United States v. SteinUnited States v. Stein
Defendants-Appellants Patrick Stein, Curtis Allen, and Gavin Wright appeal from their convictions for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against people and property within the United States in violation of
In October 2016, defendants were arrested in connection with a scheme to bomb an apartment complex and mosque in Garden City, Kansas. The arrests were the result of an extended FBI investigation involving an undercover informant, Dan Day, who joined defendants’ militia, Kansas Security Force (KSF), to monitor what the FBI considered a threat to public safety.
In June 2016, defendants began planning an attack on local Muslims in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, which was carried out by an American citizen of Afghan descent. At the FBI‘s request, Mr. Day recorded defendants’ meetings and telephone communications discussing the details of the attack, including possible targets and methods of attack. Over the course of several meetings, defendants decided to target the West Mary Street apartment and mosque complex, where defendants believed a large number of Somali immigrants resided. Defendants pursued various strategies for obtaining explosives to carry out the attacks, including manufacturing their own explosives and meeting with an FBI undercover employee (“UCE“) posing as an arms dealer.
Mr. Allen was arrested first, after his girlfriend filed a domestic violence report against him and told police she had seen Mr. Allen and Mr. Wright manufacturing explosives at Mr. Wright‘s business. Two days later, Mr. Stein was arrested when he attempted to deliver cash and 300 pounds of fertilizer to the UCE in exchange for the UCE‘s help constructing an explosive. Mr. Wright was arrested later that day. While executing search warrants on defendants’ property, the FBI
Defendants were charged with two separate conspiracies: (1) conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against people and property within the United States in violation of
Prior to jury selection, defendants challenged the jury selection plan under the Jury Selection and Service Act (“Jury Act“). Under the challenged plan,1 grand jurors were drawn from each of the District of Kansas‘s six judicial divisions, while petit jurors were drawn only from the three divisions with an active federal courthouse. These three divisions do not include the Dodge City division where most of defendants’ conduct took place. The district court rejected the challenge on the merits. At defendants’ request, the district court also held a pre-trial hearing to determine whether the recordings of defendants’ meetings and phone calls were
The case proceeded to a jury trial. The government called 15 witnesses, including undercover informant Dan Day, and introduced more than 500 exhibits, hundreds of which were audio or video recordings. Defendants called 10 witnesses and introduced nearly 40 exhibits but did not testify themselves. At the close of evidence, defendants requested that the district court instruct the jury on an entrapment defense. The district court found that defendants had failed to establish an evidentiary basis for entrapment and declined to offer the instruction.
The defendants were convicted on all counts. At sentencing, the district court applied the terrorism enhancement over defendants’ objections and varied downward from defendants’ guidelines range of life imprisonment, sentencing Mr. Allen to 300 months’ imprisonment, Mr. Wright to 312 months’ imprisonment, and Mr. Stein to 360 months’ imprisonment.
Discussion
All three defendants challenge their convictions and sentences on three grounds: (1) the method of petit jury selection violated the Jury Act, (2) the district court improperly refused to instruct the jury on entrapment, and (3) the district court erred in applying the terrorism enhancement at sentencing. Mr. Wright also raises several additional challenges in which his co-defendants do not join.
Prior to trial, defendants challenged the district court‘s jury selection plan, in which the petit jury pool was drawn only from the Wichita/Hutchinson division, where the courthouse is located, and not from the Dodge City division. The district court rejected the challenge on the merits. On appeal, defendants argue that the exclusion of jurors from the Dodge City division violated the Jury Act‘s policy “that all citizens shall have the opportunity to be considered for service on grand and petit juries in the district courts of the United States,” and that, as a result, they are entitled to a new trial.
A defendant must raise a Jury Act challenge “before the voir dire examination begins, or within seven days after the defendant discovered or could have discovered, by the exercise of diligence, the grounds therefor, whichever is earlier.”
Defendants’ Jury Act motions were untimely. Defendants were on notice of the jury selection plan as early as the November 16, 2017 status conference where, in response to defendants’ concerns regarding prejudicial media coverage in Southwest Kansas, the jury coordinator confirmed that petit jury pools were drawn only from the Wichita/Hutchinson division. Under the Jury Act, defendants had seven days from this time (i.e., through November 23, 2017) to file a compliant motion challenging this practice.
