Source: https://openjurist.org/131/f3d/514/united-states-v-hebert
Timestamp: 2018-08-20 21:13:12
Document Index: 101360464

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1951', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 924', '§ 924', 'art, 104', '§ 924', '§ 924', 'art, 104']

131 F3d 514 United States v. Hebert | OpenJurist
131 F. 3d 514 - United States v. Hebert
131 F3d 514 United States v. Hebert
131 F.3d 514
Scyrus Dion HEBERT, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 96-41240.
Hebert appeals his convictions on the following grounds: (1) the Hobbs Act is unconstitutional under United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995); (2) the district court improperly instructed the jury as to the Hobbs Act; (3) there was insufficient evidence that Hebert knowingly affected interstate commerce or that Hebert's robberies had a substantial effect on interstate commerce, necessary to support a conviction under the Hobbs Act, and insufficient evidence that Hebert committed the robberies alleged in the indictment, or used a firearm in connection with any of the robberies; (4) Hebert's arrest was without probable cause, in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and (5) the district court erred by imposing consecutive sentences for each firearm count.
A. The Bank of America Robbery
Patsy Byers testified at trial that she heard reports of the robbery and a description of the "getaway" car on her police scanner radio. As Byers drove by Alford's Supermarket, located about seven or eight miles from the bank, she noticed a car parked at a nearby gas station that matched the description of the car given on the radio. Byers stopped at Alford's and called the police. Byers testified that she saw a man, whom she identified at trial as Hebert, leave the gas station, get into the car, and drive to Alford's Supermarket. Byers again called the police, using a telephone at the gas station. From the gas station, Byers watched Hebert open his trunk, "dig[] around in" it, and enter the market.
B. The Other Robberies
A. The Challenge to the Hobbs Act
Hebert argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the indictment based on the facial unconstitutionality of the Hobbs Act. Hebert moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that United States v. Lopez requires a "substantial effect" on interstate commerce for federal regulation. 514 U.S. at 557-61, 115 S.Ct. at 1629-30. Hebert argues that the Hobbs Act conflicts with Lopez in permitting conviction for acts that, by themselves, have no more than a minimal effect on interstate commerce.
During this appeal, this court rejected the same argument. In United States v. Robinson, 119 F.3d 1205 (5th Cir.1997), this court held:[U]nder the third category of the commerce power described in Lopez, the particular conduct at issue in any given case need not have a substantial effect upon interstate commerce.... so long as the regulated activity, in the aggregate, could reasonably be thought to substantially affect interstate commerce.... [T]he cumulative result of many Hobbs Act violations is a substantial effect upon interstate commerce.
Id. at 1215. Since Robinson, this court reached the same result in United States v. Miles, 122 F.3d 235, 241 (5th Cir.1997). These precedents preclude Hebert's challenge.
B. The Challenge to the Jury Instructions
Hebert argues that the district erred in: (1) refusing his instruction that a violation of the Hobbs Act occurs if a robbery had a "substantial," rather than "minimal," effect on interstate commerce; (2) instructing the jury that a "potential" effect on interstate commerce was a sufficient basis for a Hobbs Act violation; (3) removing an element of a Hobbs Act violation from the jury's consideration, contrary to United States v. Gaudin, 515 U.S. 506, 115 S.Ct. 2310, 132 L.Ed.2d 444 (1995); and (4) failing to instruct the jury that Hebert must have "knowingly" committed a robbery.
A district court's refusal to submit a proposed jury instruction is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Greig, 967 F.2d 1018, 1027 (5th Cir.1992). "A trial court's refusal to give a requested instruction constitutes reversible error when (1) the requested instruction is substantially correct, (2) the actual charge given to the jury did not substantially cover the content of the proposed instruction, and (3) the omission of the instruction would seriously impair a defendant's ability to present a given defense." United States v. Daniel, 957 F.2d 162, 170 (5th Cir.1992). We review an included jury instruction objected to as inaccurate for abuse of discretion and will reverse only if the instruction fails correctly to state the law. United States v. Gray, 96 F.3d 769, 775 (5th Cir.1996), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1275, 137 L.Ed.2d 351 (1997).
