UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard Ray ASHLEY, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 06-2258.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
April 18, 2008.
524 F.3d 693
For the reasоns stated above, Mr. Benoit‘s request for a COA is DENIED, his appeal is DISMISSED, and his counsel‘s motion to withdraw is GRANTED.
David C. Iglesias, Office of the United States Attorney, Albuquerque, NM, Terri J. Abernathy, Office of the United States Attorney District, Las Cruces, NM, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
James W. Klipstine, Jr., Klipstine, Bowlin & Honigmann, Hobbs, NM, for Defendant-Appellant.
Before HENRY, Chief Judge, McWILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge, and HOLMES, Circuit Judge.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
JEROME A. HOLMES, Circuit Judge.
Defendant-Appellant Richard Ashley was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of
* This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with
I. BACKGROUND
We report the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. Mr. Ashley was indicted by a grand jury on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charge arose from a trip Mr. Ashley took to Pancho Villa State Park near Columbus, New Mexico, during which Mr. Ashley showed his .22 pistol to a park ranger, Ranger Martinez, and a park volunteer. Also during that trip, a paid informant saw Mr. Ashley wearing a fanny pack that appeared to contain a pistol. The informant, who had gone to the park looking for Mr. Ashley because he had received information about him, told an Immigratiоn and Customs Enforcement agent, Agent Spiess, that he had seen Mr. Ashley and believed he was carrying a firearm. Agent Spiess then went to Mr. Ashley‘s campsite, where he searched Mr. Ashley‘s possessions and found an unloaded .22 pistol in a dry storage box. Mr. Ashley told Agent Spiess that his son had left the pistol in the camping gear.1
Mr. Ashley was tried on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The government‘s main witness was Agent Spiess, who testified about the circumstances under which he found the pistol. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared.
Mr. Ashley was retried on the charge. Six days before trial, the government pro
Mr. Ashley objected to the government‘s use of these witnesses. Principally, he argued that the government fаiled to disclose the witnesses in a timely manner, thus preventing Mr. Ashley from effectively preparing to explore credibility issues raised by the government‘s decision not to call the witnesses in the initial trial. Mr. Ashley sought a dismissal of the indictment. In the event the court was opposed to such relief, Mr. Ashley alternatively argued that the court should permit him to cross-examine the witnesses regarding their absence at the initial trial. At no point did Mr. Ashley seek a continuance to address his concerns related to the government‘s allegedly untimely witness disclosure.
The district court expressed its inclination to deny the motion to dismiss and ultimately did so. It permitted the government to call the witnesses and allowed the defense to cross-examine them regarding their absence at the initial trial, so long as the defense did not mention, or seek to elicit testimony concerning, the outcome of the initial trial.
The jury returned a guilty verdict, and Mr. Ashley was sentenced to 51 months’ incarceration. The applicable United States Sentencing Guidelines Range was 51 to 63 months. Mr. Ashley timely appealed from the district court‘s judgment and sentence.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Disclosure of Witnesses
Mr. Ashley claims that the failure to timely disclose the identity of the three witnesses before the retrial violated his due process rights. In a motion to dismiss raised before the district court and in his briefing before this court, he has framed the issue as the suppression of material, exculpatory evidence, arguing that the government violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963), and Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154-55 (1972).
“We review questions regarding the disclosure of exculpatory оr impeachment evidence de novo.” United States v. Gonzalez-Montoya, 161 F.3d 643, 649 (10th Cir. 1998). To establish a Brady violation, Mr. Ashley must demonstrate that (1) the prosecution suppressed evidence; (2) the evidence was favorable to the defendant; and (3) the evidence was material. Id.; see also United States v. Wright, 506 F.3d 1293, 1301 (10th Cir. 2007). After thorough review of the record, we reject Mr. Ashley‘s disclosure challenge.
As the government correctly noted, his challenge fails at the “most fundamental level,” Aplee. Br. at 11—the identification of evidence favorable to the defense. Mr. Ashley has not advanсed a persuasive theory that would permit us to characterize information related to the three witnesses as exculpatory. The witnesses possessed testimony that was incriminating to Mr. Ashley, not exculpatory. Indeed, Mr. Ashley candidly acknowledged as much: “It is not Mr. Ashley‘s complaint that the evidence provided by these witnesses was in itself favorable to his defense. It clearly was not.” Aplt. Op. Br. at 18.
