Opinion ID: 22760
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cisneros

Text: 6 The relevant facts in Cisneros also are undisputed at this juncture. Doris Cisneros wanted to have her daughter's erstwhile boyfriend killed. Cisneros told this to her fortune teller and asked if the seer would find someone to commit the murder for a price. Acting as Cisneros's agent, the clairvoyant ---- through another client ---- ultimately located and employed two hit-men for Cisneros. In doing so the oracle placed and received international phone calls between Texas and Mexico. The hit-men traveled from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas, where they shot and killed Cisneros's intended victim. 10 A jury convicted Cisneros, and she appealed. 7 A panel of this court concluded that a reasonable jury could have found that (1) the fortune teller had participated in international telephone calls as Cisneros's agent, and (2) those calls were sufficiently connected to the murder to be in furtherance of that crime. 11 The panel therefore affirmed Cisneros's conviction. 8 A crucial factual distinction between Marek and Cisneros exists: In Cisneros the subject telephone calls were unquestionably international so the use of the telephone facility was international (foreign), as is the telephone facility itself; in Marek, however, there was only an intrastate communication (a wire transfer of funds between two Texas cities), albeit the communication facility, Western Union, is an interstate commerce facility. Therefore, to affirm Marek we must conclude that § 1958 reaches intrastate use of a facility in interstate commerce. In Cisneros, on the other hand, even if we assume arguendo that the statute should be accorded the narrowest interpretation possible, we must affirm Cisneros's conviction on the strength of the international (foreign) telephone calls.