Hebert's third argument is that the charge violated the holding of United States v. Gaudin, that "the Constitution gives a criminal defendant the right to demand that a jury find him guilty of all the elements of the crime with which he is charged." 515 U.S. at 510-12, 115 S.Ct. at 2314. Hebert's Gaudin argument is that, by equating a reduction in a store's ability to purchase out-of-state goods with an effect on commerce, the district court improperly reserved for itself the question of whether the alleged robberies affected interstate commerce. This argument is foreclosed by this court's en banc decision in United States v. Parker, 104 F.3d 72 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1720, 137 L.Ed.2d 842 (1997), approving a substantially similar charge in a Hobbs Act case, against a similar challenge. Id. at 73; see also Miles, 122 F.3d at 239-40 (citing Parker in upholding a similar charge against a Gaudin challenge).6
Hebert's fourth argument, that the district court failed to instruct the jury that Hebert must have "knowingly" committed a robbery, is foreclosed by the charge itself. In the charge, the court instructed the jury that the third element of a Hobbs Act violation is that "[t]he defendant knew the entities described in [the Hobbs Act counts] parted with the property because of robbery."7 Hebert did not object to this portion of the jury charge at trial; we therefore review the instruction for plain error. United States v. Willis, 38 F.3d 170, 179 (5th Cir.1994).
Under the plain error standard, this court "may only reverse appellant['s] convictions if (1) there was an error, (2) the error was clear and obvious, and (3) the error affected a defendant's substantial rights." United States v. Jobe, 101 F.3d 1046, 1062 (5th Cir.1996). The instruction states that the defendant must have known that he was committing a robbery; no "clear and obvious" error occurred.
"[A]n attack on the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a criminal conviction is judged from the standpoint of whether, after viewing all evidence presented and all inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any reasonable jury could have found that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Harris, 104 F.3d 1465, 1470 (5th Cir.) (citations omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 103, 139 L.Ed.2d 57 (1997); see also Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319-20, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
Hebert's first insufficiency argument is based on the district court's instruction as to one of the elements of a Hobbs Act violation. The district court instructed the jury that to prove a Hobbs Act violation, "[t]he government must prove that the defendant knew that his conduct would obstruct, delay, or affect commerce." Hebert asserts that no evidence presented at trial showed that he "knew" his alleged acts would affect interstate commerce.
Courts have made it clear that 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) does not require that the defendant have specifically intended to affect interstate commerce. See, e.g., United States v. Castleberry, 116 F.3d 1384, 1389 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 341, 139 L.Ed.2d 265 (1997); United States v. Arambasich, 597 F.2d 609, 611 (7th Cir.1979); United States v. Spagnolo, 546 F.2d 1117, 1119 n. 5 (4th Cir.1976); United States v. Nakaladski, 481 F.2d 289, 299 (5th Cir.1973). By including such an instruction, the charge in this case effectively imposed a higher burden of proof on the government than is necessary under the statute. A jury instruction that unduly favors the defendant cannot be basis of an insufficiency claim. See Gladden v. Roach, 864 F.2d 1196, 1200 (5th Cir.1989); United States v. Thomas, 567 F.2d 638, 641 (5th Cir.1978); United States v. Rosa, 17 F.3d 1531, 1546 (2d Cir.1994); cf. Harris, 104 F.3d at 1473 n. 9 (finding no error in a district court's instruction on the affirmative defense of duress when the instruction omitted one of the elements of the defense, and therefore "if anything, the instruction favored the [defendant]").
D. The Challenge Under the Fourth Amendment
Hebert argues that his warrantless arrest at Alford's supermarket was without probable cause. This court reviews de novo the " 'ultimate determination of Fourth Amendment reasonableness.' " United States v. Sinisterra, 77 F.3d 101, 104 (5th Cir.) (quoting United States v. Seals, 987 F.2d 1102, 1106 (5th Cir.1993)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 82, 136 L.Ed.2d 39 (1996).
Probable cause for a warrantless arrest exists when the totality of facts and circumstances within an officer's knowledge at the moment of arrest are sufficient for a reasonable person to conclude that the suspect had committed an offense. United States v. Wadley, 59 F.3d 510, 512 (5th Cir.1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 240, 136 L.Ed.2d 169 (1996). Hebert argues that the police had no probable cause to arrest him when he walked out of the grocery store. After holding a hearing on Hebert's motion to suppress, the district court found, in pertinent part, the following facts supporting probable cause to arrest Hebert:
E. The Challenge to the Sentence
The district court imposed the sentences for the second and subsequent convictions for use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)10 consecutively to the sentences imposed for the other counts. At sentencing, Hebert argued that this was an incorrect interpretation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). The district court overruled Hebert's objection. Hebert was convicted of eleven counts of violation of section 924(c)(1); he received five years' imprisonment for the first conviction, and twenty years' imprisonment for each of the remaining ten convictions, to be served consecutively. The district court's interpretation of a federal statute is a question of law that we review de novo. United States v. Mathena, 23 F.3d 87, 89 (5th Cir.1994).
Hebert admits that second or subsequent sentences under section 924(c)(1) are to be served consecutively to any other sentence imposed. However, Hebert contends that the imposition of these subsequent consecutive sentences in his case is excessive because the enhancement results in an overall sentence of 215 years, despite the fact that Hebert is not a repeat offender, has never injured anyone, never discharged his firearm, and stole only $36,000. Hebert argues that the word "conviction" in section 924(c)(1) is ambiguous and under the rule of lenity should be read to mean a "final judgment," so that consecutive sentences for second or subsequent convictions can be imposed only when a defendant's first section 924(c)(1) conviction becomes final. Hebert cites the dissent in Deal v. United States11 to support his reading of the statute.
