Opinion ID: 751138
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Wilson and Luna's Joint Contentions

Text: 22 Following their arrests in Rockford on July 18, Appellants Wilson and Luna both demonstrated an initial willingness to cooperate with law enforcement officials. Wilson, who had driven the Cadillac in the conspirators' caravan to Southgate Plaza, admitted in a post-arrest statement that he had loaded the cocaine into the undercover van at the direction of Defendant Olivares, who owned a garage in Rockford and was Wilson's legitimate employer. Wilson took the agents to the warehouse in Rockford where the cocaine had been stored and showed them where 32 additional kilograms were hidden. Wilson also took the agents to a wooded area behind Olivares's garage and showed them where he had buried, allegedly at Olivares's direction, three additional packages of cocaine. 4 23 Appellant Luna, who had driven the cocaine-filled van to Southgate Plaza, gave a statement to DEA Agent Mark Hannan following his arrest. He said that he had been hired for $5,000 in El Paso, Texas, by a man whom he refused to identify. His job included renting cars and hotel rooms for his co-conspirators, most of whom did not speak English. In addition, Luna told Hannan that he had worked for the same organization in the past, that he had previously stored cocaine and marijuana for the organization at his home in El Paso, and that there currently was marijuana stored at the house. Luna consented to a search of his house; agents in El Paso seized 242 pounds of marijuana in the search. 24 Notwithstanding these rather damning confessions, both Wilson and Luna chose to stand trial along with Defendants Caballero and Rosales. At trial, the Government presented a substantial amount of evidence, as discussed above, regarding the ongoing nature of the conspiracy, Fernando and the Engineer's continuing efforts to sell more cocaine to Agents Tovar and Martinez after the July 18th arrests, the agents' interactions with Gonzales and Rosales, and the ensuing arrests and seizures of cocaine and cash on August 3 and 4. Wilson and Luna assert on appeal that their arrests, confessions, and assistance provided to the authorities constituted complete withdrawals from the conspiracy. See United States v. Bullis, 77 F.3d 1553 (7th Cir.1996); United States v. Patel, 879 F.2d 292, 294 (7th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1016, 110 S.Ct. 1318, 108 L.Ed.2d 494 (1990). Because they allegedly had withdrawn from the conspiracy, Wilson and Luna argue that the admission of evidence pertaining to the post-withdrawal activities of their codefendants unduly prejudiced them before the jury. Accordingly, they request a new trial in which evidence of the events occurring after July 18 would be inadmissible. 25 As an initial matter, Wilson and Luna concede that their trial attorneys did not raise this conspiratorial withdrawal argument in the district court. Because the appellants forfeited this argument by failing to raise it below, we can reverse the district court only if it was plain error for the court to have failed to conclude that Wilson and Luna withdrew from the conspiracy. See FED.R.CRIM.P. 52(b). Rule 52(b) affirmatively limits our authority to reverse unless the defendant demonstrates that (1) error occurred, (2) the error was plain, and (3) the error affected the defendant's substantial rights. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732-35, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 1776-78, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993); see also United States v. Ross, 77 F.3d 1525, 1538 (7th Cir.1996). Even when the defendant can establish these three factors, we will not reverse the district court unless, in our discretion, we find the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Ross, 77 F.3d at 1538. 26 In this case, we need not decide whether to exercise our discretion since, at a minimum, the appellants cannot satisfy the second requisite factor of plain error review. With respect to this factor, we have clarified that a 'plain' error is one that is clear and uncontroverted at the time of appeal. See id. at 1539. The argument that Wilson and Luna withdrew from the conspiracy is neither clear nor uncontroverted; accordingly, the district court's asserted failure to make a finding of withdrawal cannot be labeled plain error. 27 To withdraw from a conspiracy, a defendant must terminate completely his active involvement in the conspiracy, as well as take affirmative steps to defeat or disavow the conspiracy's purpose. See, e.g., Bullis, 77 F.3d at 1562; Patel, 879 F.2d at 294 ([T]he law will not let you wash your hands of a dangerous scheme that you have set in motion and that can continue to operate and cause great harm without your continued participation. The courts hold that for withdrawal to limit a conspirator's liability ... mere cessation of activity is not enough.) (internal quotation omitted). The affirmative step required to constitute withdrawal must be either a full confession by the defendant to the authorities, or communication by the defendant of the fact of his withdrawal in a manner designed to reach his co-conspirators. See, e.g., United States v. Sax, 39 F.3d 1380, 1386 (7th Cir.1994). The withdrawal must be complete and in good faith. See United States v. Andrus, 775 F.2d 825, 850 (7th Cir.1985). In the instant case, Wilson and Luna argue that their post-arrest statements to the authorities constituted full confessions in which they made clean breaks with their coconspirators. We do not agree with these assertions; more importantly for plain error review, we do not believe that such assertions are clearly true. 28 Appellant Wilson points to the facts that he confessed his complicity to authorities following his arrest, that he told them of Defendant Olivares's involvement in the conspiracy, and