Filed: Feb. 19, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 14-4370 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. ALEJANDRO GARCIA-LAGUNAS, a/k/a Alex Fuentes, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. James C. Fox, Senior District Judge. (5:12-cr-00376-F-1) Argued: September 17, 2015 Decided: February 19, 2016 Before DUNCAN and DIAZ, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed in part,
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 14-4370 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. ALEJANDRO GARCIA-LAGUNAS, a/k/a Alex Fuentes, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. James C. Fox, Senior District Judge. (5:12-cr-00376-F-1) Argued: September 17, 2015 Decided: February 19, 2016 Before DUNCAN and DIAZ, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed in part, ..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 14-4370
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
ALEJANDRO GARCIA-LAGUNAS, a/k/a Alex Fuentes,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. James C. Fox, Senior
District Judge. (5:12−cr−00376−F−1)
Argued: September 17, 2015 Decided: February 19, 2016
Before DUNCAN and DIAZ, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, Senior
Circuit Judge.
Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by unpublished
opinion. Judge Diaz wrote the opinion, in which Judge Duncan
joined. Senior Judge Davis wrote a dissenting opinion.
ARGUED: Paul K. Sun, Jr., ELLIS & WINTERS, LLP, Raleigh, North
Carolina, for Appellant. Kristine L. Fritz, OFFICE OF THE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.
ON BRIEF: Thomas G. Walker, United States Attorney, Jennifer P.
May-Parker, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
2
DIAZ, Circuit Judge:
A jury convicted Alejandro Garcia-Lagunas of conspiracy to
distribute cocaine and possess with intent to distribute
cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a), 846. He was
sentenced to 188 months’ imprisonment. On appeal, Garcia-
Lagunas challenges his conviction, arguing that he was deprived
of a fair trial because of several evidentiary errors, including
the introduction of ethnically charged evidence. He also
challenges his sentence on several grounds, including that the
district court miscalculated the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (the
“Guidelines”) range. For the reasons that follow, we affirm
Garcia-Lagunas’s conviction, vacate his sentence, and remand for
resentencing.
I.
“On appeal from a criminal conviction, we recite the facts
in the light most favorable to the government.” United States
v. Washington, 743 F.3d 938, 940 (4th Cir. 2014).
A.
On March 27, 2012, Ronnie Reed was arrested in
Fayetteville, North Carolina on federal drug trafficking
charges. Reed told the law enforcement officers that he had a
“Mexican drug supplier” named “Alex.” J.A. 92. Reed led the
officers to three trailers in Robeson County—at 33 Sonoma, 47
3
Sonoma, and 294 Maple Leaf—where he said he had purchased drugs
from “Alex.” Reed also gave the officers four telephone numbers
that he had previously used to contact “Alex.”
The next day, the police simultaneously executed search
warrants on the three trailers. The officers found Garcia-
Lagunas’s parents at 33 Sonoma and ten kilogram wrappers buried
in a lean-to shed behind the trailer at 47 Sonoma. At 294 Maple
Leaf, officers followed a vehicle that left that location to a
trailer at 353 Westcott. Detective Kurt Stein observed Marco
Hernandez exit the 353 Westcott trailer from the back, and
Detective Pedro Orellano and Sergeant Gregory Johnson approached
him. Orellano confirmed that Hernandez lived at the trailer and
obtained his consent to search it.
The officers found Garcia-Lagunas and Brian Jacobs inside
the trailer. Garcia-Lagunas had white powder under his nose and
appeared “impaired” to Detective Orellano. J.A. 248. Garcia-
Lagunas identified himself to the officers as Alex. Both
Garcia-Lagunas and Jacobs told the officers that they did not
live in the trailer. After Sergeant Johnson asked him to empty
his pockets, Garcia-Lagunas produced $600 cash and a cell phone.
When Detective Stein dialed one of the phone numbers Reed had
given the police for “Alex,” Garcia-Lagunas’s phone rang. Later
analysis of the phone’s records connected it to several known
drug dealers.
4
The officers searched the trailer. In the kitchen, they
found a handgun and several small baggies about one inch by one
inch in size. In one bedroom, the officers found body armor; a
large digital scale; a small digital scale; a black plastic bag
containing a vacuum-sealed bag, which in turn contained about
800 grams of a white powder; and a small baggie of crack
cocaine. The white powder field-tested positive for cocaine,
but later State Bureau of Investigation (“SBI”) laboratory tests
revealed that the powder contained no controlled substance.