The majority opinion in Deal does not help Hebert's argument. Deal held that the word "conviction" in section 924(c)(1) unambiguously "refers to the finding of guilt by a judge or jury that necessarily precedes the entry of a final judgment of conviction." Deal v. United States, 508 U.S. 129, 131-32, 113 S.Ct. 1993, 1996, 124 L.Ed.2d 44 (1993). The majority did not accept the defendant's argument that such an interpretation would be unjust. See id. at 137-38, 113 S.Ct. at 1999; see also United States v. Miles, 10 F.3d 1135, 1141 n. 7 (5th Cir.1993). The district court did not err in imposing consecutive sentences for the convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1).
First of all, I have to register my fundamental disagreement with the strategy adopted by the Department of Justice and the federal prosecutors which has produced this conviction. Following passage of the Hobbs Act in 1945, there is no published opinion from the Supreme Court or any United States Circuit Court for twenty-three years which addresses the circumstance of interference with commerce by robbery under the Hobbs Act. This period of utter silence as to the applicability of the Hobbs Act to any type of robbery certainly undercuts any argument that Congress intended to reach the type of robberies involved in this case. The first case to reach the Courts of Appeal using the Hobbs Act as a basis for prosecution of a robbery was United States v. Caci, 401 F.2d 664 (2d Cir.1968) (prosecution for conspiracy to commit robbery of hotel guest and armored car messenger), vacated, Giordano v. United States, 394 U.S. 310, 89 S.Ct. 1163, 22 L.Ed.2d 297 (1969). The first case in the Fifth Circuit to use the Hobbs Act as the basis for a robbery prosecution was United States v. Pearson, 508 F.2d 595 (5th Cir.) (prosecution of a conspiracy to rob the safety deposit boxes of a hotel in which valuables of interstate travelers had been deposited), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 845, 96 S.Ct. 82, 46 L.Ed.2d 66 (1975). Thereafter, another nineteen years elapsed until United States v. Martinez, 28 F.3d 444 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 910, 115 S.Ct. 281, 130 L.Ed.2d 197 (1994), started a run of cases, all originating in the Northern District of Texas, in which armed robberies of local retail stores were prosecuted under the Hobbs Act and § 924(c). These later cases are: United States v. Davis, 30 F.3d 613 (5th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1098, 115 S.Ct. 769, 130 L.Ed.2d 666 (1995); United States v. Collins, 40 F.3d 95 (5th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1121, 115 S.Ct. 1986, 131 L.Ed.2d 873 (1995); United States v. Gipson, 46 F.3d 472 (5th Cir.1995); United States v. Laury, 49 F.3d 145 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 162, 133 L.Ed.2d 105 (1995); United States v. Parker, 62 F.3d 714 (5th Cir.1995), opinion withdrawn and superseded on rehearing, 73 F.3d 48 (5th Cir.), rehearing en banc granted, 80 F.3d 1042 (5th Cir.1996), opinion reinstated in part, 104 F.3d 72 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1720, 137 L.Ed.2d 842 (1997); United States v. Robinson, 119 F.3d 1205 (5th Cir.1997); and United States v. Miles, 122 F.3d 235 (5th Cir.1997). Martinez, Davis, Collins, Gipson, and Laury were all decided prior to the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995). The defendants in these cases have been hit with humongous sentences as a result of converting what has traditionally and legally been recognized as garden variety robberies under state law into violations of the Hobbs Act in order to bring to bear the draconian impacts on sentencing required by 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).2 If the Hobbs Act can be applied to all armed robberies which would otherwise have been prosecuted under state law, then the mandatory sentencing requirements of § 924(c) provide prosecutors with the opportunity to put the perpetrators of several of such robberies away for what amounts to life, as has occurred here in Hebert's case, even though the perpetrator had not previously been convicted of any crime, no shots were fired, and no victims sustained any physical injuries, and the sums of money taken in such robberies were less than $1,000. But if all armed robberies in the United States are to be prosecutable under the Hobbs Act there is a whole series of policy questions which in my view must be addressed by the Congress, as the legislative branch of our government, and not by the imaginative prosecutive theories of the executive branch nor by the lackadaisical decision making of the judicial branch. I have not been able to find anything in the U.S. Criminal Code which persuades me that the U.S. Congress has decided to make every armed robbery that occurs in the United States a federal offense and to appropriate the funds required to investigate, prosecute, determine guilt or innocence, sentence and incarcerate the greatly expanded numbers of federal criminal defendants which would result from that policy decision.