Mr. Ashley‘s idea appears to be that the fact that witnesses the government put forward as having rеlevant testimony for the retrial were not called to testify in the initial trial implicates Brady because it raises the possibility of recent fabrication or otherwise calls the witnesses’ credibility
However, logically, there is nothing inherently exculpatory about the fact that the government did not call the witnesses in the initial trial, but elected to do so in the retrial. Cf. United States v. Watts, 95 F.3d 617 (7th Cir. 1996) (declining to infer from the prosecution‘s decision not to call a witness to testify that “his testimony would have been adverse to the prosecution“).2 In particular, this sequence of events does not naturally suggest that the information the witnesses had to offer “changed” between the two trials.
Indеed, as the government noted, the answer could easily lie in the fact that a different prosecutor handled the retrial and exercised independent forensic judgment in selecting witnesses. See Aplee. Br. at 12 n. 8 (“The change in prosecutors is reflected in the differing presentations of the evidence.“); Aplee. Supp. App., Vol. I, at 156 (“The fact that the United States did not call them is indicative, simply, of the fact that the previous prosecutor on this case must have believed there wаs sufficient evidence on [sic] the witnesses that were called.“). We are hard-pressed, moreover, to see how the credibility of the witnesses could be called into question by the fact that another person—the government—changed its mind and decided to avail itself of their testimony in the retrial. The witnesses would not have had any role in this government decision, and Mr. Ashley makes no assertions to the contrary. Consequently, we are puzzled as to how the fact of their appearance as witnesses could сast any doubt on their veracity.
“[O]n this record we are left only with speculation and conjecture,” United States v. Nevels, 490 F.3d 800, 804 (10th Cir. 2007), concerning the alleged exculpatory nature of the evidence. That is not enough. See United States v. Williams-Davis, 90 F.3d 490, 514 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (joining the Third and Ninth Circuits in declining to infer the existence of Brady material based upon speculation alone, and therefore rejecting defendant‘s Brady claim because “[e]xcept for bare speculation, [defendant] has nothing to suggest the existence of favorable materials“); United States v. Santiago, 993 F.2d 504, 506 (5th Cir. 1993) (holding that defendant “failed to demonstrate a Brady violation” in part
beсause he “ha[d] not established the exculpatory nature of the allegedly suppressed evidence—his allegations are mere speculation and conjecture“), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Calverley, 37 F.3d 160, 164 & n. 27 (5th Cir. 1994) (en banc), abrogated on other grounds by Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 467 (1997).
Mr. Ashley has suggested that his real concern was the timing of the disclosure—which allegedly prevented him from effectively responding to the new witnesses and their testimony. For example, when asked by the district court “[w]hat ... about [the character of] that testimony” he thought was “exculpatory,” Mr. Ashley responded:
Judge, I supposе it is ... the fact that the Government had this evidence available at a previous trial and did not call these witnesses—it‘s the issue of ... the fact that the defendant has not had an opportunity to appropriately and completely evaluate why the Government would not call these witnesses at a prior trial in that regard....
Basically, ... it‘s our position that we should have been able to explore the possibility of the issue of recent fabrication. And the fact that we were not able tо know of this information until less than a week before trial put Mr. Ashley in a position where he was not able to
adequately prepare his defense and was, as a result of that, denied the due process of law that he is entitled to receive.
Aplee. Supp. App., Vol. I, at 153-54 (emphasis added); see Aplt. Op. Br. at 13 (contending that Mr. Ashley was “denied the opportunity to effectively impeach critical government witnesses by the late disclosure of the nature of their testimony“).3
However, Mr. Ashley‘s “рlea for earlier disclosure fails for one very simple reason: no rule of law requires it.” Watts, 95 F.3d at 619. “There is no general constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case” and Brady “did not create one.” Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 559 (1977). In particular, the Due Process Clause does not require the government to disclose before trial the names of its witnesses, just so the defense can have sufficient time to investigate their backgrounds for impeachment information. Id. (rejecting the notion that the Due Process Clause required the government to disclose thе name of an adverse witness so the defense can “do a background check” on him “for purposes of cross-examination“); see Nevels, 490 F.3d at 803 (“The Supreme Court has established that no constitutional right to pretrial discovery of witnesses exists in non-capital cases.“).