Defendants’ first Jury Act motion (urging the court to summon jurors from the Dodge City division) was not filed until December 8, 2017 and, as the government pointed out, lacked a sworn statement of facts. The district court denied the motion on January 17, 2018. Six days later, on January 23, 2018, defendants filed their second Jury Act motion containing a sworn statement of facts. Defendants plainly recognized the timeliness problem, arguing that their first Jury Act challenge was really an attempt to “nullify” the issue and that the seven-day clock began running when the district court denied their first motion. In arguing for the district court‘s denial of the second motion, the government reiterated the procedural requirements of the Jury Act.
Although defendants argue that the government waived the issue by merely reciting the procedural requirements and addressing the merits, we disagree. The
Moreover, even if the challenge were not procedurally barred, it fails on the merits. The Jury Act provides remedies when a jury selection procedure “involves a substantial failure to comply with the statute.” Kamahele, 748 F.3d at 1022;
Defendants argue that the exclusion of petit jurors from the Dodge City division is a substantial failure to comply with the Jury Act in that it prevents the random selection of jurors and involves the de facto creation of a new category of exclusion.
The jury selection plan did not prevent the random selection of jurors. The randomness principle underlying the Jury Act “requires a system of selection that affords no room for impermissible discrimination against individuals or groups.” Carmichael, 560 F.3d at 1277 (citation omitted). Defendants contend that randomness is not possible when half of a district‘s divisions are not summoned for jury service, but they fail to identify “an identifiable and cognizable segment of the community” excluded from the jury pool in a manner that frustrates the Jury Act‘s purpose. See Bailey, 76 F.3d at 323 (citation omitted). Geographical imbalance, absent evidence of discrimination or discriminatory effects, is insufficient to establish a substantial failure to comply with the Jury Act. See id.; United States v. Test, 550 F.2d 577, 581 n.4 (10th Cir. 1976).
B. Entrapment Instruction
Defendants next argue that the district court erred in declining to instruct the jury on an entrapment defense. “Whether there is evidence sufficient to constitute a triable issue of entrapment is a question of law which we review de novo,” viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant. United States v. Vincent, 611 F.3d 1246, 1249–50 (10th Cir. 2010) (internal quotations omitted).
“[A] defendant is entitled to have a jury consider any defense which is supported by the law and has sufficient foundation in the evidence to create a genuine issue of fact.” United States v. Ortiz, 804 F.2d 1161, 1163 (10th Cir. 1986). To raise a valid entrapment defense, a defendant must show an evidentiary basis on which the jury could find (1) “government inducement of the crime,” and (2) “a lack of predisposition on the part of the defendant to engage in the criminal conduct.” Mathews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58, 62–63 (1988). A defendant may do this
Taken in the light most favorable to defendants, the evidence presented at trial did not create a triable issue as to inducement. Inducement is “government conduct which creates a substantial risk that an undisposed person or otherwise law-abiding citizen would commit the offense.” Ortiz, 804 F.2d at 1165. Defendants did not testify, and primarily point to evidence presented by the government in arguing that there was an evidentiary basis for an entrapment instruction at trial. Specifically, defendants contend that there was evidence that Mr. Day proposed the location and time defendants ultimately chose for the attack, was the first to show the location to Mr. Stein, urged defendants to meet with the UCE and to develop explosives, and made sustained efforts to appeal to defendants’ ideologies, including by echoing defendants’ attitudes towards Muslims. Defendants also argue that the FBI‘s use of a UCE posing as an arms dealer, as well as its efforts to build chargeable offenses, further supported a finding of inducement.
The government responds that the actual evidence at trial reflects that the defendants, not Mr. Day or the UCE, originated a plan to kill innocent Muslims with
Defendants counter that these findings improperly “presume[] the truth of” impeached government witnesses’ testimony. However, the suggestion that the jury could have disbelieved or disregarded this evidence is insufficient without pointing to evidence in the record to support a contrary finding. See Ortiz, 804 F.2d at 1165–66 (explaining that “conclusory and self-serving statements, standing alone,” will not establish a triable issue of inducement). In any event, even if defendants’ characterizations of the evidence found support in the record, evidence that a government agent encouraged or solicited a defendant to engage in criminal conduct, without more, is insufficient to constitute inducement. Vincent, 611 F.3d at 1250–51; Ortiz, 804 F.2d at 1165. After a review of the record, we are satisfied that the district court‘s assessment is correct.
Nor can defendants demonstrate a basis for finding a lack of predisposition, even viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendants. Predisposition is “a defendant‘s inclination to engage in the illegal activity for which he has been charged,” and may be demonstrated by a defendant‘s “eagerness to participate in” the illegal activity. United States v. Fadel, 844 F.2d 1425, 1433 (10th Cir. 1988). Defendants argue that, among other things, their quiet lives prior to their arrests demonstrate a lack of predisposition. Mr. Wright argues further that his past business dealings with Muslims demonstrate a lack of predisposition, and Mr. Stein argues that his “anti-Muslim sentiments and grandiose schemes” never materialized into action prior to Mr. Day‘s involvement.