B.
A grand jury charged Garcia-Lagunas 1 with conspiring to
distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams
of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a), 846, and
unlawfully reentering the United States after having previously
been deported, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). He pleaded
guilty to the unlawful reentry charge and proceeded to trial on
the conspiracy charge.
Before trial, the government gave notice of its intention
to call Detective Shawn Collins as an expert witness, stating
that he would “testify about drug trafficking investigations and
methods utilized by drug traffickers to operate and protect
their drug business.” J.A. 32. The district court also agreed
1 Garcia-Lagunas was indicted under the name Alex Fuentes.
5
to provide Garcia-Lagunas with a Spanish interpreter for the
proceedings.
Collins was the government’s first witness, testifying both
as an expert and as an officer who had participated in the
investigation and the relevant searches. After hearing
testimony about Collins’s training and experience, the district
court ruled that Collins could testify as an expert in the field
of narcotics investigations.
According to Collins, the white powder could have field-
tested positive for cocaine and still have been found to contain
no controlled substance in SBI’s laboratory analysis if someone
had added an excessive amount of cutting agent to the cocaine,
such that “when the lab sampled a small amount of that 800 grams
of cocaine there . . . wasn’t enough cocaine in it to even
register with the SBI or the instruments they were using.” J.A.
111.
Collins also told the jury that Garcia-Lagunas was “an
alien illegally in the United States.” J.A. 150. After the
prosecution asked Collins if he saw that Garcia-Lagunas was
“being assisted with the help of an interpreter” in court,
Collins testified that his informants had not indicated that
they had needed to use Spanish in their dealings with Garcia-
Lagunas. J.A. 150-51. Moreover, Collins testified that Garcia-
Lagunas “appeared to be fluent in English.” J.A. 151.
6
Four drug dealers—Reed, Jacobs, Thomas Brewington, and
Antonio Locklear—each testified pursuant to plea agreements to
having bought cocaine from Garcia-Lagunas. They each said that
they had spoken to Garcia-Lagunas in English. They also
testified that they did not know each other. Hernandez, the
owner of the trailer at 353 Westcott, testified, also pursuant
to a plea agreement, that Garcia-Lagunas had been staying in the
room in which the body armor and scales had been found for about
four weeks leading up to the arrest.
Detective Orellano testified about his participation in the
relevant searches and the evidence that he and Stein found in
the 353 Westcott trailer. During its cross-examination of
Orellano, the defense elicited testimony regarding the
relatively squalid state of Garcia-Lagunas’s living conditions.
On redirect, Orellano told the jury that he had extensive
experience investigating “Hispanic drug traffickers,” and that
“they’re very modest living” because “they send the majority if
not all the proceeds back to their native countries.” J.A. 270.
Defense counsel objected. Asked to explain the relevance of
Orellano’s testimony, the government said that it rebutted the
defense’s implied argument “that it would be impossible for the
defendant to have dealt these large amounts of cocaine and taken
in this large amount of money because he’s living in relatively
low level conditions.” J.A. 271. Defense counsel responded
7
that Orellano had not been qualified as an expert. After
confirming that Orellano’s testimony was based on his training
and experience, the district court overruled the objection. 2 The
government referred to this testimony during its closing
argument to explain Garcia-Lagunas’s lack of an “extravagant
lifestyle.” J.A. 520.
Several other officers testified for the government.
Relevant to this appeal, Detective Matthew Taylor testified that
based on his training and experience, the type of baggies he
found in the kitchen at 353 Westcott were “mostly used for the
repackaging and sale of narcotics.” J.A. 411. Detective Stein
testified, based on his training and experience, that the
vacuum-sealed bag containing the 800 grams of white powder was
of the type frequently used by drug traffickers “to seal in the
odor of the narcotics so that they’re harder to be detected
[and] easier to transport.” J.A. 437-38.
The court chose (without objection from the parties) not to
submit a special verdict sheet for the jury to indicate the
2
After defense counsel renewed his objection, the court at
a bench conference stated: “I’m not quite sure what the
relevance of all of this is, but I do know, based on my
experience, that most Latins send money home whether they’re
drug dealers or not.” J.A. 273. Garcia-Lagunas contends that
the court’s statement emboldened the government to engage in
ethnic stereotyping. While the court’s comment is puzzling at
best, we do not address it further because the jury did not hear
it.
