Court Opinion

ID: 9497081
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:42:51.834925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:59.450748
License: Public Domain

JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Edward Montalvo reported to New York City police officers that Carlos Lopez, a previously convicted felon, had threatened him with a gun, conduct that violated state and federal law. When Montalvo learned *93that the local prosecutor would not bring gun charges against Lopez, but only less serious charges, he told the prosecutor that Lopez would get out and Mil him (Montalvo). Lopez Miew that Montalvo was informing on him. Montalvo was so concerned for his safety that he obtained a temporary protective order. Eleven days after learning that serious charges would not be brought against Lopez by local authorities, Montalvo was murdered by Lopez.
I respectfully dissent from the Court’s ruling that the evidence was insufficient to permit a reasonable jury to convict Lopez of Mlling Montalvo to prevent him from communicating about a federal offense to a federal officer. Once he learned that local authorities would not put Lopez away for a long time, Montalvo could reasonably be expected to report Lopez’s criminal conduct to federal authorities. A jury could conclude that it was likely this would have happened had Lopez not murdered Mon-talvo. In any event, a jury could conclude that communication with a federal official might have happened, which is all that is required to establish the federal jurisdictional element of the offense of obstruction-of-justice murder, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(C) (2000).
Section 1512(a)(1)(C) punishes anyone who Mils another person with intent to prevent communication to a federal law enforcement official concerning a federal offense. However, Congress explicitly provided that in a prosecution for obstruction-of-justice murder “no state of mind need be proved with respect to the circumstance ... that the law enforcement officer is an officer or employee of the Federal Government .... ” Id. § 1512(g)(2); see United States v. Diaz, 176 F.3d 52, 91 (2d Cir.1999) (“[T]he government is not obligated to prove that the defendant knew or intended anything with respect to this federal involvement.”) (internal quotation marks omitted). The Government must prove that the murder was committed with intent to prevent a communication about a federal offense to a law enforcement officer, and the officer who would have received the communication had the murder not occurred must be a federal officer, but the defendant need not know that the officer would be a federal officer. If in fact the defendant had in mind preventing the victim from communicating with a federal official, the crime is established even in the absence of evidence that the victim might actually have reported the defendant to a federal official. But in the more typical case, the evidence will show only that the defendant murdered the victim with intent to prevent communication with some law enforcement official, and the federal identity of that official, which the statute specifies is not part of the mens rea of the offense, can be shown by evidence of some plausible likelihood that the official would have been federal.
In the pending appeal, there is no dispute that Lopez, the defendant, had committed a federal offense — being a felon in possession of a gun. There is also no dispute that Montalvo, the victim, intended to and did report Lopez’s gun possession to law enforcement officials. There is also no dispute that Lopez was aware that Montalvo was informing on him. The only disputed issue in the pending appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find that an officer who would have received Montalvo’s communication had he not been murdered would have been a federal officer.
The appeal thus concerns the sufficiency of the evidence as to a federal jurisdictional element. We have regularly required only the barest evidence to meet the federal jurisdictional requirement of a criminal statute. “[I]f the defendants’ conduct pro*94duces any interference with or effect upon interstate commerce, whether slight, subtle or even potential, it is sufficient to uphold prosecution under the Hobbs Act.” United States v. Perrotta, 313 F.3d 33, 36 (2d Cir.2002) (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted). “Our precedent requires the government make only a de minimis showing to establish the necessary nexus for Hobbs Act jurisdiction.” United States v. Fabian, 312 F.3d 550, 554 (2d Cir.2002). There is no reason to be more rigorous as to the federal element for obstruction-of-justice murder than for a Hobbs Act violation. If anything, the test for the federal element as to obstruction-of-justice murder should be less rigorous. The Government’s interest in making sure that those who intend to report federal offenses to a federal officer are not murdered is far more substantial than its interest in preventing robbery, extortion, or threat of violence that merely “affects” commerce, which is the offense under the Hobbs Act. See 18 U.S.C. § 1951.
There is an additional reason why the test for the federal element in a case of this sort should not be rigorous. The offense of murder to obstruct justice is an unusual criminal statute in that its mens rea element concerns the defendant’s intent with respect to future conduct — a communication between the victim and a law enforcement officer (whose federal identity the defendant need not know) that the victim’s murder prevented. Unlike the elements of typical criminal statutes that concern past conduct, the federal element of this statute concerns a prediction about the future. Such a statute requires consideration of the degree of likelihood required that the communication with a federal officer would have occurred, but for the murder.
Our Court has stated that the future contact between the victim and federal authorities, prevented by the defendant’s conduct (here, murder) need only be an event that “might” occur. “Any knowing interference with a potential communication between an individual who might become a witness and federal law enforcement officials falls within the ambit of Section 1512.” United States v. Romero, 54 F.3d 56, 62 (2d Cir.1995) (emphasis added). Romero cited with approval the Eighth Circuit’s nearly identical formulation: “ ‘[I]t is only necessary for a defendant to have believed that a witness might give information to federal officials Id. (quoting United States v. Leisure, 844 F.2d 1347, 1364 (8th Cir.1988)) (emphasis added). The Third and Seventh Circuits have used the same formulation: “[T]he defendant believed that the person ... might communicate with the federal authorities.” United States v. Stansfield, 101 F.3d 909, 918 (3d Cir.1996) (first emphasis added); United States v. Edwards, 36 F.3d 639, 645 (7th Cir.1994) (“[T]he defendant believed that a person might furnish information to federal officials”) (second emphasis added). In this case, the trial judge correctly charged the jury using the “might” standard: “Fourth, that the defendant believed that the victim might communicate with the federal authorities.”
