Opinion ID: 1388566
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence Against Marquez-Ramos on Conspiracy to Murder

Text: Marquez-Ramos first challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on the count regarding conspiracy to murder. This is the relevant statutory language: Whoever, within the jurisdiction of the United States, conspires with one or more other persons, regardless of where such other person or persons are located, to commit at any place outside the United States an act that would constitute the offense of murder . . . shall, if any of the conspirators commits an act within the jurisdiction of the United States to effect any object of the conspiracy, be punished as provided in subsection (a)(2). 18 U.S.C. § 956(a)(1). The offense can be divided into four elements relevant to the facts of this case: (1) Marquez-Ramos and at least one other person agreed to murder Maria Elida Liuzza; (2) he knew the unlawful purpose of the agreement and joined it willingly; (3) one of the conspirators committed at least one overt act in the United States furthering the conspiracy; and (4) at least one of the conspirators was within the jurisdiction of the United States when that person conspired. See United States v. Wharton, 320 F.3d 526, 537-38 (5th Cir.2003). Marquez-Ramos argues that the government failed to meet three of these four elements. First, he argues there was no showing that any of the conspirators were within the jurisdiction of the United States when the agreement was made; second, that there was insufficient evidence that any agreement to kill Liuzza had been made at all; and third, that no overt act had occurred. He also argues that no showing was made that Liuzza was killed by choking or beating, as alleged in the indictment. We first explain in some detail the government's evidence of the murder conspiracy. Hector Marquez-Ramos is the brother of Mario Marquez, the latter being the head of a major drug enterprise that imported large quantities of drugs, especially marijuana, from Mexico into the United States. In early 2005, the Organization was in turmoil, after increasingly frequent drug seizures, difficulties in transmitting drugs and money, and infiltration by the authorities. Marquez-Ramos, who had served as an enforcer for the Organization in the past, was dispatched, with another member of the group, to Detroit, the residence of Ricardo Sepulveda, the Organization's main agent in the Midwest. [1] The Organization had grown increasingly frustrated with Sepulveda over the preceding months, as he had refused orders to carry out a murder for hire and to pick up a large truckload of marijuana for distribution. He owed around a million dollars to the Organization. While in Detroit, Marquez-Ramos had Sepulveda show him where some lower level members of the Organization who were suspected of stealing from the group lived. Marquez-Ramos told Sepulveda that he planned to have them killed. While Marquez-Ramos was in Michigan, Sepulveda told him he wanted to quit the Organization. After Marquez-Ramos left the Midwest, Sepulveda received a call from Mario Marquez asking him to go to Juarez, Mexico to touch base and smuggle cash back into Mexico. Sepulveda took his mother with him. They arrived in El Paso on February 13, 2005. When at a Marquez-controlled house in El Paso, Marquez-Ramos and another Organization member, Esaul Guerrero, packed bundles of cash into the door panels and console of Sepulveda's truck. Sepulveda and his mother that evening then crossed into Mexico. On arrival at an Organization house in Juarez, Mexico known as the yellow and green house, Sepulveda asked to be paid for the cash smuggling. Mario Marquez said he would have to wait for another Organization member to arrive. The next day, Sepulveda was once again told to wait another day. That night there was a cookout at the yellow and green house. Mario Marquez told Sepulveda that he was concerned that a member of the Organization in the Midwest, whom Sepulveda had brought into the Organization, had threatened to go to the authorities. They also talked about Marquez-Ramos's trip to the Midwest. Sepulveda then told Mario, as he had earlier told Marquez-Ramos, that he wanted to pull out of the Organization. The next morning, Sepulveda and his mother wanted to leave and return to the United States. Mario Marquez asked them to stay and have breakfast. Marquez-Ramos took them to a restaurant. When they returned to the yellow and green house, Sepulveda saw a man with a wooden handle outside. Later, when he, his mother, Marquez-Ramos, and others were inside the living room, yet another Organization member arrived and said he had been in a car accident. Sepulveda and Marquez-Ramos went outside to see what had happened, passing the putative accident victim and others on their way in. Marquez-Ramos then rushed back inside, and Sepulveda realized there was nothing wrong with the car. When he reentered the house, Sepulveda found his mother, Maria Elida Liuzza, laying on the floor. One man was on top of her with an object in his hand, while another Organization member washed his hands in the kitchen. His mother was moaning, in pain, and out of breath. Sepulveda immediately ran out of the house, pursued by some of the men. He apparently was helped by a motorist to reenter the United States. Once there, he went to the authorities. They taped a series of calls he made to Mario and Diana Marquez; both Marquezes repeatedly asked him where he was. Another witness testified that Mario Marquez subsequently told him that Sepulveda's mother was murdered, and that Sepulveda had escaped. The government's view of the evidence is that the jury could have found that Marquez-Ramos was part of a conspiracy, hatched