Opinion ID: 77318
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Neudis Infantes Hernandez

Text: 31 Neudis Infantes Hernandez argues that: (1) the government failed to present sufficient evidence to support his convictions; (2) the district court erred in denying his motion to exclude a Cuban government document which was a summary prepared for the trial rather than an official record; (3) the district court erred in refusing to grant Hernandez a mistrial and severance after a Bruton violation by the government; (4) the district court erred in denying Hernandez's requested jury instructions and verdict form; (5) he was denied a fair trial because of the cumulative effect of erroneous rulings by the district court; and (6) the district court erred in sentencing Hernandez in violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel punishment.
32 Hernandez was convicted by the jury of all four counts—aircraft piracy, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, interference with a flight crew, and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew. The evidence at trial demonstrated that Hernandez, like Arias-Izquierdo, wielded a knife in order to maintain security on the flight. Garcia testified that as he approached Olivares-Samon, Hernandez and Guerra-Morales grabbed him from behind, pressed a knife to him, pushed him face down on the floor of the cabin, warned him that he would be killed if he resisted, bound his hands behind him, and left him on the floor. Garcia stated that Hernandez remained at the rear of the cabin, guarding the crew, for most of the flight. Passenger Barreda testified that Hernandez distributed snacks to the passengers while holding a long knife. 7 33 With respect to aircraft piracy, Hernandez argues that he did not seize or exercise control of an aircraft, as required by 49 U.S.C. § 46502, because he only acted to secure the aircraft steward, Garcia, did not have a role in the security or control of the aircraft, and never entered the cockpit. Hernandez argues that because Congress passed two separate provisions—one for aircraft piracy and one for interference with the performance of a flight crew member, see 49 U.S.C. § 46504—Congress did not intend for the aircraft piracy statute to be used against persons who interact only with the flight crew during a flight and never enter the cockpit. 34 We find the relevant distinction between aircraft piracy and interference with a flight crew member to be the act of the defendant rather than the identity of the victim—§ 46502 prohibits the seizing or exercising control of an aircraft . . . by force, violence, threat of force or violence, or any form of intimidation, while § 46504 criminalizes assaulting or intimidating a flight crew member or flight attendant of the aircraft in a manner that interferes with the performance of the duties of the member or attendant or lessens the ability of the member or attendant to perform those duties .... There is no support for Hernandez's assertion that the object of a defendant's force, violence, or intimidation must be directly and exclusively the pilot of an aircraft. See, e.g., United States v. Compton, 5 F.3d 358 (9th Cir. 1993) (holding that defendant's delivery of a threatening note to flight attendant was sufficient to attempt air piracy because he set in motion a chain of events that he must have intended to affect the captain of the plane and because the statute does not require a specific intent). The government proved that Hernandez used intimidation and threats of violence to maintain control over the passenger cabin of the aircraft, in a manner meant to influence the flight plan and the pilot, thus the government proved sufficient evidence of Hernandez's guilt under the plain language of § 46502. 35 Hernandez next argues that the government did not prove sufficient evidence to convict him of conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy. The elements of the offense of conspiracy are: (1) an agreement between the defendant and one or more persons, (2) the object of which is to do either an unlawful act or a lawful act by unlawful means. United States v. Toler, 144 F.3d 1423, 1426 (11th Cir.1998). Because the crime of conspiracy is `predominantly mental in composition,' it is frequently necessary to resort to circumstantial evidence to prove its elements. Id. (quoting United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10, 16, 115 S.Ct. 382, 130 L.Ed.2d 225 (1994)). The government is therefore not required to demonstrate the existence of a formal agreement, but may instead demonstrate by circumstantial evidence a meeting of the minds to commit an unlawful act. Id. Proof that the accused committed an act which furthered the purpose of the conspiracy is an example of the type of circumstantial evidence the government may introduce to prove the existence of agreement. United States v. Sullivan, 763 F.2d 1215, 1218-19 (11th Cir.1985). 36 Hernandez argues that the government presented no evidence that Hernandez agreed to participate in the crimes of air piracy and interference with a flight crew member because there was no evidence that the crimes were pre-planned. We conclude, however, that the jury reasonably could have inferred from the rapid execution of the hijacking, with each defendant springing into action upon a signal from Norneilla-Morales, that the crime had been pre-planned and that each defendant had agreed to participate by accepting those instructions. The government presented substantial evidence demonstrating Hernandez's role in the conspiracy as a person responsible for controlling the crew in the passenger cabin of the aircraft. The flight steward Garcia testified that Hernandez restrained him and remained at the rear of the cabin, guarding the crew. 37 Hernandez also argues that there was no evidence he agreed to a conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy because he restrained only a flight steward, thus his restraint did not contribute to the seizure and control of the aircraft. However, even if it were not true that Garcia was responsible, in part, for maintaining security in the passenger cabin of the aircraft, Garcia also testified that Hernandez restrained and guarded the flight security guard, the flight technician, and the flight engineer. All of the gentlemen restrained by Hernandez held responsibilities pertaining to the security and physical integrity of the aircraft and were prevented from performing those duties by physical restraint, thus enabling Hernandez's co-conspirators to control the aircraft. 38 From Hernandez's actions, the jury reasonably could have inferred that Hernandez had agreed to participate in conspiracies to commit the crimes of aircraft piracy and interference with a flight crew member. Accordingly, the court did not err in denying Hernandez's Rule 29 motion for a judgment of acquittal.
