United States v. Willis

476 F.3d 1121, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 3492, 2007 WL 495313
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 16, 2007
Docket06-6009
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 476 F.3d 1121 (United States v. Willis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Willis, 476 F.3d 1121, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 3492, 2007 WL 495313 (10th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

TACHA, Chief Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Todd A. Willis was convicted of aiding and abetting the accessing without authorization of a protected computer, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2(a) and 1030(a)(2)(C), (c)(2)(B)(iii). He was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment. He now appeals both his conviction and sentence. We take jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and AFFIRM Mr. Willis’s conviction, VACATE his sentence and REMAND for resentencing.

I. BACKGROUND

Mr. Willis was employed by Credit Collections, Inc., an Oklahoma City debt collection agency. To obtain information on individuals for debt collection, the agency utilized a financial information services website called Accurint.com — a site owned by LexisNexis. The information available on Accurint.com includes the names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, telephone numbers, and other property data of many individuals. In order to access the information on Accurint.com, customers must contract with LexisNexis and obtain a username and password. In his position as a small claims supervisor, Mr. Willis had significant responsibility for the computers in the agency. As part of his employment, Mr. Willis assigned to employees usernames and passwords to access Accurint.com. Employees were not authorized to obtain information from Acc-urint.com for personal use. Mr. Willis deactivated the usernames and passwords of employees who no longer worked for the company.

While investigating two individuals, Michelle Fischer and Jacob Wilfong, for identity theft, police officers found pages printed out from Accurint.com with identifying information for many people. The information obtained from Accurint.com was used to make false identity documents, open instant store credit at various retailers, and use the store credit to purchase goods that were later sold for cash. A subpoena to Accurint.com revealed that the information had been obtained through the user name “Amanda Diaz,” which was assigned to Credit Collections, Inc. Secret Service agents twice interviewed Mr. Willis about the identity theft. During the first interview, Mr. Willis insisted that the username and password assigned to Amanda Diaz had been deactivated and that there was no way to determine who had accessed the website. During the second interview, however, Mr. Willis admitted that he had given a user-name and password to his drug dealer in exchange for methamphetamine. He also admitted that he met Ms. Fischer through his drug dealer and that he began providing to her individuals’ information he obtained through Accurint.com. After Ms. Fischer continued to ask Mr. Willis for information, he gave her the Amanda Diaz username and password so that she could access Accurint.com herself. On one occasion, when Ms. Fischer was having trouble accessing the site, Mr. Willis helped her to log on and specifically showed her how to obtain access to individuals’ addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, etc. In exchange, Ms. Fischer said that she would “take care of [Mr. Willis] later.” She later gave him a silver Seiko watch. *1124 When Mr. Willis learned through a newspaper article that Ms. Fischer had been arrested for identity theft, he deactivated the username and password.

Mr. Willis was charged in a one-count indictment alleging that he aided and abetted the accessing without authorization of a protected computer and obtaining information therefrom, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2(a) and 1030(a)(2)(C). Following a jury trial, Mr. Willis was convicted of the crime charged. In a special question submitted to the jury, the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the value of the information obtained by the unauthorized access exceeded $5,000. This finding set the maximum sentence under the penalty provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(c)(2) at five years. Mr. Willis was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment. He raises three issues on appeal. First, he argues that there was insufficient evidence that he knowingly, and with the intent to defraud, aided another in obtaining unauthorized access to a protected computer. Second, he argues that the District Court erred in failing to instruct the jury that to convict, it must find that Mr. Willis knowingly and intentionally aided another in obtaining information worth more than $5,000 or that it was foreseeable that the information obtained was worth more than $5,000. Finally, he argues that the District Court incorrectly applied the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. We address each argument in turn.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

We review claims of insufficient evidence de novo. United States v. Gurule, 461 F.3d 1238, 1242 (10th Cir.2006). “Evidence is sufficient to support a conviction if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a reasonable jury could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. LaVallee, 439 F.3d 670, 697 (10th Cir.2006). We will reverse a conviction “only if no rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Gurule, 461 F.3d at 1243 (quotation omitted). We also review questions of statutory interpretation de novo. United States v. Begay, 470 F.3d 964, 967 (10th Cir.2006).

Under § 1030(a)(2)(C), “[w]hoever ... intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains ... information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication ... shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section.” Subsection (c) provides in relevant part that the punishment for a violation of § 1030(a) is:

(2)(A) except as provided in subpara-graph (B), a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(5)(A)(iii), or (a)(6) of this section which does not occur after a conviction for another offense under this section, or an attempt to commit an offense punishable under this subparagraph;
(B) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or both, in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(2), or an attempt to commit an offense punishable under this subpara-graph, if—
(iii) the value of the information obtained exceeds $5,000[.]

18 U.S.C. § 1030(c)(2)(A)-(B).

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Bluebook (online)
476 F.3d 1121, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 3492, 2007 WL 495313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-willis-ca10-2007.