Lastly, even if Mr. Ashley had some legal basis to object to the government‘s allegedly untimely disclosure of the three
As to the three witnesses, Mr. Ashley has failed to indicate “how he might have better cross-examined them or what he could have done differently at trial if he had” known the witnesses’ identities “for a longer period of time before trial.” United States v. Cleaver, 163 Fed. Appx. 622, 627 (10th Cir. 2005) (unpublished), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1103 (2006). Although the government was not obliged to do so under any discovery rule (see, e.g.,
Therefore, for the foregoing reasons, we reject Mr. Ashley‘s constitutional challenge under Brady and Giglio to the propriety of the government‘s disclosure of witnesses.
B. Limitation on Cross-Examination
Mr. Ashley argues that the district court impermissibly limited the scope of the cross-examination of Ranger Martinez, the park volunteer, and the paid informant. Specifically, Mr. Ashley contends that he was not allowed to cross-examine
Initially, to the extent that Mr. Ashley argues that he should have been able to ask questions regarding the outcome of the previous trial, he has waived that argument. In addressing the issue before thе district court, Mr. Ashley agreed with the district court that the outcome of the previous trial should not be discussed, stating, “And I agree, I don‘t think that it‘s appropriate, nor will we suggest how that other trial ended.” Aplee. Supp. App., Vol. I, at 22.
This is not a situation where a challenge is forfeited because it was not timely preserved. See United States v. Teague, 443 F.3d 1310, 1314 (10th Cir. 2006). Rather, this is a case where there was an “intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right,” which amounts to a waiver. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 733 (1993) (citation omitted). Although Mr. Ashley argues that his statement befоre the district court merely expressed his understanding of the district court‘s decision, Oral Arg. at 9:08-9:50, a careful reading of the record contradicts that view. The district court had not made its decision concerning the permissible scope of cross-examination and was specifically inquiring as to whether Mr. Ashley would find acceptable a procedure in which he could cross-examine about the prior trial, but not mention, or ask about, the trial‘s outcome. Mr. Ashley orally assented to that prоcedure.4 We conclude that Mr. Ashley‘s response waives the issue of asking about the outcome, and we will not review his challenge on appeal.
Insofar as Mr. Ashley objects to a purported broader cross-examination restriction by the district court—essentially one relating to the fact of a prior trial and the circumstances surrounding the government‘s failure to call the three witnesses at that trial, we conclude that Mr. Ashley‘s challenge is misguided and reject it. Specifically, the challenge has no foundation in the record. The district court imposed no restriction relating to such cross-examination. Indeed, it specifically noted that Mr. Ashley could inquire into such matters, and Mr. Ashley orally acknowledged the advisement. Importantly, Mr. Ashley actually did cross-examine two of the three witnesses on the topics. See Aplee. Supp. App., Vol. I, at 40-41, 149. Based on our review of the record, then, we reject Mr. Ashley‘s claim that cross-examination was impermissibly limited.
C. Reasonableness of Sentence
Finally, Mr. Ashley argues that his sentence is disproportionate to the crime of possessing a firearm because it was inadvertent possession on a camping trip and not the kind of violent use that Congress sought to punish.
We review a sentence‘s length for substantive reasonableness. See United States v. Hamilton, 510 F.3d 1209, 1217-18 (10th Cir. 2007) (“In evaluating the substantive reasonableness of a sentence, we ask whether the length of the sentence is reasonable considering the statutory factors delineated in
Mr. Ashley argues that the firearm was found with camping supplies when he was on a camping trip and that type of inadvertent possession does not justify the sentence imposed. More specifically, Mr. Ashley contends that his offense conduct is “vаstly different from the type of conduct contemplated by Congress in enacting legislation to prevent violent acts by felons owning handguns.” Aplt. Op. Br. at 22. The district court also received numerous letters from Mr. Ashley‘s family and friends describing his many positive characteristics. Although these facts might have led a district court to consider granting a variance, a district court is not required to reduce a sentence simply because it could have justified such a reduction. United States v. Mares, 441 F.3d 1152, 1161 (10th Cir. 2006), cert. denied, 550 U.S. 964 (2007).
There are a number of facts that suрport the reasonableness of Mr. Ashley‘s sentence under
III. CONCLUSION
We conclude thаt the district court did not err in rejecting Mr. Ashley‘s Brady challenge to the government‘s disclosure of three new witnesses for his retrial and in imposing limitations on the scope of cross-examination of those witnesses. Furthermore, we conclude that Mr. Ashley‘s sentence is substantively reasonable. Accordingly, the district court‘s judgment and sentence is
AFFIRMED.
