Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/113/1345/489276/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:55:01+00:00

Document:
Richard K. Renn (argued), Snyder & Renn, York, PA, for Appellant.
David M. Barasch, United States Attorney, Gordon A.D. Zubrod (argued), Assistant U.S. Attorney, Harrisburg, PA, for Appellee.
Before GREENBERG, ALITO, and SEITZ, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Roberta Ronique Bell was convicted following a jury trial of conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; murder of a witness, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a) (1) (A) and (C); use of physical force and threats against a witness, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b) (1), (2), and (3); and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (1). She was sentenced to life imprisonment. These charges all relate to the killing of Doreen Proctor, who had been acting as an informant for the Tri-County Drug Task Force. Before Bell was indicted on these federal charges in June 1995, she had been acquitted in the Court of Common Pleas for Adams County of murder and witness intimidation charges arising out of the same events.
Bell's principal argument in this appeal is that her convictions on the witness tampering charges must be reversed because there was insufficient evidence that she intended to interfere with a federal proceeding or to prevent the communication of information to federal law enforcement officers. We hold that the jury was entitled to conclude (1) that Bell intended to prevent communications by Proctor to law enforcement officers and (2) that under United States v. Stansfield, 101 F.3d 909 (3d Cir. 1996), at least one of those communications would have been to a federal officer. Accordingly, we affirm.
Doreen Proctor was an informant for the Tri-County Drug Task Force ("the Task Force"), which was comprised of local, state, and federal investigators operating in Cumberland, Dauphin, and Franklin Counties in Pennsylvania. The Task Force had developed federal as well as state criminal cases. Based on an investigation by the Task Force in which Proctor had provided information, David Tyler (who was Bell's boyfriend and colleague in the drug business) was on trial for drug offenses in state court. Proctor was scheduled to testify against Tyler on April 21, 1992, in the Court of Common Pleas for Cumberland County. In the early morning of April 21, at the direction of David Tyler, Bell and several others kidnapped Proctor, took her to an isolated location in Adams County, tortured her, and killed her. Bell drove Proctor to the place where she was killed, and fired the first shot, into Proctor's chest. Willie Tyler, David Tyler's brother, then shot Proctor in the head.
On appeal, Bell raises these same contentions. In evaluating Bell's sufficiency challenge, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government (the verdict-winner) and ask "whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Price, 13 F.3d 711, 731 (3d Cir. 1994). Since the remainder of Bell's contentions pose questions of law, our review as to them is plenary.
Subsection (a) (1) of 18 U.S.C. § 1512 ("Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant") makes it unlawful to kill or attempt to kill another person "with intent to-- (A) prevent the attendance or testimony of any person in an official proceeding; [or] (C) prevent the communication by any person to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States of information relating to the commission or possible commission of a Federal offense...." Subsection (b) of 18 U.S.C. § 1512 prohibits the knowing use of intimidation, physical force, threats, and corrupt persuasion to accomplish these ends.
Title 18 U.S.C. § 1515 (a) (1) defines an "official proceeding" as a federal proceeding, whether before a court, a grand jury, Congress, or a government agency. Similarly, 18 U.S.C. § 1515 (a) (4) defines a "law enforcement officer" as "an officer or employee of the Federal Government, or a person authorized to act for or on behalf of the Federal Government...." While the statute thus limits its reach to tampering that affects a federal proceeding or investigation, it expressly does not require that the defendant know or intend anything with respect to this federal character. Title 18 U.S.C. § 1512(f) provides: "no state of mind need be proved with respect to the circumstance-- (1) that the official proceeding before a judge [or] court ... is before a judge or court of the United States ... or (2) that the ... law enforcement officer is an officer or employee of the Federal Government or a person authorized to act for or on behalf of the Federal Government...."
A. In the district court's view, the government was required to prove only that "the Defendant intended to interfere with a proceeding (that happened to be a federal proceeding) or interfere with communication to a law enforcement officer (who happened to be a federal law enforcement officer)." Dist.Ct.Op. at 7. If the government had presented evidence that it was contemplated that Proctor would testify in a federal proceeding, the jury could easily have inferred that at least one of the proceedings with which Bell intended to interfere would have been federal. But there was no federal proceeding contemplated at the time of Proctor's murder.2 Similarly, if the government had presented evidence that at the time of her murder Proctor was cooperating in an ongoing federal investigation, the jury could easily have inferred that at least one of the law-enforcement-officer communications that Bell intended to prevent would have been with a federal officer. But, while federal officers were involved in the Task Force investigation, there is no evidence that Proctor had been providing information to a federal officer or to an officer authorized to act on behalf of the federal government.
Accordingly, in this case, as in United States v. Stansfield, 101 F.3d 909 (3d Cir. 1996), we must rely on circumstantial evidence to decide whether the jury could have concluded that at least one of the law-enforcement-officer communications that Bell intended to prevent would have been with a federal officer. In Stansfield, the defendant believed that one Hoffman had told the authorities that Stansfield had burned down his (Stansfield's) house to collect the insurance money. Stansfield threatened, beat up, and attempted to kill Hoffman and Hoffman's parents. On appeal, Stansfield argued that his conviction for witness tampering could not stand because there was insufficient evidence that he had intended to hinder Hoffman's communications with a federal law enforcement officer. Id. at 917.
