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Parties Involved:
Timothy R. Collier
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit

 Chicago, Illinois 60604

Submitted October 31, 2016

Decided March 16, 2017

   

Before

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge

ANN CLAIRE WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge

DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge

No. 15‐2657

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff‐Appellee,

v.

TIMOTHY R. COLLIER,

Defendant‐Appellant.

   

Appeal from the United States District

Court for the Southern District of

Illinois.

No. 13‐CR‐30266‐MJR

Michael J. Reagan,   

Chief Judge.   

    

O R D E R

   

A jury found Timothy Collier guilty of two counts of Hobbs Act robbery, 18 U.S.C.

§ 1951(a), two counts of carrying and using a firearm during a crime of violence, 18

U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A), and one count of possessing a firearm as a felon, 18 U.S.C.

§ 922(g)(1). The convictions stem from robberies of a pawn shop in East St. Louis, Illinois,

  After an examination of the briefs and the record, we have concluded that oral

argument is unnecessary. Thus, the appeal is submitted on the briefs and the record. See

Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION 

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 

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and a liquor store in Belleville, Illinois. During the pawn‐shop robbery, Collier shot the

store owner three times, including one point‐blank shot to the back of the head. The

owner somehow managed to survive. Calling the crime “exceptionally heartless,” the

district court sentenced Collier to life plus 900 months in prison.

Collier has appealed, and a new lawyer was appointed for the appeal. That lawyer

asserts that the appeal is frivolous and seeks to withdraw. See Anders v. California, 386

U.S. 738, 744 (1967). Collier opposes the lawyer’s motion and has exercised his right under

Circuit Rule 51(b) to identify issues he believes should be pursued. The lawyer’s brief

explains the nature of the case and considers issues that an appeal of this kind might be

expected to involve. The analysis appears thorough, so we limit our review to the subjects

the lawyer discusses plus the contentions in Collier’s response. See United States v. Bey,

748 F.3d 774, 776 (7th Cir. 2014); United States v. Wagner, 103 F.3d 551, 553 (7th Cir. 1996).

Counsel first considers a challenge to the district court’s decision to refuse to grant

a motion for a mistrial after Collier’s longtime on‐again off‐again girlfriend testified about

some clothing she had provided to him. The defense argued at trial that the line of

questioning about Collier having been out of town and returning with “some papers”

would have led the jury to conclude that Collier had been in prison before the charged

robberies. We agree with counsel that the challenge would be pointless. The district court

issued a curative instruction to the jury in response to the testimony. The judge also

pointed out in a post‐trial order that the jury would have learned of Collier’s previous

felony conviction anyway because the parties stipulated to it for the charge of possessing

a firearm as a felon. We would review the denial of a mistrial for abuse of discretion, and

we agree with counsel that there is no basis for finding that the witness’s testimony

denied Collier a fair trial or that denial of a mistrial was an abuse of discretion.

See United States v. Roux, 715 F.3d 1019, 1029 (7th Cir. 2013); United States v. Lane, 591 F.3d

921, 927 (7th Cir. 2010).

Counsel next considers renewing two challenges made at trial to the introduction

of evidence from a video recording of Collier’s interrogation. First, Collier objected to an

excerpt from the recording in which he suggests a possible alibi; he feared that the excerpt

might lead the jury to believe he had an obligation to raise an alibi defense. Second,

Collier objected to a still image from the recording because, he argued, it showed the

prison clothes he was wearing more clearly than the rest of the video. We agree with

counsel that it would be frivolous to argue the district court abused its discretion in

allowing this evidence. With respect to the alibi references, the court instructed the jury

that Collier had no obligation to raise any defense, and counsel cannot identify any reason

to believe that the jury disobeyed its duty to follow this instruction. See United States v.

Clark, 535 F.3d 571, 581 (7th Cir. 2008); United States v. Serfling, 504 F.3d 672, 677 (7th Cir.

2007). And because the video recording was itself admissible, nothing could be gained

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by asserting the court had to exclude a still image from it.

Counsel also evaluates whether, because the prosecutor in her opening statement

described expected testimony from a witness who ended up not testifying, Collier could

argue that his trial was unfair. But counsel correctly concludes that such a challenge

would be hopeless. The district court instructed the jury that counsel’s statements were

not evidence, and again nothing suggests that the jury ignored the instruction and based

a decision on the prosecutor’s statement instead of evidence. See Clark, 535 F.3d at 581;

United States v. Hall, 165 F.3d 1095, 1115–16 (7th Cir. 1999).

Counsel next considers whether Collier could make a non‐frivolous argument that

grand‐jury testimony about the police investigation was misleading, rendering his trial

unfair. During that investigation, when presented with a photo array that included an

image of Collier, the victim of the robbery and shooting told police that Collier was

“definitely” not his attacker. The agent who presented the array did not relay this

statement to the grand jury. The agent said instead only that the victim was unable to

make a positive identification. This is a troubling discrepancy, but it did not affect the

fairness of the trial. At trial Collier’s counsel cross‐examined the agent about it and during

closing argument argued that it undermined the prosecution’s case. Moreover, such

errors before a grand jury are harmless if a trial jury finds the defendant guilty. See United

States v. Mechanik, 475 U.S. 66, 72–73 (1986); United States v. Philpot, 733 F.3d 734, 741–42

(7th Cir. 2013).   

