Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/835/230/296487/
Timestamp: 2019-05-22 12:39:08
Document Index: 683107169

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 472', '§ 472', '§ 472', '§ 472', '§ 472', '§ 841', '§ 2312', '§ 2313']

United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Carlos A. Palacios, Defendant-appellant, 835 F.2d 230 (9th Cir. 1987) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Ninth Circuit › 1987 › United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Carlos A. Palacios, Defendant-appellant
United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Carlos A. Palacios, Defendant-appellant, 835 F.2d 230 (9th Cir. 1987)
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 835 F.2d 230 (9th Cir. 1987)
Submitted Oct. 2, 1987. *Decided Dec. 30, 1987
Carlos Palacios appeals his conviction, in two counts, for possessing counterfeit bills and for passing counterfeit bills, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472. Count I charged Palacios with possessing counterfeit bills. Count II charged Palacios with passing counterfeit bills, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472. Palacios contends that the government failed to present sufficient evidence from which a jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew that the bills were counterfeit. He also contends that the district court subjected him to double jeopardy by imposing consecutive sentences for the convictions on both counts of 18 U.S.C. § 472. We affirm the district court.
Palacios was charged in a two-count indictment for passing and possessing counterfeit bills in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472. The jury convicted him of both counts. He was sentenced to four years in prison for passing the 44 bills, with a consecutive five-year term of probation for possessing the 46 bills found in his pocket. He timely appeals.
There is sufficient evidence to support a conviction if, reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 2788-89, 61 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979); United States v. Douglass, 780 F.2d 1472, 1476 (9th Cir. 1986). Knowledge that the bills are counterfeit is an element of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472. United States v. Barham, 466 F.2d 1138, 1141 (9th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 926, 93 S. Ct. 1356, 35 L. Ed. 2d 587 (1973).
We review the legality of a sentence de novo. United States v. Arbelaez, 812 F.2d 530, 532 (9th Cir. 1987); United States v. Whitney, 785 F.2d 824, 825 (9th Cir. 1986) (per curiam).
Palacios contends that the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment, which "protects against multiple punishments of the same offense," North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S. Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L. Ed. 2d 656 (1969), protects him against separate punishment for possessing counterfeit currency on or about September 15, 1986, and for passing counterfeit currency to the bank on the same date.
Relying upon Ball v. United States, 470 U.S. 856, 105 S. Ct. 1668, 84 L. Ed. 2d 740 (1985), Palacios argues that Congress could not have intended double punishment because his possession of counterfeit currency "necessarily is included" within the illegal passing.
The defendant in Ball was sentenced separately for receiving a firearm shipped in interstate commerce and for possessing the same firearm. The Supreme Court held that the defendant could be sentenced only once because Congress did not intend to authorize separate punishment for illegally possessing a firearm while receiving it when "proof of illegal receipt of a firearm necessarily includes proof of illegal possession of that weapon." Ball, 470 U.S. at 862, 105 S. Ct. at 1672 (emphasis in original).
We employed similar reasoning in United States v. Sanford, 673 F.2d 1070 (9th Cir. 1982), where we ordered resentencing for a defendant who had been sentenced to consecutive terms of imprisonment for the transfer of counterfeit notes and for possession of the same notes. In Sanford, the evidence showed that the government informant obtained counterfeit bills from the defendant, but there was no evidence showing that the defendant possessed the notes "at any time prior to the moment of transfer." Id. at 1071. Therefore, we held, " [o]n the facts of this case, the two offenses charged were in reality only one offense for which consecutive sentences are improper." Id. However, in our case, Palacios had 46 counterfeit bills hidden on his person after he had already attempted to pass 44 other counterfeit bills. Thus, the two counts charged separate offenses. They were not the same offense because Palacios separately retained the 46 counterfeit bills in his pocket. The 46 counterfeit bills were not part of the transaction in which the quantity of 44 counterfeit bills was passed.
In United States v. Palafox, 764 F.2d 558 (9th Cir. 1985) (en banc), we held that a defendant who was properly convicted on one count of distributing a sample of heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a) (1) and one count of possessing the remainder in violation of the same section could not be required to serve two concurrent sentences. In Palafox, an undercover agent negotiated to buy heroin from the defendant and asked for a sample to inspect. The defendant handed the agent a package of heroin, which the agent promptly returned after removing a small quantity. The defendant was immediately arrested and convicted both of possessing heroin with intent to distribute and of actually distributing heroin. In holding that there could only be one punishment, we reasoned that "each offense [was] committed at virtually the same time, in the same place, and with the same participants." Palafox, 764 F.2d at 562. In the present case, Palacios retained counterfeit bills on his person while passing a separate quantity of counterfeit bills. Although technically, Palacios possessed the 46 counterfeit bills, his actions were not the same as those of the defendant in Palafox.
Similarly, in United States v. Rodriguez-Ramirez, 777 F.2d 454 (9th Cir. 1985), the evidence showed that after providing an undercover agent with a sample, the defendant retained possession of the remainder of a bag of heroin for two days before he was arrested. We held that " [b]ecause the distribution of the sample and the possession of the remainder did not occur 'at the same time, in the same place, and with the involvement of the same participants,' ... separate convictions and punishments for these two violations are appropriate." Rodriguez-Ramirez, 777 F.2d at 457-58 (quoting Palafox, 764 F.2d at 563).
Moreover, this is not the first time that we have confronted this distinction. In United States v. Wolf, 813 F.2d 970 (9th Cir. 1987), the defendant was convicted of transporting a stolen vehicle in foreign commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2312, and for possessing the vehicle while transporting it in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2313. The district court imposed a five-year sentence for the transportation offense and a separate sentence of five years' probation for the possession offense, the sentences to run consecutively. In upholding the consecutive sentences, we found that proof of the defendant's possession was not limited to the time and place necessary to committing the act of transporting the stolen van. In distinguishing this feature from other cases, we stated:
In all three cases, the proof of possession was limited to a momentary period of time necessary to commit an additional statutory offense, whether transfer of counterfeit notes (Sanford), distribution of heroin (Palafox), or receiving a firearm (Ball) . In contrast, when the proof of possession was not limited to the same time and place that the additional offense was committed, we have held that separate punishment for possession and the other offense is permissible.
In so holding, we are consistent with other circuits that have reached the same result. See, e.g., United States v. Crachy, 800 F.2d 83 (6th Cir. 1986), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S. Ct. 905, 93 L. Ed. 2d 856 (1987).
Crachy, 800 F.2d at 90 (emphasis in original); United States v. Wilkerson, 469 F.2d 963 (5th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 986, 93 S. Ct. 1515, 36 L. Ed. 2d 184 (1973) (proof that defendant claimed possession of counterfeit bills long prior to his actual delivery to the buyers is sufficiently distinct from proof of a later transfer as to warrant separate convictions and sentencing for both possession and transfer).