These arguments overlook the fact that defendants were charged with conspiracies. While conspiracy “cannot exist without at least the degree of criminal intent necessary for the substantive offense itself,” Ingram v. United States, 360 U.S. 672, 678 (1959), predisposition is judged by examining whether defendants were “ready and willing to commit the crime” for which they were charged — here, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to violate the civil rights of local Muslims. Ortiz, 804 F.2d at 1165. There is extensive evidence over time of defendants’ eagerness to enter into this conspiracy. Defendants’ rhetoric regarding Muslims predated Mr. Day‘s involvement, and their actions, independent of Mr. Day, to develop a bomb for use in the attack do not support the notion that they were not predisposed to be involved in such a conspiracy or that their plans would not have materialized absent Mr. Day‘s involvement. Accordingly, defendants failed to raise a triable issue as to entrapment and the district court did not err in declining to offer an entrapment instruction.
C. Terrorism Enhancement
Defendants next challenge the district court‘s application of the terrorism enhancement under § 3A1.4 of the Sentencing Guidelines. “We review the district
Defendants first argue that, because application of the terrorism enhancement significantly increased their guidelines range, it should have been subject to the clear and convincing standard of proof, rather than a preponderance of the evidence.
In general, factual findings at sentencing must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Robertson, 946 F.3d 1168, 1171 (10th Cir. 2020). While “we have left open the possibility that due process may require proof by clear and convincing evidence” where an enhancement “increases a sentence by an extraordinary or dramatic amount,” United States v. Ray, 704 F.3d 1307, 1314 (10th Cir. 2013) (internal quotations omitted), we have never held that a sentencing enhancement was subject to the clear and convincing standard based on its disproportionate impact on the guidelines range.2 United States v. Olsen, 519 F.3d 1096, 1105 (10th Cir. 2008). Here, the terrorism enhancement increased defendants’ guideline ranges from approximately 15–20 years to life imprisonment and defendants ultimately received sentences ranging from 25 to 30 years. To the extent
Second, defendants argue that the district court erred in applying the terrorism enhancement under any standard of proof because their offense was not primarily calculated to influence or retaliate against government conduct.
In relevant part, the terrorism enhancement applies to offenses that are “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.”
Defendants contend that because the primary target of their offense was a civilian population, i.e., the Muslim residents of the West Mary Street apartment complex, the district court should have imposed an upward departure rather than the full terrorism enhancement. However, “[t]he terrorism enhancement applies so long as [defendants‘] conduct was ‘calculated . . . to retaliate against government
D. Defendant Wright‘s Claims
In addition to the claims discussed above, Mr. Wright brings four additional challenges to his conviction and sentence in which his co-defendants do not join.
Mr. Wright argues that the government engaged in prosecutorial misconduct that violated his due process rights. We review allegations of prosecutorial misconduct de novo. United States v. Caballero, 277 F.3d 1235, 1248 (10th Cir. 2002).
In reviewing claims of prosecutorial misconduct, we first determine whether the conduct was improper, then whether any improper conduct warrants reversal. Id. at 1247–48. “[P]rosecutorial misconduct must be ‘of sufficient significance to result in the denial of the defendant‘s right to a fair trial’ before it will rise to the level of a due process violation” warranting reversal. Id. at 1248 (quoting Greer v. Miller, 483 U.S. 756, 765 (1987)).
Mr. Wright identifies two instances of allegedly improper conduct by the government: (1) the government‘s alleged delay in providing the defense with transcripts identifying the specific recorded statements the government sought to offer as coconspirator statements at trial; and (2) the government‘s representation that the transcripts at issue were “verified, accurate, and trustworthy,” when in fact a small number of the transcripts contained misattributions.
Mr. Wright‘s allegation regarding the government‘s delay in identifying the statements to be offered as coconspirator statements is contradicted by the record. Defense counsel received the complete recordings of defendants’ meetings and phone calls after defendants’ arrest in October 2016. By May 11, 2017, defense counsel had also received draft transcripts of those recordings. Prior to the James hearing to
Mr. Wright‘s allegation that prosecutors knowingly introduced false evidence in the form of inaccurate transcripts of the audio clips similarly lacks merit. In order to establish a due process violation, Mr. Wright must show that (1) the prosecution introduced false evidence, (2) the prosecution knew the evidence to be false, and (3) the evidence was material. See id. at 1243. Mr. Wright‘s claim fails on the first element. The transcripts were never admitted into evidence and the district court repeatedly instructed the jury that only the recordings, and not the transcripts, were to be considered as evidence. In addition, when the defense asked FBI Agent Kuhn about the transcript inaccuracies during her testimony at trial, Agent Kuhn admitted that the transcripts contained some misattributions. The government therefore did not present false evidence.