in the United States, that had as its object the murder of Maria Elida Liuzza in Mexico. The conspiracy was a late addition to a preexisting conspiracy to murder Sepulveda in Mexico. There was evidence that Marquez-Ramos worked closely with Mario Marquez, and that Marquez-Ramos had past enforcement duties that included committing acts of violence against suspected traitors to the Organization. The motive for Mario Marquez and Marquez-Ramos to kill Sepulveda would be the disarray in the Organization, Sepulveda's owing money to Mario Marquez, Sepulveda's having declined to undertake two jobs, and Sepulveda's telling Marquez-Ramos he planned to quit. The motive to kill his mother arose when he arrived in El Paso with her. That placed her naturally within the ambit of the plan to kill, because she could not safely be left alive. Thus, the government's theory was that Mario Marquez's invitation for Sepulveda to go to Juarez was a ruse for the planned murder. An overt act occurred when Marquez-Ramos met Sepulveda in El Paso and loaded the bundles of cash into his truck for smuggling into Mexico. Another question is whether one of the conspirators was within the United States when he conspired. The government offers two possible ways to answer the question favorably. One is that jurors could have inferred that Marquez-Ramos and Esaul Guerrero, tacit[ly] or otherwise, hatched the conspiracy to kill Liuzza when both men were present in El Paso. They would have realized it would be necessary to do so as part of the existing conspiracy to kill Sepulveda. The other possibility is that Mario Marquez, at that time in Mexico, would have been informed . . . immediately of Liuzza's arrival with Sepulveda. An understanding about the need for murder would have been reached with the El Paso conspirators during an international phone call. There is no evidence in the record of such a telephone call, though that one was likely made is logical. We need not decide if such speculation suffices, as the evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction without the phone-call theory. Substantial, if circumstantial, evidence exists that if there was a plan to murder Sepulveda, his arrival in El Paso with his mother would have required consideration immediately to be given as to her fate. One of the two alleged conspirators who was in El Paso, Esaul Guerrero, while not indicted for the murder in the final version of the indictment, was Mario Marquez's stepson and was indicted for drug activity with the Organization. Co-conspirators need not be identified in the indictment. United States v. Thomas, 348 F.3d 78, 82-84 (5th Cir.2003). Jurors could have found that, while in El Paso, Marquez-Ramos did agree with Guerrero to kill Liuzza in Mexico, satisfying the element of the offense that the conspiracy be formed with someone in this country. The closely related question is whether the jury could have found a conspiracy to kill Liuzza at all. Given the evidence that Sepulveda owed Mario Maruqez a large sum of money, the evidence regarding Marquez-Ramos's and the Organization's tendency towards violence and murder as management tools, and the eventual fate of Liuzza (and near-fate of Sepulveda), a reasonable jury could find that the invitation to Juarez was a ruse to kill Sepulveda. Then, the jury could have inferred that plan would have needed to include someone Sepulveda brought with him. There was evidence that Sepulveda had brought his mother on such trips in the past, so her arrival may not have been entirely unanticipated. At least it was reasonable for jurors to conclude that the specific plan to kill Liuzza was not finalized, because it could not have been, until she arrived in El Paso. Next, if Marquez-Ramos and Guerrero commenced their conspiracy to kill Liuzza when they saw her arrive with Sepulveda, the packing of the cash into Sepulveda's vehicle in El Paso was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. Any encouragement to Sepulveda and his mother to continue on to Juarez, any maintaining of the ruse by act or word, would also have been overt acts. Finally, Marquez-Ramos's argument that the government failed to prove the choking and beating portion of the indictment is unpersuasive. What this argument involves is a dispute about the manner and means by which the murder was shown to have occurred. The government may even allege that the means by which the defendant committed the offense are unknown or that the defendant committed it by one or more specified means. Fed.R.Crim.P. 7(c)(1). Because stating the manner and means is not necessary indictment language, what is alleged on that point is not essential. A constructive amendment of an indictment occurs when the jury is permitted to convict the defendant upon a factual basis that effectively modifies an essential element of the offense charged. United States v. Adams, 778 F.2d 1117, 1123 (5th Cir.1985). Marquez-Ramos does not explain how the asserted difference between the indictment and the proof offered at trial modified an element of the offense, so what happened here was at most a variance, not a constructive amendment. Id.; United States v. Dentler, 492 F.3d 306, 313 (5th Cir. 2007). In any event, we discern no error. A reasonable jury could have concluded that Liuzza was beaten based on Sepulveda's testimony that he saw one of the assailants entering the house with a wooden handle, that another man was on top of Liuzza with an object in his hand, and, perhaps most significantly, that an axe handle and stained piece of carpet were recovered from the house by Mexican authorities, and tested positive for Liuzza's DNA. We affirm Marquez-Ramos's conviction for conspiracy to kill Maria Elida Liuzza in a foreign country.