Source: http://openjurist.org/891/f2d/521
Timestamp: 2015-09-04 12:23:41
Document Index: 403528178

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 841', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 924']

891 F2d 521 United States v. Hernandez | OpenJurist
891 F. 2d 521 - United States v. Hernandez Home
891 F2d 521 United States v. Hernandez 891 F.2d 521
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Arturo Gonzalez HERNANDEZ, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 88-7043.
Alfred Villarreal, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Lucien B. Campbell, Federal Public Defender, San Antonio, Tex., for defendant-appellant.
Le Roy Morgan Jahn, Philip Police, Asst. U.S. Attys., Helen M. Eversberg, U.S. Atty., San Antonio, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.
This direct appeal from a conviction for distributing marijuana and unlawfully carrying a weapon while engaged in a drug trafficking crime raises three issues. Having considered the record on appeal, together with the briefs and oral arguments of counsel, we find no reversible error and affirm.
The defendant-appellant Hernandez met with undercover Uvalde, Texas police officer Thomas Gill on several occasions to discuss the sale of marijuana. At the second meeting Hernandez agreed to deliver 30 pounds of marijuana to Gill on March 6, 1988, at an agreed price of $650 per pound. On the evening of March 6, Hernandez called the apartment where the delivery was to be made and asked to be picked up at the Uvalde airport. Officer Gill drove to the airport and found Hernandez waiting beside the same private airplane that he had flown to Uvalde for the earlier meetings. Hernandez retrieved a travel bag containing his initials from the plane before riding to the apartment with Gill.
The apartment had been prepared for the meeting. The police had placed a microphone in the living room and a camera behind a two-way mirror between the living room and a bedroom. Several officers observed and filmed the events of the evening from the darkened bedroom. After entering the apartment Hernandez opened the travel bag and handed Gill and an informant who had been present at the earlier meetings each a bundle of marijuana. He said that he had 25 such bundles and that each weighed exactly one pound. After computing the price of 25 bundles on a calculator, Hernandez began counting the money that Gill handed him.
On a prearranged signal, the officers moved in from the bedroom and arrested Hernandez. One of the officers, Rudy Rodriguez, testified that he asked Hernandez if he had a gun. Hernandez answered that he had a pistol on his back. Rodriguez then removed a Colt "government model" .38 caliber semi-automatic pistol from Hernandez's waistband near the small of his back. Rodriguez testified that the chamber contained a live hollow-point bullet, and the clip contained six more bullets of the same type. The safety was off when Rodriguez examined the weapon. Hernandez carried an additional clip, loaded with seven hollow-point rounds in his jacket pocket.
Hernandez was indicted on one count of violating 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), distribution of marijuana, and one count of violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), possessing a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking crime. The jury found him guilty on both counts, and the district court sentenced Hernandez to 21 months on the distribution count and to a mandatory 60 months on the weapon count.
Hernandez does not question the sufficiency of the evidence or the correctness of the jury instructions. The issues on appeal relate to the sufficiency of the indictment, a claim of reversible error in the prosecutor's argument to the jury, and the contention that the district court erred in failing to grant a mistrial after sustaining an objection to hearsay evidence.
The third issue requires little discussion. The prosecutor introduced hearsay evidence that Hernandez had purchased the pistol. This evidence was irrelevant to the charge, since § 924(c)(1) relates to possession of a weapon, not to ownership. Following a bench discussion after Hernandez's counsel objected to the evidence and moved for a mistrial, the district court sustained the objection, granted a motion to strike it, and instructed the jury to disregard the evidence. The court denied the defendant's motion for a mistrial.
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion for a mistrial. The court immediately sustained counsel's objection to the testimony and ordered it stricken. It then promptly instructed the jury to disregard the testimony. Even though the defendant made an issue of the charge that he was carrying the weapon, these actions were all that the circumstances required.
We will examine the remaining two issues in somewhat greater detail.
The second count of the indictment charged a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), which provides in pertinent part:
(c)(1) Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime (including a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime which provides for an enhanced punishment if committed by the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon or device) for which he may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence or drug trafficking crime, be sentenced to imprisonment for five years, ....
18 U.S.C.A. § 924(c)(1) (West Supp.1989). Prior to its amendment in 1984, § 924(c), was less precise. In pertinent part, it provided:
shall, in addition to the punishment provided for the commission of such felony, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than ten years....
18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) and (2) (1982).
Hernandez contends that the indictment was fatally defective for failing to include the words "and in relation to" in describing the presence of the weapon at his arrest. Count two stated:
On or about March 6, 1988, in the Western District of Texas, Defendant,
did knowingly, willfully and unlawfully carry a firearm, namely a colt .380 caliber handgun, during the commission of a drug traffickin