Opinion ID: 689216
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alzate's Duress Issue

Text: 3 Alzate presented a duress defense. Under the law of this circuit, to establish a defense of duress a defendant  'must show that he acted under an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury, that he had a well-grounded fear that the threat would be carried out, and that he had no reasonable opportunity to escape or inform [the] police.'  United States v. Jones, 32 F.3d 1512, 1515 (11th Cir.1994) (quoting United States v. Laetividal-Gonzalez, 939 F.2d 1455, 1465 (11th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 912, 112 S.Ct. 1280, 117 L.Ed.2d 505 (1992)); see also United States v. Sixty Acres in Etowah County, 930 F.2d 857, 860 (11th Cir.1991). Alzate attempted to persuade the jury that men to whom he owed a debt forced him to transport the suitcase containing drugs by threatening immediate harm to Alzate and his family. That was the issue upon which the trial was joined. 4 Alzate presented three witnesses in support of his duress defense; he was the most important one. In his testimony, Alzate told a tale of woe which had begun years before when he borrowed money to visit his sick son. He testified that in late 1990 two men had given him an airline ticket and lent him some money so that he could travel from the United States, where he had been living for several years, back to his home in Colombia, where his son was very ill. Due to an unexpected delay in his return to the United States, and various other family difficulties, he was not able to repay the debt immediately. The men eventually grew impatient and began pressuring Alzate either to pay them the money or to do a job for them by transporting drugs or money to and from the United States. Alzate testified that he successfully evaded these men for a while, but that they caught up with him on a subsequent trip to Colombia. They demanded that he give them any jewelry or other valuables he owned, and when they were dissatisfied with what little Alzate had to offer, they took his passport and green card and told him he would have to swallow drugs to take back to the United States. Alzate testified that with the help of his mother he was able to repay in full the amount he owed. Nonetheless, he was later told that he still owed the money because the man to whom he had given the money had disappeared. It was at that point, Alzate said, that the men started threatening his sister, with whom he had been staying in Colombia. 5 Alzate testified that on the night of July 11, 1992, three men came to pick him up. They packed his clothes inside of a suitcase they had brought along, they took him to a strange apartment for the night, and the next morning they took him to the airport and put him on a plane. Alzate did not know exactly what was in the lining of the suitcase, but he admitted he thought it probably was something illegal, because the men never made him swallow any drugs. Alzate said that on the way to the airport one of the men had a gun pointed at him and told him that if he tried to do anything brave, they would get his children and his sister's children. A few days before these events Alzate's sister had received a sufragio, which is a sympathy card usually sent to a family after someone dies. He testified that if a sufragio is sent when no one has died, it is a death threat. Alzate did not tell officials in Colombia or the United States about his predicament, he explained, because he was afraid for the lives of his children and other relatives still in Colombia. 6 Blanca Agudelo, Alzate's mother, testified next for the defense. She stated that she had been present in Colombia on one occasion when four men came looking for her son; her description of the event corroborated Alzate's testimony on direct examination. Agudelo testified that she was informed that her son's life was in danger. She related efforts she had made to help her son repay the debt: she had borrowed $2,000 and given it to Alzate to repay the debt, and when the men still did not release his debt, she offered them a video camera and another $700 in cash. Agudelo explained that she did not tell the authorities because she was afraid for her son's life. 7 The final defense witness was Carlos Orozco, a friend of the family who had been staying with Alzate's mother in New Jersey. Orozco testified that he became aware of Alzate's problem with the debt just before Alzate left for Colombia in 1991. He said he had tried to help by loaning Alzate's mother $700, and by offering a used car to one of the men to whom Alzate was indebted. Orozco also testified that Alzate's mother told him the day before Alzate arrived in Miami that Alzate would be coming home the next day. 8