Opinion ID: 3044861
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The “Course of Conduct” Theory Advanced by Cius

Text: and Gustama Regarding the Supplemental Instruction is One of First Impression in this Circuit Cius and Gustama contend that the district court erred when it instructed the jury to consider entrapment separately as to each count, and that the district court’s supplemental instruction misconstrued legal principles set forth in a former Fifth 33 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 34 of 58 Circuit opinion, United States v. Wells, 506 F.2d 924 (5th Cir. 1975).28 They maintain that Agent Connors presented a single “scenario” premised a scheme to rob the cocaine from two armed guards at the stash house. In other words, Cius and Gustama contend that, but for the opportunity to rob the stash house, there could be no agreement to possess the cocaine or to use or carry a firearm. Thus, they argue, the crimes charged in the Indictment were a course of conduct such that if they were entrapped as to committing the first crime, they necessarily were entrapped as to committing the separate offenses charged in the remaining counts. For this reason, they assert that the district court should have instructed the jury that if it found entrapment as to Count 1 it necessarily must have found entrapment as to the remaining counts. This Circuit has not previously addressed this specific question, but we decide it today. In doing so, we conclude that the position championed by Cius and Gustama incorrectly states the law as to entrapment, a defense that again has two separate, albeit related, elements. Our analysis of the argument and our explanation as to why the district court did not commit error in giving the supplemental jury instruction follows. c. The Former Fifth Circuit’s Decision in United States v. Wells 28 The holdings in decisions rendered by the former Fifth Circuit prior to October 1, 1981 are binding on this Circuit. Bonner v. City of Pritchard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1207 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc). 34 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 35 of 58 The first argument that we must address is the contention by Cius and Gustama that this case involves a single course of conduct and the former Fifth Circuit’s decision in Wells requires us to find the supplemental instruction was given in error. We disagree, concluding that Cius and Gustama’s reliance on the Wells decision is misplaced. In Wells, the defendant argued on appeal that the district court should have instructed a jury that it could find that the series of underlying drug sales was a “course of conduct” induced by the activity of the Government. Wells, 506 F.2d at 926. Wells had been indicted on eight counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance. Id. at 924. The jury found Wells not guilty as to the first transaction (charged in the first two counts), but guilty as to the last three transactions (charged in the subsequent counts). As in this case, the trial court in Wells addressed entrapment in its initial instruction and there was no objection to that instruction. The Wells trial court also gave a supplemental instruction after the jury asked a question during its deliberations. The specific question posed by the jury in Wells was this: If we find the defendant was entrapped, is he therefore not guilty on all counts or can we find that he was initially entrapped on Counts 1 and 2 and guilty on the remainder counts? Id. at 925. After soliciting input from trial counsel, the trial court gave the jury this supplemental instruction: 35 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 36 of 58 You must determine whether or not the defense of entrapment is applicable to any or all counts. Each count must be considered separately. Your verdicts may be the same or they may be different. Each verdict must be agreed to by all members of the jury. Id. Wells argued on appeal that the jury should have been instructed on “course of conduct” based upon the Supreme Court’s decision in Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369 (1958). Id. The former Fifth Circuit disagreed and affirmed. Before we address the application of Wells here, we first analyze the Supreme Court’s decision in Sherman. In Sherman, the Supreme Court reversed a conviction for three narcotics sales, finding that the evidence at trial established entrapment as a matter of law. A Government informant met with Sherman while the two were undergoing treatment for narcotics addiction. Sherman initially refused the Government agent’s request to supply him with narcotics. But, after several additional pleas, Sherman agreed. Through this process, Sherman was re-addicted. After the informant notified Government agents that Sherman was a seller, they observed three additional transactions, for which Sherman was convicted. In finding that Sherman was entrapped, the Court stated, in dicta, “[I]t makes no difference that the sales for which petitioner was convicted occurred after a series of sales. They were not independent acts subsequent to the inducement but part of a course of conduct which was the product of the inducement.” Sherman, 356 U.S. at 374 36 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 37 of 58 (emphasis added).29 The Supreme Court then proceeded to analyze the predisposition element of entrapment. The Supreme Court ultimately concluded the Government’s evidence was insufficient on this point. However, notably the Court’s analysis did not screech to a halt upon the mere suggestion that the drug charges formed part of the same course of conduct that was the product of Government inducement. Rather, the Supreme Court carefully parsed the Government’s evidence on predisposition and explained why it was insufficient to overcome the entrapment defense. This analysis of Sherman informs our review of the former Fifth Circuit’s decision in Wells. As part of its analysis, the Wells court first explained precisely what Sherman suggested regarding a “course of conduct,” and noted that this moniker was merely part of the Supreme Court’s comment, in passing, “on the argument that if there was inducement, it produced acts which occurred prior to those for which Sherman was convicted.” Wells, 506 F.2d at 926 (emphasis added). The Wells court further distinguished the facts before it from those in Sherman by observing that no prior sales were at issue and that the “[G]overnment’s inducement allegedly produced only those acts for which Wells was tried.” Id. (emphasis added). The court concluded that because it was instructed to consider entrapment separately as to each count, the jury was free to 29 There was no issue in Sherman concerning jury instructions. 