that he took them to two locations where Olivares had hidden additional amounts of cocaine. However, when Wilson stood trial on these charges, he denied in his cross-examination that he had confessed to the agents who arrested him. Furthermore, although Wilson led the agents to the three packages that he had buried behind Olivares's garage, at trial he denied that he knew, when he loaded the packages into the undercover van for the July 18th delivery, that the packages contained cocaine. Finally, Wilson never told the authorities that on six occasions in 1994 he had transferred money by wire to Mexico on Olivares's behalf. This reticence on Wilson's part indicates a desire to hide his role in the conspiracy, as well as to conceal the actions of his co-conspirators. Given these facts, we cannot say that it is uncontroverted that Wilson made, in good faith, the clean break that our precedent requires to establish conspiratorial withdrawal. 29 Luna similarly cannot demonstrate that he clearly withdrew from the conspiracy. As we have stated previously, Luna refused to identify the man in El Paso who had hired him for this job and paid him $5,000. This fact alone is sufficient to negate Luna's claim of conspiratorial withdrawal. See, e.g., Sax, 39 F.3d at 1386 (stating that withdrawal requires a full confession to the authorities). In addition, when Defendant Gonzales was arrested on August 4, he was found with a pager number for Luna. Yet Luna never identified Gonzales to the authorities in his post-arrest statements. Such reticence on Luna's part does not clearly indicate his alleged intention to thwart the goals of the conspiracy, an intent that is required for withdrawal to occur. See Bullis, 77 F.3d at 1562. 30 Moreover, even if we were entitled in this case to exercise our discretion under Rule 52(b), we do not believe that a miscarriage of justice would result if we refused to do so. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 736, 113 S.Ct. at 1778-79. Aside from the post-July 18th evidence, the Government presented a mountain of evidence regarding the appellants' guilt. Appellant Luna drove the van that contained 350 kilograms of cocaine to the delivery site on July 18, and he had been seen by Agents Tovar and Martinez accompanying Defendant Rojas during the aborted delivery the previous day. Wilson, meanwhile, drove a separate car during the July 18th caravan to the delivery site. In addition, he confessed that he had loaded the cocaine into the van and led agents to two additional stashes of cocaine. The substantial amount of evidence against these appellants convinces us that there is nothing to indicate that their convictions hinged upon the admission against them of post-July 18th evidence. Any asserted error that occurred in this context did not cast doubt upon the fairness or integrity of the appellants' convictions. See Ross, 77 F.3d at 1541. Accordingly, we reject Wilson and Luna's argument that the district court plainly erred by failing to find that they each withdrew from the conspiracy.
31 Wilson and Luna argue that Judge Norgle should have permitted a jury instruction that would have enabled the jury to conclude that the prosecution had shown multiple conspiracies, as opposed to the single conspiracy charged in Count One of the indictment. They argue that the evidence was insufficient to establish the single conspiracy charged in the indictment and that the court also erred in rejecting their proffered multiple conspiracy instructions. 32 We first review the instructions proffered by the appellants and their co-defendants, all of which were rejected by the district court. These instructions asserted the defense theory of multiple conspiracies, as opposed to the single conspiracy charged in the indictment. A defendant is entitled to an instruction on his theory of defense only if: (1) the proffered instruction is a correct statement of the law; (2) the defendant's theory is supported by the evidence; (3) the asserted defense theory is not already part of the charge; and (4) the failure to include the instruction on the defendant's theory would deny him a fair trial. See, e.g., United States v. Katalinich, 113 F.3d 1475, 1482 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 260, 139 L.Ed.2d 187 (1997); United States v. Douglas, 818 F.2d 1317, 1320-21 (7th Cir.1987). We need not consider all four factors in this instance, since each one of the proposed instructions misstated the law. 33 All of the instructions proposed or adopted by the appellants commanded the jury to acquit if it found that the defendants were part of a conspiracy that involved only the first delivery on July 18 and found that the subsequent August deliveries constituted a separate conspiracy. Implicitly, the appellants argued that a finding of multiple conspiracies would constitute an impermissible variance between the single conspiracy charged in Count One of the indictment and the Government's proof at trial. See, e.g., Bullis, 77 F.3d at 1560. For example, an instruction proposed by Appellant Luna stated: 34 If you find that a particular defendant is a member of another conspiracy, not the one charged in the indictment, then you must acquit that defendant. In other words to find a defendant guilty you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that he was a member of the conspiracy charged in the indictment and not some other, separate conspiracy. 35 (Emphasis added). In addition, Rosales proposed four different instructions that were also adopted by the appellants. Like Luna's proposed instruction, each one required the jury to acquit the defendants if it found that the conspiracy to which they were a party varied from the conspiracy charged in the indictment. 