It is plainly obvious that the text of the Hobbs Act as it now exists in the U.S. Criminal Code does not say what the government claims it says. I have previously explained at considerable length why I believe nothing in the legislative history of the Hobbs Act, as it was passed 53 years ago, supports the expansive reading which the government contends applies in this case. Indeed, the legislative history demonstrates that the Act was passed to address a very particular problem. Members of labor unions were hijacking produce trucks carrying produce into union states for the purpose of requiring that the non-union driver either pay a "tribute" in the form of a union wage or allow a union driver to transport the produce into the union dominated state. Thus, the Hobbs Act was passed to deal with robbery or extortion directed at goods moving in commerce. The legislative history simply does not support the government's proposition that the Hobbs Act extends to prohibit purely local robberies. Likewise, I have written extensively as to why this expansive reading of the Hobbs Act is in clear and fundamental conflict with the teaching of the Supreme Court in its landmark decision United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995). See Miles, 122 F.3d at 241-51 (5th Cir.1997) (DeMoss, J., specially concurring). I will not repeat all of those thoughts and comments here; but I think some points justify restatement because of their relevance to the issues raised in this case.
First, the Supreme Court has never held that the theory of "de minimis impact on interstate commerce" was sufficient to support the application of the Hobbs Act as asserted in this case. Secondly, the Supreme Court has never held that the "depletion of assets theory" asserted by the government in this case was a proper way to measure an effect on interstate commerce. I recognize, of course, that these theories have been accepted as legitimate readings of the Hobbs Act by several of the Circuit Courts; but in my view the rationale supporting these theories is so flimsy that sooner or later the Supreme Court must grant a writ of certiorari to apply its teachings in Lopez to this strained reading of the Hobbs Act. In such event I predict that the Supreme Court will deliver the same fatal blow to the prosecutive theories in this case as it did in McNally v. United States, 483 U.S. 350, 107 S.Ct. 2875, 97 L.Ed.2d 292 (1987) (reversing prosecutive theory that mail fraud and wire fraud statutes reach defrauding the citizens of a state of the intangible right to good government by officials) and as it did in Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 116 S.Ct. 501, 133 L.Ed.2d 472 (1995) (reversing prosecutive theory that the word "use" in 18 U.S.C. 924(c) meant the same thing as "possession"). In both McNally and Bailey the Supreme Court held that in construing criminal statutes we should apply the common, ordinary meaning of the plain text of the statute as being the conduct which Congress intended to prohibit and leave it to the Congress to broaden and expand the language by amendment to the statutory language.
1. The federal government does not have a general police power and, therefore, Congress cannot make a federal crime out of every robbery that occurs in the United States. See Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995).
United States v. Parker, 73 F.3d 48, 50 (5th Cir.1996), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 104 F.3d 72 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1720, 137 L.Ed.2d 842 (1997).
Under the "depletion of assets" theory, see, e.g., Robinson, 119 F.3d at 1212; United States v. Collins, 40 F.3d 95, 99 (5th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1121, 115 S.Ct. 1986, 131 L.Ed.2d 873 (1995), the government need not " 'show that any particular shipment of merchandise' " was obstructed or delayed by the robbery, United States v. Zeigler, 19 F.3d 486, 493 (10th Cir.1994) (quoting Esperti v. United States, 406 F.2d 148, 150 (5th Cir.1969)), or that the business "actually purchased fewer goods because of the [robbery]." Id. Rather, a showing that the business regularly buys goods from out of state allows an inference that the robbery will impair a future purchase. See id. at 490-92; United States v. Blakey, 607 F.2d 779, 784 (7th Cir.1979) (" '[C]ommerce is affected when an enterprise, which either is actively engaged in interstate commerce or customarily purchases items in interstate commerce, has its assets depleted through [robbery], thereby curtailing the victim's potential as a purchaser of such goods.' " (quoting United States v. Elders, 569 F.2d 1020, 1025 (7th Cir.1978))), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Harty, 930 F.2d 1257, 1263 (7th Cir.1991)
Hebert               Miles               Zeigler
Hardee's            McDonald's          Lucky Stop
$117                $1500                $800
Popeye's (2)          McDonald's          Vickers gas
$500 total             $3000                $650
Picadilly's           Colter's           Apco Hudson
$600                $1300                $160
A.J.'s Liquor         Taco Bueno        Mazzio's Pizza
$12,000              $1200                $300
Debb's Liquor                            Keith's Food
$3500                                  $350"$500
Mr. Gatti's                             Rex's Chicken
$900                                     $1500
In pertinent part, section 924(c)(1) states:
508 U.S. 129, 137-46, 113 S.Ct. 1993, 1999-2004, 124 L.Ed.2d 44 (1993) (Stevens, J., dissenting)