2. Admission of Coconspirator Statements
Mr. Wright next challenges the procedure by which the district court determined the admissibility of the recordings as coconspirator statements under
Statements by a party‘s coconspirator made “during and in furtherance of the conspiracy” are excluded from the definition of hearsay and admissible against all coconspirators.
A district court‘s preliminary conclusion that the predicate conspiracy existed at most must be supported by some “independent evidence” of the conspiracy other than the proffered coconspirator statements themselves, although such evidence need not be substantial. United States v. Lopez-Gutierrez, 83 F.3d 1235, 1242 (10th Cir. 1996). Testimony of a government agent regarding his interactions or conversations with coconspirators is adequate independent evidence. Owens, 70 F.3d at 1125.
Here, the district court followed the preferred procedure and held a multi-day James hearing to determine whether the predicate conspiracy existed. In addition to the proffered statements themselves, the district court considered Mr. Day‘s observations of and contacts with Mr. Wright, as well as grand jury testimony from another witness supporting the existence of the conspiracy as early as June 14, 2016. And by the time the statements were admitted at trial, multiple witnesses had testified to defendants’ activities in connection with the conspiracy. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the recordings were preliminarily admissible as coconspirator statements based on the evidence produced at the James hearing, and that evidence was strengthened by the time the statements were admitted at trial.
Mr. Wright also challenges the district court‘s decision to evaluate the proffered audio clips in their entirety, instead of sentence-by-sentence. Mr. Wright does not identify a single statement that he contends was improperly admitted as a result of the district court‘s election to proceed in this manner and accordingly fails to demonstrate any harm resulting from the district court‘s approach. This argument is meritless.
3. False Statements Charge
Next, Mr. Wright challenges the district court‘s denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the false statements charge on two grounds. First, he argues
“[A] false statement is material if it has a natural tendency to influence, or [is] capable of influencing, the decision of the decision-making body to which it was addressed.” Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 16 (1999) (quotations omitted). Materiality does not depend on whether the statement actually influenced the decision at issue and is a “mixed question of law and fact that the jury decides.” United States v. Williams, 934 F.3d 1122, 1128–29 (10th Cir. 2019).
Mr. Wright‘s false statements were clearly material to the federal investigation into defendants’ plan to bomb the Mary Street apartment complex. When Mr. Wright was denied entry to his business following Mr. Allen‘s arrest, he went to the police station to find out why. While there, he agreed to an interview with agents from the FBI and Kansas Bureau of Investigation, in which he denied involvement in defendants’ plan. At trial, the government introduced a video in which Mr. Wright made several false statements to state and federal investigators, including (1) he did not know anything about Mr. Allen developing explosives at his business; (2) he was not aware of any explosives located on his business‘s premises; (3) he did not belong to a militia; and (4) he had neither attended nor been invited to any KSF meetings.
Mr. Wright also argues that the government improperly indicted him under
4. Cumulative Error
Finally, Mr. Wright argues that to the extent any of the purported errors discussed above, or those discussed below, are deemed harmless, the cumulative effect of all errors demands reversal.
Cumulative error analysis “aggregates all the errors that individually have been found to be harmless, and therefore not reversible,” and “analyzes whether their cumulative effect on the outcome of the trial is such that collectively they can no longer be determined to be harmless.” Hooper v. Mullin, 314 F.3d 1162, 1178 (10th Cir. 2002) (quotations omitted). “Only actual errors are considered in determining whether the defendant‘s right to a fair trial was violated.” United States v. Toles, 297 F.3d 959, 972 (10th Cir. 2002). Where a defendant fails to establish the existence of multiple non-reversible errors, he cannot benefit from the cumulative error doctrine. United States v. Lopez-Medina, 596 F.3d 716, 741 (10th Cir. 2010).
Mr. Wright identifies three additional purported evidentiary errors by the district court that he contends, together with those discussed above, give rise to cumulative error.
First, he argues that the district court abused its discretion by denying his request under
Finally, Mr. Wright argues that the district court abused its discretion by refusing to permit him to cross-examine Mr. Day regarding an application for Supplemental Security Income Mr. Day submitted nine months after defendants’ arrest.
AFFIRMED.