36 We have addressed previously instructions requested by defendants charging that if the prosecutor does not prove exactly the conspiracy charged in the indictment, the jury should acquit. On numerous occasions, we have held without equivocation that it is an erroneous instruction that should not be given. United States v. Duff, 76 F.3d 122, 126 (7th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Hill v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 148, 136 L.Ed.2d 94 (1996); see also United States v. Townsend, 924 F.2d 1385, 1410 (7th Cir.1991) (rejecting the propriety of an instruction substantively identical to those proposed by the appellants); United States v. Wozniak 781 F.2d 95, 96-97 (7th Cir.1985) (The instruction [the defendant] wanted would have told the jury to acquit her if she did not join exactly the conspiracy charged. A jury should be told no such thing.). Once more, we stress that such a proposed instruction is always inappropriate as a matter of law. See Townsend, 924 F.2d at 1410. This is because a prosecutor may elect to proceed on a subset of the allegations in the indictment, proving a conspiracy smaller than the one alleged, Duff, 76 F.3d at 126, so long as that subset is also illegal. If the conspiracy charged in the indictment includes the smaller conspiracy found by the jury, then the variance will not be fatal, since the indictment would have sufficiently notified the defendants of the Government's accusations. See id.; see also Townsend, 924 F.2d at 1410. The appellants' proposed instructions suggest that such a variance is always fatal; accordingly, the proposed instructions always will be incorrect. 37 The appellants' argument also fails to recognize that the district court provided the jury with a multiple conspiracy instruction that we approved as a correct statement of the law in United States v. Nava-Salazar, 30 F.3d 788, 795-96 (7th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Casas v. United States, 513 U.S. 1002, 115 S.Ct. 515, 130 L.Ed.2d 421 (1994). Furthermore, the instruction was appropriate given the facts of this case. Judge Norgle informed the jury that [w]hether there was one conspiracy, two conspiracies, multiple conspiracies or no conspiracy at all is a fact for you to determine. The court then charged: 38 If you find ... that there was one overall conspiracy as alleged in Count One and that a particular defendant was a member of that conspiracy, you should find that defendant guilty of Count One. 39 If you find ... that there were two or more conspiracies and that a particular defendant was a member of one or more of these conspiracies, you may find that defendant guilty of Count One only if you further find ... that this proven conspiracy was included within the conspiracy alleged in Count One. If, on the other hand, the proven conspiracy is not included within the conspiracy alleged in Count One, you should find that defendant not guilty of Count One. 40 The charge thus informed the jury that, if it found that a defendant was a member of a conspiracy that constituted a sub-part of the conspiracy charged in the indictment, then it should find that defendant guilty. The jury's finding of guilt therefore concluded that the appellants were members of a conspiracy and that, at a minimum, this conspiracy was part of the single conspiracy alleged by the Government. Cf. United States v. Butler, 71 F.3d 243, 252 (7th Cir.1995) (recognizing that this Court presumes that the jury followed the district court's instructions). 41 A defendant asserting a claim of variance will succeed in obtaining reversal of his conviction only if he establishes that (1) the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support the jury's finding of a single conspiracy, and (2) he was prejudiced by the variance. United States v. Curtis, 37 F.3d 301, 305 (7th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1154, 115 S.Ct. 1110, 130 L.Ed.2d 1075 (1995). As we have stated previously, the jury gets the first crack at deciding whether there existed one conspiracy or many, and we will uphold a jury's factual determination if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, any rational juror could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a single conspiracy. Bullis, 77 F.3d at 1560; see also Curtis, 37 F.3d at 301. In this case, a reasonable jury could infer a single conspiracy from the evidence that was presented at trial. 42 The Government presented substantial evidence at trial that the appellants worked for an organization that intended to import cocaine from Mexico to Chicago by the tons. In his post-arrest statement to the authorities, Appellant Luna stated that he had worked for the organization in the past and that he had previously stored cocaine at his home for the organization. Throughout the course of the undercover investigation in this case, the defendants made clear their desire and intent to establish an ongoing relationship. Appellant Garcia repeatedly told the agents of this desire and that they would trust each other more after the first transaction, since the difficult one is the first one. Furthermore, the same two individuals--Fernando and the Engineer--orchestrated all of the transactions at the top level and indicated their desire to establish a continuing business relationship. Fernando claimed that he was the boss of all those people who are there by you. This evidence was sufficient to enable the jury to infer the existence of a single agreement to sell the agents cocaine. The fact that the appellants were arrested prior to the second cocaine delivery does not make it any less likely that they were members of an illegal agreement to distribute cocaine that extended beyond July 18. Instead, [a] reasonable jury could find that this evidence established a single conspiracy among the appellants that continued from the first contacts by DEA agents with the conspirators until the second wave of arrests on August 4. Nava-Salazar, 30 F.3d at 796. Accordingly, we reject the appellants' jury instruction and variance claims.