 years’ old when he was actually 48. He also misrepresented to Doe that he had two children (he actually had five) and that he was a former drug addict (by his own account, he smoked marijuana “all day long, every day”). Watkins also “repeatedly told [Doe] that he loved her” and said “that he was waiting for her to get older so she could come live with him” in New York. Doe responded that “she loved him too.”

Watkins made plans to travel to Doe’s home in Connecticut on October 31, 2008, but he canceled the trip, explaining that his “check had not come.” Nonetheless, Watkins promised Doe that he would visit the next day, Saturday, November 1, 2008, and sent Doe an electronic message stating:

[D]on’t be depressed, I will be there____ you got that[,] girl.... I am sad cause my money fucked me up; I would be in your panties by now.... I can’t let you go so stay____be my girl----it’s only [a twenty-year age difference], it’s common for couples.

Watkins also asked Doe to keep her phone on so that when he arrived at her house she could “jump out the window” and he could “teach [her] the differences between fucking and making love,” adding that he would “take great care of [her] wants and needs.”

On November 1, Watkins drove from Schenectady to Connecticut, where Doe resided, and called Doe’s cell phone when he arrived outside of her house. Doe answered but did not invite him in, explain[258]*258ing that “she and her family were members of the Jehovah Witness faith, and that her mother was very strict.” Instead, Doe met Watkins at the end of her long driveway in the car that he was driving.1

The two began kissing as soon as Doe got into the ear. Watkins asked Doe to perform oral sex on him, and she did. He then performed oral sex on her, and the two engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse. Doe’s mother then called her on her cell phone, and Doe returned home, telling her mother that she had gone for a walk.

Around 11 p.m. that same night, Watkins called Doe and told her that he was at the end of her driveway again. Doe sneaked out of her house and met Watkins in his car. Watkins then drove to a nearby park and parked near the woods, where he gave Doe four necklaces and two rings. Watkins and Doe had vaginal intercourse on the back seat of the car, but the two were interrupted repeatedly by phone calls from Doe’s mother. To get away from Doe’s mother, Watkins and Doe “suddenly decided to get on the highway and leave town.” Watkins suggested that they travel to New York.

Watkins then drove Doe to New York, where he could engage in sexual intercourse with Doe without interruption. At some point along the way, Watkins parked along the roadside, and Watkins and Doe had sexual intercourse. They arrived in New York around 2:30 a.m. and stopped in the town of Niskayuna, where Watkins informed Doe that the car “had run out of gas.” Watkins and Doe then abandoned the car in a parking lot and took a bus to Schenectady.

in Schenectady, Watkins told Doe that they should not go to his “home” because he feared that her mother or the police would find them there. He and Doe therefore spent time at Watkins’ friend’s house. They went for a free breakfast at a church and had lunch at a restaurant, which Watkins told Doe was also free. Later that day, Watkins took Doe to the same library where Watkins previously had accessed the Internet. While there, Watkins deleted all of his identifying information from the websites on which he and Doe had communicated, including his area code, picture, and last name.

The next day, Sunday, November 2, Watkins and Doe traveled to a Salvation Army store where they were given two sets of clothes and coats for free. Doe’s boyfriend called her that day and tried to convince her to come home. Doe then told Watkins that she wanted to go home. Watkins became jealous and unhappy with her.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
667 F.3d 254, 2012 WL 232968, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 1428, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-watkins-ca2-2012.