39 Hernandez argues that the court erred by admitting in evidence a foreign records certification and report from Cubana Airlines showing that five of the defendants previously had been passengers on the Nueva Gerona/Havana flight, and in particular, that Hernandez and Norneilla-Morales had traveled on the flight a month prior to the hijacking. The exhibit is a typed document in Spanish entitled CER-TIFICO. The document lists the flights the Defendants had taken on Cubana Airlines in 2002 and 2003. It was authenticated at trial by means of an accompanying document entitled CERTIFICACION DE REGISTROS COMERCIALES EXTRANJEROS, or CERTIFICATION OF FOREIGN COMMERCIAL REGISTRIES. The authenticating document was also typewritten, however blanks were filled in by hand by Ana Isis Toboso Moreno, the Revenues Department Head of Cubana Airlines. Ms. Moreno's foreign records certification, pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 902(12), stated that the attached documents were prepared on or about the day that the event transpired, by persons with knowledge and in the ordinary course of business. Ms. Moreno, in certifying it as a business record, stated that Cubana Airlines maintained handwritten records, stored in folders, documenting the passengers on all of its flights. 40 Hernandez argues that the exhibit did not qualify as a summary of Cuban airlines records because the government did not produce the underlying originals or copies of the documents as demanded, and that it was inadmissible because the report had been generated at the request of the government for trial. The government argues that the district court properly admitted the document as a business record in the form of a report or data compilation by Cubana Airlines pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 803(6), not as a summary exhibit of other trial exhibits pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 1006. 41 The relevant rule, 803(6), provides that the following evidence is not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness: 42 A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, or by certification that complies with Rule 902(11), Rule 902(12), or a statute permitting certification, unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. The term business as used in this paragraph includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation, and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit. 43 Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). We have held that [t]he touchstone of admissibility under [Rule 803(6)] is reliability, and a trial judge has broad discretion to determine the admissibility of such evidence .... United States v. Bueno-Sierra, 99 F.3d 375, 378-79 (11th Cir.1996). 44 In this case, the district court found that the exhibit in question was a report or data compilation created by Cubana Airlines from the company's own records documenting its passengers, and thus was admissible as a business record. Hernandez argues that because the exhibit in question was prepared for purposes of litigation, it should have been ruled inadmissible. We agree. 45 Rule 803(6) requires that both the underlying records and the report summarizing those records be prepared and maintained for business purposes in the ordinary course of business and not for purposes of litigation. See United States v. Kim, 595 F.2d 755, 760-64 (D.C.Cir. 1979) (holding inadmissible a summary of bank records even assuming the underlying records would be admissible). The government argues that the summary should be admissible because the records regarding the passengers were maintained in the ordinary course of business, citing United States v. Fujii, 301 F.3d 535, 539 (7th Cir.2002) in support. In Fujii, the Seventh Circuit upheld the admission, under Rule 803(6), of Korean Airlines check-in and reservation records and flight manifests printed at the request of the government for use in an alien smuggling trial because such records were compiled in the airlines' ordinary course of business. Those records are distinguishable from the present records, however, because the records in Fujii were electronically stored information and the summary was simply a printout of that information. 46 Here, rather than a simple printout of regularly kept, computerized records, the Government sought to have admitted a typed summary of handwritten business records. This printed summary was prepared solely for trial. Rule 803(6) does not allow for the admission of such a summary. See Kim, 595 F.2d at 760-64. The Federal Rules do provide in Rule 1006 for the admission of a summary of voluminous business records, but only if certain requirements are met. Among these requirements is that other parties to the case must be provided the original records upon which the summary is based—or duplicates of those originals—prior to the admission of the summary. In this case, the government did not provide the defendants with the original handwritten records of the passenger manifests, or any duplicates of those originals, before seeking admission of the summary. We therefore conclude that it was error for the district court to admit this document at trial. 47 Nevertheless, Hernandez has failed to show substantial prejudice because there was sufficient evidence of his guilt even absent the document in question. The conduct of the Defendants aboard the airplane, testified to by multiple witnesses at trial, was sufficient to support a conspiracy even without the erroneously admitted CERTIFICO.
