Opinion ID: 389975
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pertinent Factual and Procedural History

Text: 2 Beginning around June 1976 and continuing until February 1977, approximately thirty persons, including the fourteen appellants named herein, participated in a scheme to import marijuana from Mexico to Donna, Texas for disbursement to other parts of the United States. Bales of marijuana were rafted across the Rio Grande and loaded on small trucks for transportation to another location where larger trucks were then loaded. Thereafter, the marijuana was covered with produce to help facilitate its shipment. 3 Appellants, along with twelve others, were first indicted in September 1977 on fifteen counts charging conspiracy to import marijuana, substantive acts of importing marijuana, conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute, and substantive acts of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 (1976) and 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, 952(a), & 963 (1976). On December 30, 1977, thirteen of the original defendants entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the Government, however, the district court ordered a presentence investigation before it would decide to either reject or accept the pleas. 4 During the interim, on January 31, 1978, a superseding twenty-seven count indictment was returned against twenty-nine individuals. It not only added additional defendants and counts but it also enlarged the conspiracy time-frame and described the activities in more detail. Three days later, the plea bargains were rejected by the trial court and the original indictment was subsequently dismissed. 5 Trial on the superseding indictment 2 commenced on September 17, 1979, however, five days later, a mistrial was declared upon the appellants' request. It was occasioned by the nonresponsive answer of a Government witness to the effect that the appellants had earlier pled guilty. The cause was then transferred from the Brownsville Division to the Victoria Division within the same district for the new trial because the trial court reasoned that the great amount of publicity about the case in the area around the Brownsville Division made a fair trial there impossible. 6 On November 11, 1979, the Government moved to proceed, in the new trial upon the superseding indictment, against appellant Tamez only on Counts Ten and Seventeen and the remainder of the appellants on Count Ten alone. 3 All appellants waived their right to trial by jury. The new trial commenced in the Victoria Division on November 27, 1979. On January 25, 1980, all of the appellants, including Tamez, were found guilty on Count Ten, however, Tamez was found not guilty as to Count Seventeen. Each defendant was thereafter sentenced to various periods of imprisonment with special parole terms. Appeal to this court timely followed.