Opinion ID: 3033249
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: Between December 1995 and December 1997 defendant contracted to cut and haul timber in Arkansas and Louisiana for several different landowners or managers. These contracts were on a pay-as-cut basis. Pay-as-cut means a per unit price is agreed upon and the contractor pays as he or she cuts and hauls the timber, usually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Under the Government’s theory of the case, defendant would cut particular tracts of timber on a pay-as-cut basis and would agree to pay for all loads of timber 2 The amount of restitution was $6,501.85 to Deltic Land and Timber Company and $8,515.07 to Mark David Burnside. The restitution that was ordered is for timber that defendant cut and for which he did not pay the timber owners. -2- removed from said tracts on a weekly basis. Defendant agreed to haul the loads to specific mills, but would cause some of the loads to be delivered to unauthorized mills and turn in the loads under his name or someone else’s name, instead of the name of the actual owner. Defendant would use the name of a legitimate timber dealer or timber company to disguise the source and true owner of the timber so that he would receive the full value for the timber. Defendant received direct payment from the timber mills for all the loads turned in under his contracts. Defendant would then give the landowners or timber managers checks and the scale tickets for timber he represented he had cut and hauled from timber tracts. As a result of his scheme, defendant received in excess of $350,000.00. In October 1997, Jim Baldwin, an investigator with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, received a timber theft complaint from Mark David Burnside regarding property he owned in Louisiana. Burnside stated that in November 1996 he hired defendant to log some of his property on a pay-as-cut basis. Defendant began working on Burnside’s property in November 1996 and concluded in January 1997. Burnside claimed that defendant did not pay him for timber he removed from Burnside’s property. Baldwin collected the scale tickets and checks that Burnside received from defendant. Burnside pointed out that one of the scale tickets defendant gave him had the name Deltic Land and Timber Company (“Deltic”) on it, which led Burnside to believe the timber did not come from his land. During November and December 1997, Baldwin went to various mills and wood-receiving facilities in Louisiana and Arkansas and found tickets that had Burnside’s name or address on them. Baldwin also found tickets that had been turned in with defendant’s name and which had been paid in total to defendant. Baldwin and FBI Special Agent Charles Fields began a joint investigation into defendant’s logging activities from December 1995 through December 1997. They contacted numerous landowners, mills, wood-receiving facilities, and wood dealers in Arkansas and Louisiana. The investigators obtained scale tickets, settlement sheets, checks, and -3- logging records involving defendant, his company Wainright Trucking, and Circle J Logging. The investigators were able to identify 541 loads that had been stolen by defendant. These stolen loads had a value of $369,329.07. Of the 541 stolen loads, 157 had been transported in interstate commerce and had a value of $107,977.26. In January 2002, a federal grand jury charged defendant in a superceding indictment with six counts of mail fraud and two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. Defendant’s jury trial commenced on June 10, 2002. During the trial, the district court admitted into evidence Government Exhibit 40, a summary of defendant’s logging activities prepared by Baldwin over defendant’s objection. The district court also admitted into evidence Government Exhibits 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, and 36, which were summaries of defendant’s bank accounts in a spreadsheet format. These bank account summaries, admitted over defendant’s objections, showed that defendant had written several checks with insufficient funds. The district court denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal. The jury found defendant guilty of interstate transportation of stolen property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2314, 2 (count 7). The jury found defendant not guilty on six counts of mail fraud and an additional count of interstate transportation of stolen property. The presentence report recommended an 11-level enhancement in offense level because the loss was in excess of $350,000.00 and a 2-level enhancement for more than minimal planning. Defendant objected to the enhancements. The district court denied the objections. The district court sentenced defendant to 24 months imprisonment, three years supervised release, restitution in the amount of $15,016.92, and a special assessment of $100.00. This appeal followed. -4-