48 Hernandez argues that the district court committed Bruton error when it denied Hernandez's motions for mistrial and severance after Agent Heck testified that Norneilla-Morales had told her that he had planned to overtake an aircraft by force for over a year and that he had recruited the other five. The district court denied Hernandez's motion for severance on the basis that because Norneilla-Morales was testifying at trial and would be subject to cross-examination, Hernandez's Sixth Amendment rights were not implicated by the admission of Agent Heck's testimony. 49 In Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), the Supreme Court held that the admission of a powerfully incriminating extrajudicial statement of a co-defendant violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment right of confrontation even when the court instructs the jury to consider the confession only against the co-defendant. Id. at 135-36, 88 S.Ct. 1620. A statement is powerfully incriminating if it expressly implicates the defendant. Id. 50 However, the Court clarified the Bruton rule in Nelson v. O'Neil, 402 U.S. 622, 91 S.Ct. 1723, 29 L.Ed.2d 222 (1971), when it held that there is no Confrontation Clause problem when the confessing co-defendant is subject to cross-examination at trial. Id. at 627, 91 S.Ct. 1723 (The Constitution as construed in Bruton, in other words, is violated only where the out-of-court hearsay statement is that of a declarant who is unavailable at the trial for `full and effective' cross-examination.); see also United States v. Clemons, 32 F.3d 1504 (11th Cir.1994) (holding that because one defendant waived his Fifth Amendment right and testified, thus making him available for cross-examination, the court did not err in admitting his post-arrest statement implicating his co-defendant). 51 In this case, Norneilla-Morales testified at trial and was available for cross-examination, thus Hernandez's Sixth Amendment rights were not violated and his motion for severance was properly denied. 8
52 Hernandez next argues that the district court erred in denying his request for a jury instruction that interfering with a flight crew and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew were lesser included offenses of the conspiracy and substantive aircraft piracy charges. Hernandez does not dispute that the superseding indictment charged the lesser included offenses as Counts III and IV. Instead, he argues that the court's failure to instruct specifically that Counts III and IV were lesser included offenses of Counts I and II deprived him of his right to argue his theory of the defense. He also argues that the court erred by refusing to instruct the jury that carrying a dangerous weapon on board an aircraft, in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 46505, and battery, in violation of Fla. Stat. § 784.03 pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 13, were lesser included offenses. 53 The district court's refusal to give a defendant's requested jury instruction is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Schlei, 122 F.3d 944, 969 (11th Cir.1997). To prove reversible error, a defendant must show that the instruction: (1) was a correct statement of the law; (2) was not adequately covered in the instructions given to the jury; (3) concerned an issue so substantive that its omission impaired the accused's ability to present a defense; and (4) dealt with an issue properly before the jury. United States v. Lyons, 53 F.3d 1198, 1200 (11th Cir.1995). 54 We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to specifically state that the interference with a flight crew charges were lesser included offenses. The court instructed the jury that a separate offense was charged against one or more of the defendants in each count of the indictment, that each charge and the evidence pertaining to it should be considered separately, that the case of each defendant should be considered separately and individually, and that they had to determine from the evidence in the case whether each individual defendant was guilty or not guilty of each of the individual charges set forth in the indictment. The jury clearly understood this instruction, as several of the defendants were found guilty of some but not all of the four charges, while others were found guilty of all four charges. We conclude that the jury did not need a redundant instruction that there were offenses other than aircraft piracy that they could consider in evaluating Hernandez's guilt. Hernandez's requested instruction was covered by the court's instruction that Hernandez could be found guilty of some charges in the indictment and not others. Accordingly, his request was properly denied. 