Source: https://casetext.com/case/us-v-torres-181
Timestamp: 2018-12-13 02:18:27
Document Index: 673453875

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 846', '§ 812', '§ 272', '§ 489', '§ 288', '§ 272', '§ 272', '§ 272', '§ 272']

U.S. v. Torres, 845 F.2d 1165 | Casetext
845 F.2d 1165 (2d Cir. 1988)
United States Court of Appeals, Second CircuitApr 29, 1988
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upholding conspiracy conviction on lookout theory when defendant was identified as the source of the drugs
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noting that where a trial court allows counsel to argue the inference, reversal for failure to give missing witness charge is “even more suspect”
Summary of this case from U.S. v. Villegas
Nos. 790, 700, 726 and 791, Dockets 87-1410, 87-1413, 87-1423 and 87-1455.
Argued February 24, 1988.
Michael S. Jacobs, New York City (McGee Jacobs, of counsel), for defendant-appellant De Los Santos.
Before FEINBERG, Chief Judge, PRATT, Circuit Judge and DORSEY, District Judge.
Honorable Peter C. Dorsey, United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut, sitting by designation.
Hector Torres, Bolivar De Leon, Luis Valenzuela and Secundino De Los Santos appeal from judgments of conviction entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York after a jury trial before Judge John F. Keenan, J., based upon a two-count indictment. Count One charged all four appellants with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. Count Two charged Torres, De Leon and Valenzuela with possession of two kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 812, 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B). Appellants were convicted on all counts. Torres, De Leon and Valenzuela each received a six-year suspended sentence on Count One; nine, seven, and six years imprisonment, respectively, on Count Two; and four years probation. De Los Santos received four years imprisonment on Count One.
After Leader insisted that the purchase money be delivered at MiNido, De Leon — carrying the cocaine — De Los Santos, Valenzuela and the two informants returned to MiNido. Valenzuela and Torres remained outside, and the others entered the bar. Appellants were arrested shortly thereafter. Torres was searched and agents recovered $3,871 in cash.
After Leader's testimony was completed, the government indicated that it was willing to make Fornier available to defense counsel without a court order if they wished to call him as a witness, but revealed that Fornier did not wish to be interviewed prior to his testimony. At appellants' request, the government produced Fornier's DEA payment records and his arrest record — consisting of a 1984 arrest on counterfeiting charges — and disclosed that prosecution of Fornier was deferred as a result of his cooperation.
When "a party has it peculiarly within his power to produce witnesses whose testimony would elucidate the transaction" and fails to produce such witnesses, the jury may infer that "the testimony, if produced, would be unfavorable" to that party. Graves v. United States, 150 U.S. 118, 121, 14 S.Ct. 40, 41, 37 L.Ed. 1021 (1893); Burgess v. United States, 440 F.2d 226, 231 (D.C.Cir. 1970). See generally, McCormick, On Evidence § 272, at 804-08 (3d ed. 1984); C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure, Criminal § 489, at 740 (2d ed. 1982). However, when a witness is equally available to both sides, "the failure to produce is open to an inference against both parties." 2 Wigmore, Evidence § 288, at 208 (Chadbourn rev. 1979) (emphasis in original); United States v. Erb, 543 F.2d 438, 444 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 981, 97 S.Ct. 493, 50 L.Ed.2d 590 (1976). No instruction is necessary where the unpresented testimony would be merely cumulative. United States v. Tyers, 487 F.2d 828, 831 (2d Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 971, 94 S.Ct. 1995, 40 L.Ed.2d 560 (1974).
The weight of authority indicates that "in the context of the evidentiary inference to be drawn from a party's failure to call an available witness, the `availability' of a witness . . . depend[s] . . . on all the facts and circumstances bearing upon the witness's relation to the parties, rather than merely on physical presence or accessibility." United States v. Rollins, 487 F.2d 409; 412 (2d Cir. 1973). See, e.g., United States v. Ariza-Ibarra, 651 F.2d 2, 1517 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 895, 102 S.Ct. 392, 70 L.Ed.2d 209 (1981) (availability may depend upon a witness's predisposition towards a party); United States v. Mahone, 537 F.2d 922, 926-27 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1025, 97 S.Ct. 646, 50 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976) (local police officer peculiarly within federal government's control); Burgess, 440 F.2d at 232 (informer peculiarly within government's control); United States v. Jackson, 257 F.2d 41, 43-44 (3d Cir. 1958) (government informant not equally available); United States v. Beekman, 155 F.2d 580, 584 (2d Cir. 1946) (defendant's employee peculiarly within his control). See generally, McCormick, On Evidence § 272 at 805 n. 10; L. Sand, J. Siffert, W. Loughlin S. Reiss, Modern Federal Jury Instructions, Criminal ¶ 6.04 at 6-16 (1987) (hereafter cited as L. Sand, Modern Federal Jury Instructions). But cf. United States v. Montoya, 676 F.2d 428, 431 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 856, 103 S.Ct. 124, 74 L.Ed.2d 108 (1982) (no charge warranted unless it is "solely within the prosecution's power to call the witness to testify"); United States v. Anders, 602 F.2d 823, 825 (8th Cir. 1979) (same). Therefore, the district court in this case should have considered the informant's relationship to the government and his refusal to be interviewed by the defense as factors in determining whether the informant was "equally available" to both sides. Cf. United States v. Burgos, 579 F.2d 747, 750 (2d Cir. 1978) (assuming sub silentio that an informant who was made available to the defense both for interview and testimony was "equally available"). Nevertheless, we do not believe that the failure of the court to do so constitutes ground for reversal.