The Court’s opinion asserts that Romero is “of limited guidance” because the evidence in that case strongly showed the defendant’s suspicion of the victim’s cooperation with federal officials, [p. 90] I see no reason to think that the Romero panel’s statement of the governing standard, explicitly phrased and supported by substantial authority, is “of limited guidance” just because the evidence to meet that standard was substantial. In the pending case, the Court’s opinion prefers the language from United States v. Diaz, 176 F.3d 52 (2d Cir.1999), which quoted the Third Circuit’s opinion in United States v. Bell, 113 *95F.3d 1345, 1349 (3d Cir.1997), to the effect that where the Government relies primarily on evidence that .the conduct to be discussed by the victim constitutes a federal offense, the Government must introduce “additional appropriate evidence.” Diaz, 176 F.3d at 91 (internal quotation marks omitted).
However, Diaz does not purport to recede from the “might” language of Romero. Indeed, Diaz cites Romero with approval and points out that the obstruction statute reaches prevention of communications by “potential informants.” Id. at 90. In Diaz, as in the pending case, there was no specific evidence that the informant had communicated with or would communicate with federal officers. Both cases involve the possibility of such a communication.
In fact, the possibility of a communication with a federal official was less likely for the victim in Diaz than for Montalvo. In Diaz, the victim had never communicated with any law enforcement officials. The possibility that he would contact a federal official rested on the double contingency that he might contact local police, as the defendant feared, see Diaz, 176 F.3d at 91, and that in the course of some possible future communications with local officials, the informant might communicate with any of the federal officials who were working with local police, see id. In the pending case, Montalvo had already contacted local police concerning Lopez’s conduct, which violated federal law, and the rejection of significant prosecution by local authorities upon Montalvo’s complaint that Lopez would kill him made his turning to federal officials a highly likely prospect, had he not been murdered eleven days later.
Of course, the statute requires something more than the theoretical possibility that the victim would have communicated with a federal official. When a person knows of conduct that constitutes a federal crime, the possibility, in that sense, always exists that he will tell some federal official. If that sort of possibility sufficed, the statute would be violated by anyone murdering • a person who knew about a federal crime. The statute must be understood to mean that the possibility of a communication with a federal official has some plausibility.- The evidence must provide the jury with some reason to believe that there was a realistic likelihood that the victim would ■have communicated with a federal official.
The Court asserts that “[a]ll the government proved was that conduct punishable under both state and federal law was involved and that Montalvo was willing to communicate with local authorities.” [p. 92] That assertion ignores the following additional facts:
— Montalvo had already communicated with local authorities on several occasions concerning Lopez’s criminal conduct;
— Montalvo knew that the local prosecutor had declined to prosecute Lopez on serious gun charges and instead filed only less serious charges, such as attempted criminal mischief;
— Montalvo unsuccessfully urged the prosecutor to file serious gun charges against Lopez, telling the prosecutor that if Lopez faced only minor charges, “they’re going to get out and they’ll kill me.”
— Montalvo was so fearful of Lopez that he obtained a temporary protective order.
— Lopez knew that Montalvo was reporting him to local police. As he told a confederate, “whenever [Montalvo] sees me, he calls the cops. He ... is going to testify against me.”
— Lopez told the confederate that he (Lopez) had to “get rid of’ Montalvo.
Where, as here, there is evidence that the victim feared the defendant would kill *96him, sought a protective order, urged a local prosecutor to bring serious charges against the defendant to prevent the defendant’s early release, and was understandably alarmed when his plea for local prosecution on serious charges was rejected, it is entirely reasonable to conclude that he would then have turned to federal authorities and reported the defendant’s federal criminal conduct.
The Court’s attempt to argue the insufficiency of the evidence in this case by comparing it to other cases in which there was evidence of federal involvement [p. 91-92] is surprising in view of the Court’s prior acknowledgment that the statute requires no evidence that a federal investigation must be underway [p. 90]. The issue is not whether the federal government was investigating the defendant. The issue is whether a jury could reasonably conclude that the victim, had he not been murdered, might have communicated with a federal officer. The existence of a federal investigation, if unknown to the victim, does not prove that the victim would have contacted a federal officer, and the absence of such an investigation does not indicate that he would not have contacted a federal officer, especially if, as in the pending case, the victim had a compelling reason to do so.
The Court’s invocation of Stansfield is especially perplexing. The victim there has been in touch only with state and county officers, and, although a federal postal inspector has begun an investigation of the defendant’s crime, there was no evidence that the victim knew of the inspector’s involvement or had any reason to contact any federal officer. The evidence of obstruction-of-justice murder was deemed sufficient simply because of the possibility that the victim might have communicated with a federal officer. Stansfield, 101 F.3d at 919.
I have not been reluctant to uphold a claim that evidence is insufficient to support a conviction. See United States v. Martinez, 44 F.3d 148 (2d Cir.), vacated, 54 F.3d 1040 (2d Cir.1995); id., 54 F.3d at 1049 (Newman, C.J., dissenting); see also Jon O. Newman, Beyond “Reasonable Doubt”, 68 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 979 (1993) (Madison Lecture). In this case, however, the evidence fully supports the jurisdictional element of possible communication by the victim with a federal officer, an element that inevitably involves a speculative prediction as to what might have happened in the future had the defendant not murdered the victim.
I respectfully dissent.