United States v. Whitfield

215 F. App'x 190
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedFebruary 7, 2007
Docket05-4870
StatusUnpublished

This text of 215 F. App'x 190 (United States v. Whitfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third 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. Whitfield, 215 F. App'x 190 (3d Cir. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

McKEE, Circuit Judge.

Charles Whitfield appeals the judgment of sentence and conviction that was entered following his conviction for conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm the district court’s judgment.

I.

Because we write primarily for the parties, it is not necessary to recite the facts of this case in detail. Rather, we note only briefly that the charges in this case stemmed from a criminal conspiracy that operated from July of 1999 through July of 2001 and that was involved in over fifty burglaries, armed robberies, and related crimes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Whitfield was involved, with three other co-defendants, in only one of these burglaries; the burglary of Monster Beverage in Glassboro, New Jersey, on March 19, 2001. He was the driver and lookout.

On appeal, Whitfield argues that evidence of his participation as a “lookout” in that single burglary was not sufficient to convict him of the larger conspiracy perpetuated by Christopher Plytas and others. He also alleges that the government’s failure to disclose newly discovered evidence relating to the credibility of one of his co-conspirators before trial requires a new trial.

II.

To prove conspiracy, the government must establish a unity of purpose between the alleged conspirators, an intent to achieve a common goal, and an agreement to work together toward that goal. United States v. Gibbs, 190 F.3d 188, 197 (3d Cir.1999). Nevertheless, we have consistently held that:

[t]he government need not prove that each defendant knew all of the conspiracy’s details, goals, or other participants .... However, the government must proffer sufficient evidence from which a jury could have concluded that each ... transaction in which [the defendant] was involved was a step in achieving the conspiracy’s common goals....

Id. (internal citations and quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Adams, 759 F.2d 1099, 1114 (3d Cir.1985) (knowledge of all the particular aspects, goals, and participants of a conspiracy is not necessary to sustain a conviction). Even an occasional participant in the scheme “can be shown to be a member of the conspiracy by evidence, direct or inferential, of knowledge that she or he was part of a larger operation.” Id. at 198.

Whitfield concedes that the evidence is sufficient to prove that he shared the objective of burglarizing Monster Beverage. He disputes that he knew that the burglary was part of a larger conspiracy involving Plytas and others, and claims that the evidence is insufficient to establish his involvement in that larger conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt. The record refutes this claim.

The government’s evidence included the testimony of co-conspirator, William Myrick. He testified that Whitfield “knew basically how we was getting our money ... by either buying [sic] or burglarizing something.” Administrative Record (“A.R.”) at 717. 1 Another co-conspirator, *192 Christopher Plytas, testified that Whitfield was “excited [to be included] because he [knew] he was going to be paid good.” Id. We realize that Plytas’s testimony does not establish that Whitfield knew of any greater conspiracy because he could have been excited about getting paid from the Monster Beverage burglary alone. However, Myrick’s testimony supports an inference that Whitfield knew that Plytas and Myrick were involved in a larger burglary conspiracy and that he willingly furthered the criminal objective of that conspiracy by participating in the Monster Beverage burglary. See Blumenthal v. United States, 332 U.S. 539, 68 S.Ct. 248, 92 L.Ed. 154 (1947).

In Blumenthal, three defendants were convicted of conspiring to sell whisky at prices that violated the Emergency Price Control Act. In affirming their convictions, the Court reasoned that, although each salesman “aided in selling only his part [of the whisky],” each “knew that the lot to be sold was larger and thus that he was aiding in a larger plan.” Id. at 559, 68 S.Ct. 248. The Court explained: “[b]y [defendants’] separate agreements, if such they were, they became parties to the larger common plan, joined together by their knowledge of its essential features and broad scope, though not of its exact limits, and by their common single goal.” Id. at 558, 68 S.Ct. 248.

Similarly, in United States v. Theodoropoulos, 866 F.2d 587, 594 (3d Cir.1989), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Price, 76 F.3d 526 (3rd Cir.1996), six defendants were charged with conspiracy to distribute drugs. Defendant Barrera argued that he had only been an occasional supplier and did not himself know all the details of the broader conspiracy. We disagreed. We concluded that his knowledge of the larger conspiracy was demonstrated by evidence that a third party had complained about the quality of cocaine he had supplied. The complaint was evidence that his co-defendant had distributed the drugs, as well as Barrera’s willingness to continue to provide cocaine for his co-defendant to distribute. Id.

In arguing that the evidence here was not sufficient, Whitfield relies in part upon the reasoning of United States v. Cartwright, 359 F.3d 281 (3d Cir.2004). There we held that the defendant’s involvement solely as a lookout could not sustain his conviction for conspiracy to distribute illegal substances, as opposed to some other form of contraband. We recognized that the evidence did support a circumstantial inference that a conspiracy existed, but found that was insufficient to support Cartwright’s conviction because the evidence did not support an inference that he knew the object of the conspiracy was drug distribution as opposed to some other illegal goal. The jury was forced to speculate in order to fill in the gaps in the evidence. Id. at 288. Moreover, the government’s evidence of a conversation and prior relationship between Cartwright and a co-conspirator did not change the result. We explained that, “in the absence of any evidence indicating the substance of [Cartwright’s] conversation with [his co-conspirator], any evidence of a prior relationship with [the co-conspirator], or any other direct evidence indicating Cartwright’s knowledge, the jury could only speculate as to Cartwright’s knowledge.” Id. at 289-90.

However, Cartwright does not assist Whitfield to the extent he claims. Here, there was direct testimony that Whitfield knew that Myrick and Plytas had been obtaining money by committing burglaries.

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Related

Blumenthal v. United States
332 U.S. 539 (Supreme Court, 1948)
United States v. Thomas Price
76 F.3d 526 (Third Circuit, 1996)
United States v. Gibbs
190 F.3d 188 (Third Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Adams
759 F.2d 1099 (Third Circuit, 1985)
United States v. Theodoropoulos
866 F.2d 587 (Third Circuit, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
215 F. App'x 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-whitfield-ca3-2007.