Even assuming that the facts and circumstances of Fornier's relationship with the government were sufficient to render him practically unavailable to the defense, we see no reversible error in Judge Keenan's failure to give a missing witness instruction solely against the government, especially given that the judge permitted defense counsel to argue the inference themselves in summation. Whether a missing witness charge should be given lies in the sound discretion of the trial court. United States v. Miranda, 526 F.2d 1319, 1330-31 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 821, 97 S.Ct. 69, 50 L.Ed.2d 82 (1976); United States v. Cotter, 60 F.2d 689, 691-92 (2d Cir.) (Hand, J.), cert. denied, 287 U.S. 666, 53 S.Ct. 291, 77 L.Ed. 575 (1932). And, as we noted in Erb, "[e]minent authority suggests caution in developing `elaborate rules of law defining the circumstances when the right [to a missing witness charge] exists.'" 543 F.2d at 445, quoting McCormick, On Evidence § 272, at 657-59 (2d ed. 1972). "Despite the plenitude of cases recognizing the inference, refusal to . . . instruct does not often serve as a ground for reversal." McCormick, On Evidence § 272, at 805.
It is noteworthy that in Erb, the trial judge actually gave a charge that was contrary to what we there described as "the weight of authority" in this circuit — the judge charged that no adverse inference may be drawn when the missing witness was equally available to both sides. Nevertheless, we affirmed, noting that "we would be loath indeed to reverse a conviction because the judge told the jury that the inference on the facts before it could not be drawn." 543 F.2d at 444-45. The reason was "a well deserved reluctance to remove the issue from the sound discretion of the trial judge," in part because of "the usual aura of gamesmanship" that frequently accompanies requests for a missing witness charge as to which the trial judge will have a surer sense than the appellate court. Id. at 445. Thus, rigid rules upon pain of reversal seem inappropriate. Cf. McCormick, On Evidence § 272 at 807 ("a practice which gives a party a right to [a missing witness] instruction is undesirable"). Certainly, where a judge refrains from commenting on the inference to be drawn on the facts before the jury and allows counsel instead to argue the inference, the wisdom of a reversal is even more suspect than it was in Erb.
Moreover, to succeed on a challenge to a district court's jury instructions, an appellant must show that the requested charge accurately reflected the law and that, viewing the charge actually given as a whole, he was prejudiced. United States v. Ouimette, 798 F.2d 47, 49 (2d Cir. 1986). In other words, appellant must show that any error in the charge was not simply harmless error. Here, appellants apparently did not submit proposed language for their requested charge, and thus we cannot determine whether the requested charge would have accurately reflected the law. And, as indicated by our discussion above, we believe any error in failing to give the requested charge was harmless.
We cannot end our analysis here, however, because Judge Keenan went further than simply denying appellants' request for a missing witness charge against the government and allowing the defense to argue the inference instead. He also permitted the government to rebut the defense summation by arguing that the defense could have called Fornier too, and he slightly mischaracterized the rule on inferences by suggesting that "availability" is defined solely in terms of physical availability. Compare L. Sand, Modern Federal Jury Instructions ¶ 6.04 at 6-20 (model instruction 6-7). We believe, however, that any error in this respect was harmless. Leader provided detailed testimony as to the cocaine transaction and was subjected to extensive cross-examination. A clearer instruction as to permissive inferences to be drawn from Fornier's absence would not have been sufficient to overcome this testimony. Given the substantial evidence of guilt and the proper and likely more influential statements in the judge's charge that no inference need be drawn, that no party need call a witness whose testimony is likely to be merely cumulative and that a defendant is entitled to rely on the presumption of innocence, we cannot say that De Leon and Valenzuela were prejudiced. Cf. United States v. Johnson, 467 F.2d 804, 809 (1st Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 909, 93 S.Ct. 963, 35 L.Ed.2d 270 (1973) (court's instruction, while a slight misstatement of the rule, was sufficiently neutral as not to vitiate defense counsel's argument in summation as to missing informant).
C. The Other Claims.
We find no grounds for reversal in the claims of prosecutorial misconduct raised by appellants. De Leon challenges the government's opening remarks in which the prosecutor stated that the enforcement of the drug laws is "an endeavor which takes place in courtrooms like this one throughout our nation every day." Judge Keenan sustained defense counsel's objection to the remark and instructed the prosecutor to "[j]ust tell us what you're going to prove." Nothing further was required. Torres argues that the prosecutor's cross-examination of the owner of MiNido, who testified as a character witness for Valenzuela, was conducted in bad faith. The cross-examination appears to have been conducted within proper limits; moreover, no timely objection was made. Finally, Valenzuela challenges the government's rebuttal summation, arguing that the prosecutor improperly told the jury that Fornier would have corroborated Leader's testimony. Again, it appears that the prosecutor's statements were within proper limits. The prosecutor was responding to the arguments made by the defense. He did not put words in Fornier's mouth, but merely stated that, as Leader had testified, Fornier saw and heard the same things as Leader and the jury could properly conclude that the government did not call Fornier as a witness because he was out working other narcotics cases and his testimony would have been cumulative. See United States v. Coven, 662 F.2d 162, 172-73 (2d Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 916, 102 S.Ct. 1771, 72 L.Ed.2d 176 (1982) ("when viewed in the context of the entire summation . . . this comment is clearly seen as a suggestion of a permissible inference for the jury to draw rather than a statement of personal knowledge of what [the missing witness] would have said.") Moreover, Valenzuela failed to raise a timely objection and there was certainly no plain error.