Our interpretation is buttressed by the Stansfield court's explanation that " [t]his last element may be inferred by the jury from the fact that the offense was federal in nature, plus additional appropriate evidence." Id. If an offense constitutes a federal crime, it is more likely that an officer investigating it would be a federal officer, but an offense's status as a federal crime has no relationship with the defendant's subjective belief about the individual investigating it. Our reading of Stansfield is further confirmed by an examination of the dissent in that case. The dissent would have ordered the entry of a judgment of acquittal because the evidence revealed "no way to conclude that Stansfield either believed that a federal investigation was underway or could possibly have been aware of the potential for a federal investigation." Id. at 924 (Lewis, J., dissenting). The dissent thus clearly framed the issue as whether the defendant must know or intend that the law-enforcement-officer communications which he seeks to prevent would be with federal officers. Because of the majority's conclusion that such federal-specific knowledge or intent was not required, the dissent charged that the majority had "essentially eviscerate [d] the intent element of the statute." Id. at 923 (Lewis, J., dissenting).
Accordingly, we believe that the law of this circuit after Stansfield is that the government must prove that at least one of the law-enforcement-officer communications which the defendant sought to prevent would have been with a federal officer, but that the government is not obligated to prove that the defendant knew or intended anything with respect to this federal involvement. As Stansfield explained, the government may carry this burden by showing that the conduct which the defendant believed would be discussed in these communications constitutes a federal offense, so long as the government also presents "additional appropriate evidence." Id. at 918.
B. The questions upon which the disposition of this appeal turns, then, are: (1) whether the jury could have concluded that at least part of Bell's motivation in killing Proctor was to prevent Proctor from communicating further with the Task Force; and (2) if so, whether the jury could have concluded that at least one of Proctor's further communications with the Task Force would have been with a federal officer.
We also believe that the second question requires an affirmative answer. The government clearly presented sufficient evidence to entitle the jury to conclude that Bell killed Proctor; we have held that the jury could have found that Bell was motivated at least in part by a desire to prevent Proctor from communicating with the Task Force concerning the commission or possible commission of offenses; and those offenses (drug crimes) are clearly federal offenses. See Stansfield, 101 F.3d at 918. Bell, like Stansfield, "had knowledge of [Proctor's] past cooperation and was aware that some investigation, though not necessarily a federal one, was underway." Id. at 919. The Stansfield court noted that it was unclear whether Stansfield knew that a federal investigation had been opened. Id. Similarly, it is unclear whether Bell knew that the Task Force was a joint federal-state effort, but it is clear that it in fact was. As in Stansfield, the evidence does not indicate that Bell intended to prevent Proctor from communicating with a particular officer or officers, but rather with the Task Force generally.
(App.586). Bell argues that this charge "watered down" the intent requirement by "shift [ing] the jury's focus to deciding whether it was possible that the victim could relay information to federal law enforcement, rather than to the proper inquiry--the intent of the Defendant...." Bell Br. at 29 (emphasis in original).
This argument is meritless. The quoted instruction did nothing more than explain 18 U.S.C. § 1512(f) (1) and (2)'s express provision that the government need not prove any state of mind on the part of the defendant with respect to the federal character of the proceeding or law-enforcement-officer communication that it alleges she intended to interfere with or prevent.
In sentencing Bell to life imprisonment, the district court followed the pre-sentence report's recommendation and applied U.S.S.G. § 2A1.1(a), the guideline for first-degree murder. Bell contends that since the jury did not find that her killing of Proctor constituted first-degree murder, it was error for the district court to sentence her based on the first-degree murder guideline rather than the second-degree guideline.
The provision under which Bell was sentenced, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a) (2) (A), incorporates 18 U.S.C. § 1111's definition of murder, and provides that a conviction for tampering-by-killing shall be punished by death or life imprisonment if the killing constitutes murder under § 1111, and shall be punished in accordance with § 1112 (the manslaughter statute) if it is any other kind of killing. Here the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Bell's conduct fit the definition of first-degree murder set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a). (App.21A-30A) Bell argues that it was a violation of due process for the district court, as opposed to the jury, to make this determination.
We are unpersuaded by this argument, but we need not resolve it definitively. Even if Bell should have been found to have committed second-degree rather than first-degree murder, it would not affect her sentence. Title 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a) (2) (A) provides that the punishment shall be death or life imprisonment where the "killing" constitutes murder, regardless of whether it is first-degree or second-degree murder. Bell does not argue that the "killing" here should have been found to be manslaughter.6 V.

References: § 371
 § 1512
 § 1512
 § 924
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 § 1512
 § 1512
 § 1515
 § 1515
 § 1512
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 § 1512
 § 2
 § 1512
 § 1111
 § 1111
 § 1112
 § 1111
 § 1512