United States v. Wilmer Quesada-Ramos

429 F. App'x 909
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 10, 2011
Docket10-11996, 10-12577
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 429 F. App'x 909 (United States v. Wilmer Quesada-Ramos) 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. Wilmer Quesada-Ramos, 429 F. App'x 909 (11th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Wilmer Quesada-Ramos and Juan Gonzalez appeal their convictions for conspiring to destroy, 18 U.S.C. § 844(n), and destroying by fire a building used in interstate commerce, id. §§ 2, 844(i). Ramos and Gonzalez challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support their convictions and the reasonableness of their sentences. Gonzalez also challenges the denial of defense counsel’s pre-trial motion to withdraw, the admission of expert testimony, and a closing argument of the United States. We affirm.

A jury reasonably could have found based on the circumstantial evidence presented by the government that Ramos and Gonzalez conspired to commit and committed arson. Officers arrived around 11:00 p.m. on February 4, 2009, to investigate an alarm activated in a carpet warehouse located in downtown Hialeah, Florida, and discovered a fire that had been started by pouring gasoline through a window onto rolls of carpet. The first two officers on the scene saw Ramos in his red truck with its dim headlights drive out of a nearby alley. Ramos fled and led one officer on a *912 high speed chase through four traffic lights before the officer stopped the truck at a crowded intersection. See United States v. Miranda, 425 F.3d 953, 959 (11th Cir.2005) (presence at the scene is probative); United States v. Borders, 693 F.2d 1318, 1324-25 (11th Cir.1982) (flight suggests consciousness of guilt). Inside the truck, the officer discovered Ramos’s cellular telephone and a wallet containing Gonzalez’s driver’s license and receipts from two gas stations where Gonzalez had purchased $60 in gasoline within three hours of the fire. Although Ramos denied that he knew Gonzalez, investigators later discovered that Gonzalez was Ramos’s uncle, Gonzalez had worked for years as a subcontractor for the owner of the warehouse, Gonzalez had fought with the owner about salary deductions in the two months preceding the fire, and Ramos had helped Gonzalez install storage racks inside the warehouse. See United States v. Molina, 443 F.3d 824, 828 (11th Cir.2006) (the “existence of an agreement” can be “proved by inferences from the conduct of the alleged participants or from circumstantial evidence of a scheme”). Gonzalez, who lived many miles away, also was seen by police officers near the warehouse at the time of the fire, fled when officers at two different locations attempted to question him, see Borders, 693 F.2d at 1324, and, when apprehended, was “really dusty,” coughed incessantly, had soot on his face and singed hair in his nose, and spit up “blackish mucus,” see Miranda, 425 F.3d at 959. Gonzalez gave vague explanations for his symptoms and for his presence near the warehouse, and a fragment of DNA on a t-shirt found at the scene shared 20 characteristics with Gonzalez’s DNA. A police officer seized from Gonzalez a cigarette lighter and a cell phone, which Gonzalez had used “pretty close” to the warehouse at 10:22 p.m. and at 11:19 p.m. Records for Ramos’s cellular telephone established that he had driven to Hialeah the night of the fire, where he had made calls between 10:30 p.m. and 11:20 p.m. Although investigators did not discover any accelerant on Ramos’s clothing or on any objects in his truck, a trained dog alerted to the presence of an accelerant in the bed of his truck. The evidence and reasonable inferences from that evidence supports the finding of the jury that Ramos and Gonzalez agreed to burn the warehouse, the two men transported in Ramos’s truck some supplies to start the fire, Ramos waited in the truck while Gonzalez set the warehouse on fire, and the two men fled separately from the scene. “ ‘A jury is free to choose among reasonable constructions of the evidence,’ ” United States v. Hernandez, 433 F.3d 1328, 1334 (11th Cir.2005) (quoting United States v. Bell, 678 F.2d 547, 549 (5th Cir.1982) (en banc)), and the jury rejected the defenses presented by Gonzalez and Ramos.

Gonzalez argues that his trial was unfair because the district court refused to allow defense counsel to withdraw, but we disagree. Although a defendant is entitled to counsel of his choice, “[t]he right to choose counsel may not be subverted to obstruct the orderly procedure in the courts or to interfere with the fair administration of justice,” Gandy v. Ala., 569 F.2d 1318, 1323 (5th Cir.1978), which appeared to be Gonzalez’s strategy. Gonzalez retained defense counsel and was satisfied with his representation until two weeks before trial when Gonzalez told counsel that he had hired a new attorney. Gonzalez presented no definitive proof that a new attorney was available, or even existed. The new attorney never filed a notice of appearance, failed to respond to defense counsel’s voice messages, and did not appear at the hearing on the motion to withdraw. Defense counsel said that he and *913 Gonzalez had had a “large disagreement in the case,” but the district court was never told the nature of that disagreement and reasonably determined that the motion was an “attempt[ ] to manipulate the court’s schedule by a last minute switch of attorneys or selection of an unavailable attorney,” id. at 1328. The district court also reasonably determined that defense counsel, who was prepared for trial, would represent Gonzalez adequately, and that proceeding to trial would best protect co-defendant Ramos’s right to a speedy trial. See United States v. Calderon, 127 F.3d 1314, 1343 (11th Cir.1997). Gonzalez argues that he had the “right to ‘face trial alone’ rather than proceed with unwanted counsel,” but Gonzalez never asked to proceed pro se, and “[defendants are only guaranteed a fair or reasonable opportunity to select the attorney of their choice,” United States v. Baker, 432 F.3d 1189, 1248 (11th Cir.2005). The district court has “wide latitude in balancing the right to counsel of choice against the needs of fairness ... and against the demands of its calendar,” United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140, 152, 126 S.Ct. 2557, 2565-66, 165 L.Ed.2d 409 (2006), and the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion to withdraw.

Gonzalez argues that he was denied a fair trial because the district court allowed Officer Ross Holt to testify as an expert witness, but we disagree. As long as the testimony establishes that an expert witness has “a reliable basis in the knowledge and experience of his discipline” to provide an opinion, he is “permitted wide latitude to offer opinions.” Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc.,

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Bluebook (online)
429 F. App'x 909, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wilmer-quesada-ramos-ca11-2011.