37 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 38 of 58 find that the series of drug sales were a “course of conduct” induced by the Government. On this basis, the Wells court concluded that the trial court committed no error in giving the jury the challenged supplemental instruction. In reaching this conclusion, the court noted that “[u]nless the evidence established as a matter of law that there was a ‘course of conduct,’ it would have been error to charge, as the defense requested at trial, that Wells was either guilty of all or innocent of all.” Id. Cius and Gustama, seizing upon this language in Wells, contend that when determining whether an entrapment defense applies across the board to all counts, or to each count separately and individually, a district court must determine whether the counts are part of a single “course of conduct,” or, on the other hand, are “wholly separate.” However, Cius and Gustama ask us to extend Wells too far. First, we are not bound by the proposition for which Cius and Gustama cite Wells, as it was not essential to the holding, and thus is non-binding dictum. Second, we note that Cius and Gustama’s argument ignores the tautological point that the former Fifth Circuit concluded in Wells that the district court did not commit error by instructing the jury that it should consider entrapment as to each count. Wells, 506 F.2d at 926. The Wells decision simply does not stand for the proposition that Cius and Gustama assert: that when a so-called “course of conduct” exists, it is necessary to give an all or nothing entrapment defense instruction. 38 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 39 of 58 d. The Question of “Course of Conduct” and Continuing Entrapment Contrary to their argument, whether the charges against Cius and Gustama formed part of the same course of conduct is not determinative of when an entrapment defense applies to all counts or must be assessed separately by the trier of fact as to each count. See, e.g., United States v. Mitchell, 67 F.3d 1248 (6th Cir. 1995) (rejecting a continuing entrapment instruction, and concluding that even though the drug sales at issue were only days apart, they did not form part of the same course of conduct that was the product of the original inducement, and finding that the district court’s instruction to consider entrapment separately was not in error because the jury could have found particular evidence on record as indicative of predisposition unrelated to the first “induced” sale); United States v. Khubani, 791 F.2d 260, 264 (2d Cir. 1986) (“Limiting examination of defendant's state of mind to the period prior to any [G]overnmental contact ignores the possibility that the defendant could become predisposed to commit the crime after the [G]overnment's first contact.”); United States v. North, 746 F.2d 627, 630 (9th Cir. 1984) (“The initial entrapment, assuming it existed, did not immunize [the defendant] from criminal liability for subsequent transactions that he readily and willingly undertook. Whether any initial entrapment extended through some or all of the later transactions was a question of fact that the [trial court’s] instruction properly left to the jury.”), abrogated on other grounds, United States v. Kent, 649 39 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 40 of 58 F.3d 907 (9th Cir. 2011)); see also United States v. Curry, 284 F. Supp. 458, 464 (N.D. Ill. 1968) (after finding that various drug sales were part of a continuous relationship between the defendants and the Government agent and that both sales were induced by the same course of conduct, analyzing “the remaining entrapment issue” as to whether the defendants were sufficiently predisposed). 30 30 Of course, this is not to say it is never appropriate for a district court to provide a continuing entrapment instruction. In fact, this is exactly what occurred in United States v. Slaughter, 891 F.2d 691 (9th Cir. 1989) and United States v. Beal, 961 F.2d 1512 (10th Cir. 1992). However, those two cases are readily distinguishable. In Slaughter, the defendant was indicted on three counts of distribution of a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The defendant appealed his conviction on two of the three counts arguing that the district court should have instructed the jury that it could find the defendant was entrapped in the first instance and therefore all criminal acts following were subject to the initial entrapment. The Ninth Circuit found that the district court erred in failing to give this instruction “given the short period between the three drug transactions [five days] and the obvious jury confusion on the issue of entrapment.” Slaughter, 891 F.2d at 700. Although the court found the district court had erred under the circumstances of that particular case, it did not conclude that the continuing entrapment instruction should be given in every multiple count, “course of conduct” case. Id. In Beal, the Government appealed from an order granting the defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal. Beal, 961 F.2d at 1513. The defendant was indicted on two counts of selling a controlled substance to an undercover police officer. Id. Relying on Sherman, the Tenth Circuit found that the district court’s conclusion that the defendant was entrapped as matter of law on each count was correct because the “two counts were founded upon one continuous course of conduct” and therefore it followed that the original inducement which “beguiled” the defendant carried over to the second charge. Id. at 1517 (emphasis added). The court explicitly found that it would not hold as a general rule that once entrapment occurred, a defendant’s subsequent acts are immunized from culpability. The court concluded that under the facts of that case only “the original inducement and not the defendant’s predisposition provided motive for his otherwise criminal acts.” Id. at 1517. Although a finding of continuing entrapment was appropriate in these cases, we find that the underlying crimes in Slaughter and Beal were noticeably different from the charges here. The charges forming the basis of the indictment in those two cases were the same crime—that is, counts alleging violations of the same criminal statute. Here, the charges do not relate to the same crime. Rather, they related to wholly distinct allegations asserting violations of different criminal statutes. Each charge in the Indictment alleged a separate offense, unlike the situations in Slaughter and Beal. In some instances it may be proper to provide a continuing entrapment instruction on facts such as those found in Slaughter