8
amount of cocaine Garcia-Lagunas was responsible for within the
conspiracy, finding it sufficient that the verdict form
specifically referenced the indictment. The jury found Garcia-
Lagunas guilty of conspiring to distribute and possess with
intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. After the
verdict, the court sua sponte directed the parties to brief
whether it erred by failing to instruct the jury to find the
amount of cocaine individually attributable to Garcia-Lagunas,
as required by United States v. Collins, 415 F.3d 304 (4th Cir.
2005). However, it ultimately ruled that no Collins error had
occurred.
The presentence investigation report (the “PSR”) found
Garcia-Lagunas responsible for 39 kilograms of cocaine and 16
grams of crack cocaine, resulting in a base offense level of 34.
The PSR added three two-level enhancements for possession of a
dangerous weapon, threatening or directing the use of violence,
and obstruction of justice, resulting in a total offense level
of 40. The PSR also found Garcia-Lagunas had a criminal history
score of zero, putting him in criminal history category I.
Garcia-Lagunas objected to the drug weight calculation and the
three enhancements.
The district court overruled Garcia-Lagunas’s objections to
the drug weight calculation and the dangerous weapon
enhancement, but sustained the objections to the other two
9
enhancements, resulting in an offense level of 36. An offense
level of 36 coupled with criminal history category I yielded a
Guidelines range of 188 to 235 months’ imprisonment. The
government stated, however, that it would agree to a “two level
downward variance based upon the Attorney General’s recent
directive that is related to the proposed amendment to the
Guidelines, specifically the drug quantity base offense levels
in the Guideline that may end up being a two level drop for each
drug quantity,” provided that Garcia-Lagunas agreed not to later
seek a variance for the same reason. J.A. 678-79. Garcia-
Lagunas so agreed, and the district court stated its intent “to
go down the two levels.” J.A. 679-80.
The resulting offense level of 34 yielded a Guidelines
range of 151 to 188 months’ imprisonment. The district court
then sentenced Garcia-Lagunas to 188 months’ imprisonment while
stating it was “impos[ing] a sentence at the low end of the
range because this constitutes the defendant’s first felony
conviction.” J.A. 680-81, 683. The court also sentenced
Garcia-Lagunas to a consecutive sentence of 24 months’
imprisonment for his unlawful reentry conviction. Only after
announcing the sentence did the court allow Garcia-Lagunas to
allocute.
10
II.
Garcia-Lagunas first challenges several of the district
court’s evidentiary rulings. We review those rulings for abuse
of discretion, and subject them to harmless error review.
United States v. Johnson, 617 F.3d 286, 292 (4th Cir. 2010). An
error is harmless when this court is able to conclude, “after
pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous
action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially
swayed by the error.”
Id. (quoting United States v. Brooks,
111
F.3d 365, 371 (4th Cir. 1997)). But we may disregard a
constitutional error only if we are “able to declare a belief
that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Chapman v.
California,
386 U.S. 18, 24 (1967).
Where a defendant fails to timely object to an evidentiary
ruling, however, we review for plain error. United States v.
Keita, 742 F.3d 184, 189 (4th Cir. 2014). To make out a plain
error, “the defendant must show ‘there was an error, the error
was plain, and the error affected [the defendant’s] substantial
rights.’”
Id. (alteration in original) (quoting United States
v. Boykin,
669 F.3d 467, 470 (4th Cir. 2012)).
Garcia-Lagunas contends that (1) the admission of evidence
regarding Hispanic drug traffickers denied him due process and
equal protection, (2) the district court allowed improper
opinion testimony from several of the government’s lay
11
witnesses, (3) the district court improperly allowed Collins to
testify as an expert witness in spite of the government’s
failure to comply with expert disclosure requirements, and
(4) the admission of evidence regarding Garcia-Lagunas’s
immigration status and use of an interpreter was plain error.
We consider each challenge in turn.
A.
1.
Garcia-Lagunas contends that his Fifth Amendment guarantees
of due process and equal protection were violated by Orellano’s
ethnicity-based testimony, which the government used to create
an adverse inference against him. Alternatively, he argues that
even if the admission and repetition of this testimony in the
government’s closing argument did not violate his constitutional
rights, the evidence nonetheless was improperly admitted expert
testimony delivered by a lay witness.
Garcia-Lagunas objected to this testimony at trial,
arguably on the improper-expert-testimony ground only. See Fed.
R. Evid. 103(a)(1)(B). Nonetheless, the government at oral
argument granted that, because of the troubling nature of the
error, we should review both contentions for harmless error.