Counsel weighs a potential challenge to the district court’s application of the

sentencing guidelines. Because Collier used a firearm in connection with committing

other offenses (including assault with attempt to commit murder), the court used a

guideline cross‐reference that increased his offense level. See U.S.S.G. §§ 2K2.1(c)(1);

2X1.1; 2A2.1. Collier had objected to this cross‐reference. He argued that the discharge of

the firearm already resulted in an enhanced penalty under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A), so

that applying the cross‐reference “double‐counted” the increase for to the discharge.

We agree with counsel that this claim would be pointless. Under the Guidelines,

double‐counting occurs when a single aspect of the defendant’s conduct triggers multiple

increases in offense levels. See United States v. Diekemper, 604 F.3d 345, 354 (7th Cir. 2010).

But double‐counting is permissible unless a specific guideline provides otherwise, and

no guideline prohibited it here. See United States v. Vizcarra, 668 F.3d 516, 520–21 (7th Cir.

2012). In any event, the cross‐reference did not double‐count discharge of a firearm

because the district court found that Collier did not merely discharge it. He fired it

intentionally at the victim’s head from point‐blank range.

Finally, we agree with counsel that Collier could not bring a claim based on the

investigators’ decisions not to collect and test certain DNA evidence. The claim would

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require some evidence of bad faith, and counsel cannot identify any in this record. See

Illinois v. Fisher, 540 U.S. 544, 547–48 (2004); United States v. Lee, 399 F.3d 864, 865 (7th Cir.

2005).

That brings us to the arguments in Collier’s Rule 51(b) response. He first proposes

to argue that he should not have been convicted under § 924(c) for carrying and using a

firearm during a crime of violence because his Hobbs Act robberies under § 1951(a) are

not crimes of violence. He reasons that § 1951(a) robberies are not crimes of violence

under the elements clause of § 924(c)(3)(A), and the residual clause of § 924(c)(3)(B) is

unconstitutionally vague under Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015). Collier is

incorrect about the elements clause. Section 1951(b)(1), which makes unlawful the taking

of property from the presence of another “by means of actual or threatened force, or

violence, or fear of injury . . . to his person or property,” closely tracks the definition of

“crime of violence” in the elements clause of § 924(c)(3)(A), which includes offenses that

have “as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against

the person or property of another.” We recently held that a Hobbs Act robbery remains a

crime of violence under the elements clause of § 924(c). United States v. Anglin, 846 F.3d

954, 965 (7th Cir. 2017). Anglin controls, so Collier’s proposed argument would fail.

Collier next suggests a Sixth Amendment challenge to the jury venire. In a post‐

trial order, the district court granted Collier access to some documents relating to the jury

venire, including the court’s plan for the random selection of jurors. The judge also

offered his “recollection” that no African Americans appeared among the 42 potential

jurors in the venire “to the extent one can discern race from merely looking at a person.”

But it would be frivolous to argue from the current record that the jury venire

violated the Sixth Amendment. To establish a prima facie violation of the

Sixth‐Amendment’s fair‐cross‐section requirement, Collier must show from this record:

“(1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a ‘distinctive’ group in the community;

(2) that the representation of this group in venires from which juries are selected is not

fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3)

that this underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the

jury‐selection process.” Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364 (1979). We can assume, based

on the district court’s recollection about the lack of African Americans in the venire, that

Collier would satisfy the first two prongs. But the record is insufficient to satisfy the third

prong because the venire was randomly selected from voter lists under an authorized

plan. United States v. Neighbors, 590 F.3d 485, 491–92 (7th Cir. 2009); United States v. Guy,

924 F.2d 702, 706 (7th Cir. 1991). Collier concedes that he has no evidence of systematic

exclusion of African Americans in the jury‐selection process.

Collier also wants to challenge the district court’s instructions to the jury on the

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§ 924(c) charges of carrying and using a firearm during a crime of violence. He contends

that the instruction did not include an essential element of the offense—that the offense

must be a felony. But the court properly instructed the jury on the requisite elements of

the offense: that Collier carried and used a firearm during a crime of violence. The

instruction thus adequately and fairly stated the controlling law defining the offense.

See United States v. Aldaco, 201 F.3d 979, 989–90 (7th Cir. 2000).

Finally, Collier contends that the district court lacked jurisdiction to order

restitution. He observes that the court ordered restitution after he filed his notice of

appeal and argues that, because he filed that notice, the district court was disabled from

ordering restitution. But a court retains jurisdiction to impose restitution when the

victim’s losses were not known before sentencing. See 18 U.S.C. § 3664(d)(5); United States

v. Ferguson, 831 F.3d 850, 853 n.1 (7th Cir. 2016); United States v. Tulsiram, 815 F.3d 114,

117 n.2 (2d Cir. 2016). A challenge to jurisdiction would thus go nowhere.

Counsel’s motion to withdraw is GRANTED, and the appeal is DISMISSED.

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