Opinion ID: 802339
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Kemo Murder

Text: 4 Although the three witness-tampering plots are all alleged in Count 1, only the Kemo murder and the Esteves Plot are charged as predicate racketeering acts. The Pozo Plot, by contrast, is listed as one of the “methods and means” through which Bergrin’s firm engaged in racketeering. 5 Count 2 charges Bergrin with participating in a RICO conspiracy and alleges that the Kemo murder, the Esteves Plot, and the Pozo Plot were overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. Counts 3 and 4 charge violent crimes in aid of racketeering offenses for Bergrin’s involvement in the Kemo murder and the Esteves Plot, respectively. See 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a) (providing for criminal sanction where “[one] murders, kidnaps, maims, assaults with a dangerous weapon, commits assault resulting in serious bodily injury upon, or threatens to commit a crime of violence against any individual in violation of the laws of any State or the United States, or attempts or conspires so to do” in connection with a racketeering activity). 5 The Kemo Murder Counts were the subject of the trial that ultimately led to the present appeal, and, as charged, they carry a mandatory life sentence. 6 See 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(3)(A) (tampering with a witness by killing is punishable as “provided in sections 1111 and 1112”); id. § 1512(k) (“Whoever conspires to commit any offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.”); id. § 1111(b) (“Whoever is guilty of murder in the first degree shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for life.”). At the trial on those counts, the government introduced evidence that Kemo’s murder arose out of Bergrin’s representation of William Baskerville. Baskerville was an associate in a drug-trafficking organization run by Hakeem Curry and was arrested on federal drug charges in November 2003 for drug sales he made to Kemo. Baskerville told Bergrin that he suspected Kemo to be the likely source of the government’s evidence against him. Bergrin, in turn, telephoned Curry and told him that Kemo was the confidential witness against Baskerville. 6 The violent crimes in aid of racketeering offense pertaining to the Kemo murder, see supra note 5, also carries a mandatory life sentence, see 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1) (violent crimes in aid of racketeering that result in murder are punished “by death or life imprisonment, or a fine …, or both”); United States v. Carson, 455 F.3d 336, 385 n.44 (D.C. Cir. 2006) (reaching the “common sense conclusion” that, despite the language employed, the violent crimes in aid of racketeering statute “does not permit a fine to be levied in lieu of imprisonment or death”). 6 Anthony Young, a member of Curry’s organization and the government’s key witness at the trial of the Kemo Murder Counts, 7 was with Curry during that conversation and overheard Bergrin say that “Kamo” was the confidential witness against Baskerville. Young realized, however, that Bergrin was referring to Kemo. According to Young, Bergrin met with him and other Curry organization members approximately one week after Baskerville’s arrest. At that meeting, Bergrin told the group that “if Kemo testif[ied] against [Baskerville], [Baskerville] w[ould] never see the streets again” (Joint App. at 2528), but that he could “get [Baskerville] out if Kemo d[id]n’t testify” (id. at 2529). Bergrin twice reiterated “No Kemo, no case” and emphasized that the group should not “let that kid testify against [Baskerville].” (Id.) Members of Curry’s organization thereafter discussed how to find and kill Kemo, and, in March of 2004, Young found Kemo and shot him to death. 7 Young was not the only witness who offered testimony incriminating Bergrin in Kemo’s murder. Alberto Castro, a drug dealer, testified that Bergrin offered him $10,000 to murder Kemo, and two former confidants of Bergrin’s testified that Bergrin implied his complicity in the events that led to Kemo’s death. (See Joint App. at 3409 (testimony that Bergrin expressed his worry that “Baskerville would implicate him in the Kemo case”); id. at 3781 (testimony that Bergrin stated he had “met with Baskerville’s people at the office,” “told them the name of the [witness],” and that they had “killed [the witness] three months later”).) 7