United States v. Wayne Maxwell Keith Woods Brenda Faye Johnson

34 F.3d 1006, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 27854, 1994 WL 514951
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 7, 1994
Docket92-6349
StatusPublished
Cited by67 cases

This text of 34 F.3d 1006 (United States v. Wayne Maxwell Keith Woods Brenda Faye Johnson) 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. Wayne Maxwell Keith Woods Brenda Faye Johnson, 34 F.3d 1006, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 27854, 1994 WL 514951 (11th Cir. 1994).

Opinion

CLARK, Senior Circuit Judge:

Defendants-appellants Wayne Maxwell, Keith Woods, and Brenda Faye Johnson challenge their convictions and sentences on charges of conspiring to distribute and distributing controlled substances. We affirm the convictions of all three defendants and the sentences of Woods and Johnson. Because we find that the district court erred in calculating Maxwell’s guidelines range, we vacate his sentence and remand for resen-tencing.

FACTS

Defendants Maxwell, Woods, and Johnson were indicted along with Edward Hall Yates and Elijah Smith, Johnson’s common law husband, for conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute hydromor-phone hydrochloride, a narcotic also known as dilaudid, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. The indictment alleged that the conspiracy began in the middle of 1986 and continued through June of 1991. In addition to the conspiracy count, Maxwell and Woods were also charged with several substantive counts of distributing dilaudid during the period of the conspiracy. Maxwell was also charged with one count of distributing less than one ounce of cocaine in April or May of 1987. Yates and Smith entered pleas of guilty, and their convictions and sentences are not at issue in this appeal. Maxwell, Woods, and Johnson were tried together before a jury.

The government’s principal witness was Richard Lundy. Lundy had been convicted *1008 of conspiring to distribute dilaudid and had agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lesser sentence. Lundy testified as follows. From 1986 until June of 1991, he had been in the business of distributing dilaudid. He had two sources of supply for dilaudid pills: Maxwell and Yates. 1 Lundy would purchase dilaudid pills from Maxwell and then sell them to Woods, Smith, and Johnson, who would then sell them to others. 2 Lundy had supplied Woods with dilaudid pills from 1986 until 1991; Woods usually sold these pills at a convenience store near Lundy’s house. 3 In June of 1988, Lun-dy had begun selling dilaudid to Johnson, who would purchase dilaudid pills for a few other people so that she could make a sufficient profit to purchase a pill for herself. 4 Because Lundy had preferred dealing with Johnson’s common law husband, Smith, rather than with Johnson, Lundy eventually began selling dilaudid to Smith rather than Johnson. Even after Lundy began dealing with Smith, Johnson had continued to participate in the sale of dilaudid with her husband. When Smith was busy, Johnson would obtain the dilaudid pills from Lundy or deliver money from dilaudid sales to Lundy. 5

Lundy testified that he had purchased cocaine from Maxwell in April or May of 1987. Lundy had collected money from a number of people so that he could purchase dilaudid for them. When he was unable to obtain dilaudid, Lundy had obtained, instead, less than an ounce of cocaine from Maxwell. This is the only occasion on which Lundy purchased cocaine from Maxwell. 6 Maxwell did not ever ask Lundy to become involved in cocaine distribution. 7

The government offered the testimony of several other witnesses to bolster Lundy’s account of the involvement of Maxwell, Woods, and Johnson in the dilaudid distribution scheme. Lundy’s wife testified that she occasionally had obtained dilaudid from Maxwell on her husband’s instructions and that Maxwell had come by their house to collect money from her husband. 8 She also testified that she had delivered dilaudid pills to Smith and to Woods on her husband’s instructions. 9 Four other witnesses testified that they had purchased dilaudid from Woods, 10 and one witness testified that she had purchased dilaudid from Johnson. 11 The officer who took statements from Woods and Johnson shortly after their arrest testified that Woods had admitted to delivering dilaudid pills and collecting money for Lundy and that Johnson had admitted that she and her husband distributed the dilaudid they obtained from Lundy to support their own drug habits. 12 Finally, two witnesses corroborated Lundy’s testimony regarding the substitution of cocaine for dilaudid in April or May of 1987. 13

In addition to testimony regarding the charges of the indictment, the government, over Maxwell’s objections, also introduced extrinsic offense evidence regarding other drug dealings in which Maxwell had allegedly been involved. First, Lundy testified that he and Maxwell had made two trips to Kansas in the fall of 1990 to obtain marijuana. 14 A city police officer, with whom Lundy had been cooperating at the time, corroborated this testimony. 15 Second, Shirley Goneke *1009 testified that she had purchased two dilaudid pifis from Maxwell in 1984 or 1985, prior to the period of the conspiracy charged in the indictment. 16 Third, Jerry Dycus testified that, beginning in April of 1986, he had sold cocaine for Maxwell for a period of a month and a half to two months. 17 According to Dycus, he never discussed dilaudid with Max-well 18 and never had any dealings with those involved in the dilaudid distribution; the 1986 cocaine deals were solely between him and Maxwell. 19 Finally, after Maxwell took the stand and denied ever supplying anyone with cocaine or crack cocaine, 20 the government on rebuttal called Rolin Manders, who testified that he had purchased crack cocaine from Maxwell on several occasions. 21 During the charge to the jury, the district court instructed that this extrinsic offense evidence could not be used to establish that Maxwell committed the acts charged in the indictment, but could only be used to establish his state of mind. 22

The jury found all three defendants guilty of conspiracy to distribute dilaudid. Maxwell was also convicted of distributing less than an ounce of cocaine in April or May of 1987, and Woods was convicted on several substantive charges of distribution of dilaudid. Maxwell was sentenced to 136 months in prison, Woods was sentenced to 30 months in prison, and Johnson was sentenced to 21 months hi prison.

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Bluebook (online)
34 F.3d 1006, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 27854, 1994 WL 514951, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wayne-maxwell-keith-woods-brenda-faye-johnson-ca11-1994.