United States v. Willie James Haugabrook

576 F. App'x 918
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 13, 2014
Docket13-11102
StatusUnpublished

This text of 576 F. App'x 918 (United States v. Willie James Haugabrook) 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. Willie James Haugabrook, 576 F. App'x 918 (11th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Willie James Haugabrook was convicted by a jury of, having been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, knowingly receiving and possessing a firearm that had been previously shipped and transported in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). He was sentenced to a 120-month term of imprisonment, to run consecutively with a prior undischarged state sentence. He appeals both the conviction and sentence. We will address each challenge in turn.

I.

Haugabrook argues on appeal that the district court erred by giving the flight instruction, because there was insufficient evidence in his case to support the inferential chain from flight to guilt for the charged offense. He contends that the evidence was equally compatible with the conclusion that he fled because he was accosted in a high crime area or because of an outstanding parole warrant for his arrest.

Haugabrook also argues that the flight instruction given was inadequate and misleading because it failed to expressly identify multiple possible reasons for his flight and to incorporate safeguards of which we and other courts have approved. Hauga-brook acknowledges that in United States v. Williams, 541 F.3d 1087, 1089 (11th Cir.2008), we upheld a flight instruction analogous to the instruction given in his case, but he asks us to overturn Williams.

We review a district court’s jury instructions under an abuse of discretion standard. See Williams, 541 F.3d at 1089 (11th Cir.2008). We review the legal correctness of a jury instruction de novo, but defer to the district court on questions of phrasing, absent an abuse of discretion. United States v. Prather, 205 F.3d 1265, 1270 (11th Cir.2000).

Evidence of flight is generally admissible as circumstantial evidence of guilt. See United States v. Borders, 693 F.2d 1318, 1324-1326 (11th Cir.1982); see also United States v. Blakey, 960 F.2d 996, 1000 (11th Cir.1992). Giving the flight instruction is not an abuse of discretion *920 where the evidence could lead a reasonable jury to conclude that the defendant fled to avoid apprehension for the charged crime. Williams, 541 F.3d at 1089. When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence for a flight instruction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. See United States v. Wright, 392 F.3d 1269, 1279 (11th Cir.2004).

We have approved the flight instruction even where the evidence could support more than one motive for flight, indicating that “it is for the jury to infer” the source of the defendant’s guilt. Wright, 392 F.3d at 1279. For example, in Williams, we held that the district court’s flight instruction was not an abuse of discretion in a trial for a drug possession charge, where police officers’ impetus for pursuing the defendant was an outstanding arrest warrant. 541 F.3d at 1088-89. The defendant led the officers on a high speed chase, and, once they apprehended him, the officers found drugs in the defendant’s car. Id. at 1088. See also Wright, 392 F.3d at 1271-72, 1277-79 (concluding the district court did not plainly err by giving flight instruction at trial on a firearm possession charge, where police attempted to arrest defendant for driving under the influence, he resisted arrest, and police later found firearm in his car).

District courts have broad discretion in crafting jury instructions, provided the charge as a whole accurately reflects the law and the facts. United States v. Kennard, 472 F.3d 851, 854 (11th Cir.2006). We examine whether the charge sufficiently instructed the jurors so that they understood the issues and were not misled. United States v. Fulford, 267 F.3d 1241, 1245 (11th Cir.2001).

We have indicated that a flight instruction is not an abuse of discretion if it informs jurors that it is up to them to determine whether the evidence proved flight. See Borders, 693 F.2d at 1328. We have upheld flight instructions of varying degrees of specificity. See e.g. Williams, 541 F.3d at 1089 (upholding flight instruction with less detail than the flight instruction in the instant case); Borders, 693 F.2d at 1327-28 (upholding flight instruction with significantly more detail than the instruction in the instant case).

In this case, the evidence permitted the jury to conclude that Haugabrook’s flight was motivated by his knowledge that he illegally possessed a firearm. The evidence showed that Haugabrook began to slowly flee as soon as the officers approached, and that once he saw that the officers continued to pursue him, he ran. The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, also showed that Haugabrook discarded a firearm as he was being chased. While the evidence may have permitted the jury to conclude that Haugabrook fled for other reasons, the reason for a defendant’s flight is a question for the jury, Wright, 392 F.3d at 1279. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion by giving the flight instruction.

Further, the flight instruction given was not an abuse of discretion because it informed the jurors that it was up to them to determine whether the evidence proved flight. Borders, 693 F.2d at 1328. The jury instruction stated:

The flight of a Defendant is a circumstance which may be taken into consideration with all other facts and circumstances of the evidence. If you find from the evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that the Defendant fled, and that his flight was for the purpose of avoiding arrest for the charge in the indictment, as opposed to some other reason, you may take this fact into con *921 sideration in determining the Defendant’s guilt or innocence.

The district court expressly instructed the jury to take Haugabrook’s flight into consideration as circumstantial evidence of guilt only if it found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he fled to avoid the charged crime. Williams, 541 F.3d at 1089. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in its choice of flight instruction. 1

II.

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Related

United States v. Prather
205 F.3d 1265 (Eleventh Circuit, 2000)
United States v. Fulford
267 F.3d 1241 (Eleventh Circuit, 2001)
United States v. John Kevin Talley
431 F.3d 784 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Laboyce Kennard
472 F.3d 851 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Williams
541 F.3d 1087 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Olano
507 U.S. 725 (Supreme Court, 1993)
United States v. McNair
605 F.3d 1152 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Irey
612 F.3d 1160 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. William A. Borders
693 F.2d 1318 (Eleventh Circuit, 1982)
United States v. Kimmy Lee Woodard
938 F.2d 1255 (Eleventh Circuit, 1991)
United States v. Jesse Wright, Jr., A.K.A. Jessie Wright
392 F.3d 1269 (Eleventh Circuit, 2004)
Peugh v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2072 (Supreme Court, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
576 F. App'x 918, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-willie-james-haugabrook-ca11-2014.