and Beal, (i.e., where the defendants were 40 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 41 of 58 For purposes of this decision, we need not decide whether the separate counts on which Cius and Gustama were indicted formed part of the same course of conduct. Even if we assume there was such a course of conduct, that finding is only helpful to Cius and Gustama to the extent it serves as a basis for the conclusion that they carried their initial burden of production to show inducement as to each count. We note of course, that Appellants could have met this initial burden of production by showing Government inducement as to each of the charges they faced. By successfully carrying that burden of production, the Appellants were able to place squarely before the jury the issue of entrapment as to each offense charged.31 A review of this record amply demonstrates that the district court necessarily determined Cius and Gustama met their burden of production regarding inducement. The district court gave an entrapment instruction and told the jury to consider the issue as to each count. It is immaterial for purposes of our analysis whether the district court did so based upon a finding that there was a course of charged in a series of drug transactions and accused of violating the same criminal statute, and the evidence regarding the defendant’s predisposition to commit the crime is the same for each count). That is not the case here, and it was appropriate for the district court to instruct the jury to consider entrapment separately as to each count, which charged each defendant with separate crimes. 31 Moreover, whether the Government induced Cius and Gustama into a course of conduct does not answer the question about whether either man was predisposed to commit the crimes that formed part of that course of conduct absent the inducement. 41 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 42 of 58 conduct or, alternatively, because it analyzed the inducement evidence as to each count separately. In either event, the trial court correctly shifted the burden to the Government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cius and Gustama were predisposed to commit the crimes for which they were charged—not whether they were predisposed to commit a “course of conduct.” To put it a slightly different way, even if the counts charged in the Indictment formed part of the same course of conduct, and even if Cius and Gustama were induced as to all counts, there is still the question of whether they were predisposed to commit each of the crimes at issue. Because of the subjective, fact-intensive nature of the predisposition inquiry, it may well be that the facts of a given case indicate that an individual defendant is predisposed to commit some crimes, but not others. And, to be clear, the key inquiry for us is whether the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government shows that Cius and Gustama were predisposed to commit the offenses of conviction. For example, it is possible Cius and Gustama were predisposed to conspire to possess the cocaine in some manner (as charged in Count 2), even if they were not predisposed to “rob them ‘bro’” (as charged in Count 1). In fact, as discussed below, a review of the record demonstrates that the evidence supports that very conclusion. Accordingly, as part of our review, we must consider whether the evidence adduced at trial 42 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 43 of 58 supports a finding by the jury that Cius and Gustama were predisposed to commit the offenses charged in Counts 2 and 4. B. Sufficiency of the Evidence We now turn to the question of whether there is sufficient evidence regarding predisposition to support the jury’s verdicts against Cius and Gustama. We are also called upon to address Gustama’s other challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence and his separate contention that he was entrapped as a matter of law. 1. Standard of Review This Court reviews de novo whether there is sufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict in a criminal trial. United States v. Doe, 661 F.3d 550, 560 (11th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 132 S. Ct. 1648 (2012). In so doing, the Court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government and resolves all reasonable inferences and credibility evaluations in favor of the verdict. Id. “Evidence is sufficient to support a conviction if a reasonable trier of fact could find that the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Maxwell, 579 F.3d 1282, 1299 (11th Cir. 2009) (internal quotations and citations omitted). If a reasonable trier of fact could so find, “[t]he evidence need not exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence or be wholly inconsistent with every conclusion except that of guilt.” United States v. Robertson, 493 F.3d 1322, 1329 43 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 44 of 58 (11th Cir. 2007) (internal quotations and citations omitted). “[A]ll reasonable inferences must be drawn in favor of supporting the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Sawyer, 799 F.2d 1494, 1501 (11th Cir. 1986) (per curiam) (citing Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80 (1942)). “The test for sufficiency of evidence is identical regardless of whether the evidence is direct or circumstantial, and no distinction is to be made between the weight given to either direct or circumstantial evidence.” United States v. MieresBorges, 919 F.2d 652, 656-57 (11th Cir. 1990) (internal quotation marks omitted). However, “[w]here the [G]overnment relies on circumstantial evidence, reasonable inferences, and not mere speculation, must support the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Klopf, 423 F.3d 1228, 1236 (11th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). This Court has observed that “[e]ntrapment is generally a jury question,” and “[t]herefore, entrapment as a matter of law is a sufficiency of the evidence inquiry.” Brown, 43 F.3d at 622 (11th Cir. 1995). Thus, in assessing an entrapment as a matter of law argument, we ask whether the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that the defendant was predisposed to commit the offense at issue. United States v. King, 73 F.3d 1564, 1568 (11th Cir. 1996). “When an entrapment defense is rejected by [a] jury, our review is limited to deciding whether the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude 44 Case: 12-13474 Date Filed: 02/14/2014 Page: 45 of 58 that the defendant was predisposed to take part in the illicit transaction.” Brown, 43 F.3d at 622 (citing United States v. Aiberjeris, 28 F.3d 97, 99 (11th Cir. 1994)).