55 Hernandez next argues that the district court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that carrying a dangerous weapon on board an aircraft and battery were lesser included offenses. In order for an offense to be a lesser-included offense of a parent offense, its elements must be contained within the elements of the parent offense. See Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 716, 109 S.Ct. 1443, 103 L.Ed.2d 734 (1989); United States v. Stone, 139 F.3d 822, 839 n. 15 (11th Cir. 1998). 56 The elements of carrying a dangerous weapon on board an aircraft, under § 46505, are that the defendant: (1) boarded an aircraft involved in air transportation; (2) knowingly had on or about his person a concealed dangerous weapon which would be accessible to him in flight, or placed a loaded firearm on the aircraft in property not accessible during flight, or placed a bomb or incendiary device on the aircraft; and (3) acted willfully and with reckless disregard for the safety of human life. See Eleventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instruction 104, at 505 (2003). Section 46505 involves elements not included within the offenses charged in the indictment, thus it was not an abuse of discretion to decline to instruct the jury as to this offense. Similarly, the elements of battery are not included within the charged offenses. Accordingly, the district court did not commit reversible error in declining to give Hernandez's desired instruction.
57 Hernandez argues that even if each of the district court's asserted errors, standing alone, are insufficient to merit reversal, we should evaluate the cumulative effect of the asserted errors to find prejudice requiring reversal. See, e.g., United States v. Preciado-Cordobas, 981 F.2d 1206, 1215 n. 8 (11th Cir.1993). Because we conclude that the district court did not commit prejudicial error, whether standing alone or taken cumulatively, we affirm Hernandez's conviction.
58 Hernandez received the statutory minimum sentence of 20 years, but challenges his sentence on the basis that 20 years constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. 59 Because this is a non-capital case involving a statutory minimum, the Eighth Amendment encompasses, at most, only a narrow proportionality principle. United States v. Raad, 406 F.3d 1322, 1323 (11th Cir.2005). We must make a threshold determination that a sentence imposed is grossly disproportionate to the offense committed and, if it is grossly disproportionate, we must then consider the sentences imposed on others convicted in the same jurisdiction and the sentences imposed for the commission of the same crime in other jurisdictions. Brant, 62 F.3d at 368. Furthermore, a sentence which is not otherwise cruel and unusual does not become so simply because it is mandatory. Id. (citing Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 995, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991)). 60 We conclude that the 240-month, or 20 year, statutory minimum sentence is not grossly disproportionate to the offense of conviction. The hijacking of a passenger aircraft is an extraordinarily dangerous undertaking, putting at risk the lives of all passengers and, as we know too well after the events of September 11, 2001, potentially the lives of many others as well. Congress assigned a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years for air piracy cases when it enacted 49 U.S.C. § 46502(a)(2)(A) and (B), except in those instances in which death of another individual results, in which case the defendant shall either receive a sentence of life imprisonment or death. We are required to grant substantial deference to the broad authority that legislatures necessarily possess in determining the types and limits of punishments for crimes, as well as to the discretion that trial courts possess in sentencing convicted criminals. Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 290, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983); see also Raad, 406 F.3d at 1323. Furthermore, the fact that Hernandez claims, in his defense, that he was fleeing a repressive Cuban government is not a consideration in the proportionality inquiry. Cf. United States v. Rojas, 47 F.3d 1078, 1082 (11th Cir.1995) (holding that downward departure was not warranted under guidelines applicable when defendant commits a crime in order to avoid perceived greater harm where defendant professed the belief that his criminal action is furthering a greater political good in Cuba). Accordingly, we find that the statutory minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment was not cruel or unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment. 9