Opinion ID: 461631
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: charles patterson

Text: 61 Defendant Charles Patterson argues that the district court erred by admitting evidence of the defendant's involvement in a prior drug conspiracy, by failing to give a limiting instruction as to the evidence of the prior conspiracy, and by failing to give the defendant's tendered instruction on a lesser included offense. 14 A. PRIOR DRUG CONSPIRACY 62 Jeffrey Bayles, one of the admitted heads of the conspiracy, testified extensively about his involvement in the marijuana distribution business. Bayles testified that the present conspiracy grew out of Bayles' contacts from a prior drug conspiracy. Charles Patterson was one of Bayles' contacts from the prior conspiracy (which originated approximately seven years before the offenses charged in the indictment), and Bayles' testimony frequently touched upon Patterson's involvement in the prior conspiracy. Patterson alleges that this evidence of a prior bad act was inadmissible under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b), and that it so prejudiced Patterson that he deserves a new trial. 63 This brings us back once again to the continuing problems under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Clearly the government's evidence was not admissible under Rule 404(b) merely to prove that Patterson had been involved in drug conspiracies before and thus Patterson was probably involved again. The government argues, however, that the evidence was necessary to show the development of the conspiracy, as well as to explain why Bayles would entrust Patterson with large consignments of marijuana. 64 Rule 404(b) does not bar evidence of prior bad acts to prove defendant's plan or design. Evidence of the same or common or connected or inseparable plan or scheme or transaction may be introduced to complete the story of the crime on trial by proving its immediate context of happenings near in time and place. 2 J. Weinstein & M. Berger, Weinstein's Evidence p 404, at 404-118 & n. 2 (Supp.1985), quoting McCormick, Evidence Sec. 157 (1954). See also Llach v. United States, 739 F.2d 1322, 1327 (8th Cir.1984) (in prosecution involving conspiracy to distribute cocaine, evidence of defendant's prior involvement in distributing methaqualone and marijuana admissibile to prove intent and common scheme or plan). In this case, the trial court properly admitted the testimony of Bayles as background on how the conspiracy developed, and to show Patterson's intent and plan to resume operating as a middleman for Bayles. The testimony of Patterson's prior dealings with Bayles explained why Bayles trusted Patterson with large amounts of marijuana on a consignment basis. The trial court's decision to admit Bayles' testimony thus fell well within the trial court's discretion. 65 Patterson also argues that the evidence of his involvement in the prior conspiracy was too remote to be admissible, because it dealt with events beginning seven years before the charged conspiracy. See Shackleford, 738 F.2d at 779. We note that Bayles' testimony was not limited to acts that occurred in 1974, but rather revealed a continuous course of dealings between Bayles and Patterson, interrupted only by Bayles' 1978-1980 stay in the penitentiary. We thus find that the evidence was not too remote to be admissible under Rule 404(b). See United States v. Lea, 618 F.2d 426, 431-32 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 823, 101 S.Ct. 82, 66 L.Ed.2d 25 (1980). 66 Patterson also alleges that Bayles' testimony failed the Shackleford test that evidence of the defendant's prior bad act be clear and convincing. 738 F.2d at 779. Patterson relies upon United States v. Shepherd, 739 F.2d 510, 513 (10th Cir.1984), in which the Tenth Circuit held that where the only evidence against the defendant is testimony by an accomplice, that accomplice cannot boot strap his testimony by providing uncorroborated testimony about prior criminal acts of the defendant. We need not decide whether to adopt Shepherd for this circuit, however, because this case is distinguishable from Shepherd. The government presented ample other evidence, in addition to Bayles' testimony, that implicated Patterson in the second conspiracy. 67 Patterson argues that the trial court abused its discretion under Rule 403 in admitting Bayles' testimony because the prejudice to Patterson far outweighed the testimony's probative value. We have already found that the testimony did have probative value and thus was admissible under Rule 404(b). We also conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the probative value of the evidence was not outweighed by any prejudice to Patterson. See Chaimson, 760 F.2d at 808 (reviewing court gives great deference to trial court and reverses only upon a showing of abuse of discretion). 68 Patterson argues that the case against him rests virtually completely on the testimony of narcotics users and peddlers who knew that they could achieve substantially reduced sentences by testifying against the defendant in this case. We agree that this is a factor that the trial court ought to consider in weighing probative value against prejudice, and indeed we have no reason to believe that the trial judge did not consider that factor in this case. We are not prepared, however, to hold that the credibility (or lack thereof) of the government's witnesses is by itself enough to make the evidence inadmissible. 69 As this case demonstrates, the participants in drug conspiracies are often not civic leaders. The defendants at trial had ample opportunity to expose the lack of credibility of their accusers, including Jeffrey Bayles. The defendants cannot, however, use the unscrupulous nature of the persons with whom they chose to conspire as a shield to keep out otherwise admissible evidence. The jury believed the other co-conspirators. B. LIMITING INSTRUCTION 70 Patterson contends that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the limited purpose for which it could consider Bayles' testimony (i.e., as proving intent or plan, but not propensity to commit the crime charged). Patterson concedes that he failed to request an instruction, and thus we will reverse only if the trial court's failure was plain error. Oxford, 735 F.2d at 280. We will not find plain error if other competent evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates the defendant's guilt. See United States v. Metcalfe, 698 F.2d 877, 883 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 910, 103 S.Ct. 1886, 76 L.Ed.2d 814 (1983). 71 Witnesses Bayles, Schair, Cox, and Vernon Michaels each implicated Patterson as a participant in the charged conspiracy. Further, the records at the stash house showed that large amounts of marijuana went to someone named Charlie. On the basis of this evidence, we do not believe that the trial court's failure to issue a limiting instruction affected the outcome of Patterson's trial. 72 Patterson, citing Evitts v. Lucey, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 830, 83 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985), contends that the failure to request a limiting instruction constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment. In Evitts, the defendant's counsel failed to file the required statement of appeal, and therefore the state court denied the defendant the right to appeal his conviction. Id. 105 S.Ct. at 832-33. Certainly, the failure of Patterson's counsel to submit a limiting instruction does not rise to the magnitude of the conduct of the defense counsel in Evitts. We therefore apply the established standard in this circuit, that the defendant must show both that his counsel was deficient, and that the deficiency prejudiced the defendant. See United States v. Noble, 754 F.2d at 1324, 1335 (7th Cir.1985) (U.S.Appeal Pending) (discussing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)). We need not decide whether Patterson's counsel fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, 754 F.2d at 1335, because, in light of the substantial evidence against Patterson, there is no probability that the outcome of his trial was prejudiced by the alleged deficiency. C. LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE 73 Patterson also joins defendant Liefer in challenging the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of conspiracy to distribute less than 1,000 pounds. As discussed above with respect to defendant Liefer, we do not find this argument persuasive. See supra Sec. IC. Having reviewed the challenges raised by defendant Patterson, we affirm his conviction.