Oral Argument at 22:17–23:10, United States v. Garcia-Lagunas,
No. 14-4370 (Sept. 17, 2015), available at
http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/OAarchive/mp3/14-4370-20150917.mp3.
12
While we are not bound by the government’s concession, Pisano v.
Strach, 743 F.3d 927, 936 n.13 (4th Cir. 2014), we choose to
apply harmless error here as it does not affect the outcome.
2.
There is no dispute that “[a]ppeals to racial, ethnic, or
religious prejudice during the course of a trial violate a
defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to a fair trial.” United
States v. Cabrera, 222 F.3d 590, 594 (9th Cir. 2000); accord
United States v. Runyon,
707 F.3d 475, 494 (4th Cir. 2013) (“The
Supreme Court has long made clear that statements that are
capable of inflaming jurors’ racial or ethnic prejudices
‘degrade the administration of justice.’” (quoting Battle v.
United States,
209 U.S. 36, 39 (1908))).
Where the government injects ethnicity into a trial in a
manner that “invite[s] the jury to put [a defendant’s] racial
and cultural background into the balance in determining their
guilt,” constitutional error occurs. 3 United States v. Vue, 13
3 As the dissent correctly notes, the government here
concedes constitutional error. While we do not lightly ignore
that concession, neither are we bound by it. See Kamen v.
Kemper Fin. Servs., Inc., 500 U.S. 90, 99 (1991) (“When an issue
or claim is properly before the court, the court is not limited
to the particular legal theories advanced by the parties, but
rather retains the independent power to identify and apply the
proper construction of governing law.”); United States v.
Robinson,
460 F.3d 550, 558 n.7 (4th Cir. 2006) (“[O]ur judicial
obligations compel us to examine independently the errors
(Continued)
13
F.3d 1206, 1213 (8th Cir. 1994); see also United States v. Cruz,
981 F.2d 659, 664 (2d Cir. 1992) (“Injection of a defendant’s
ethnicity into a trial as evidence of criminal behavior is self-
evidently improper and prejudicial for reasons that need no
elaboration here.”).
Several of our sister circuits have held that “the
introduction of evidence connecting the race or ethnicity of a
defendant to racial or ethnic generalizations about a particular
drug trade is [constitutional error].” United States v.
Ramirez-Fuentes, 703 F.3d 1038, 1045 (7th Cir. 2013) (citing
Cruz, 981 F.2d at 663-64;
Vue, 13 F.3d at 1212-13; and United
States v. Doe,
903 F.2d 16, 21 (D.C. Cir. 1990)). We accept
that these circuits correctly applied the law, but find that the
government’s use of an ethnic stereotype here, while
regrettable, is materially distinguishable.
In each of the cases where our sister circuits have found
constitutional error surrounding the use of ethnically based
evidence, the government’s argument was, fundamentally, that a
certain ethnic or national group was a major participant in the
drug trade, that the defendant belonged to that ethnic or
confessed.” (alteration in original) (quoting Young v. United
States, 315 U.S. 257, 258-59 (1942))).
14
national group, and that the defendant was therefore more likely
to be a drug dealer.
For example, in Doe, the government presented an expert
witness who testified that “‘[t]he Jamaicans . . . have had a
phenomen[al] impact on the drug trade in the District of
Columbia,’ and the market ‘has been taken over basically by
Jamaicans,’” where there was reason to believe that the
government’s key witness, an American, owned the incriminating
evidence attributed to the Jamaican defendants. 903 F.2d at 18,
28 (second alteration in original) (footnote omitted). The D.C.
Circuit ruled that this testimony was inadmissible because it
“strongly suggested that appellants were guilty because two of
them are Jamaican.”
Id. at 20–23.
Similarly, in Vue, the government introduced a custom
official’s testimony that 95% of opium smuggling cases in the
Twin Cities area “related to Hmong individuals.” 13 F.3d at
1211–12. The Eighth Circuit held that the introduction of such
testimony violated the Hmong defendants’ constitutional rights
“because the injection of ethnicity into the trial clearly
invited the jury to put the Vues’ racial and cultural background
into the balance in determining their guilt.”
Id. at 1213; see
also
Cabrera, 222 F.3d at 596 (“[H]ighlighting the ethnicity of
the other Cuban drug dealers under investigation at the time was
not relevant . . . ; the reference merely made it seem more
15
likely in the eyes of the jury that [the defendants] were drug
dealers because of their ethnicity.”).
Here, in contrast, the government did not ask the jury to
put Garcia-Lagunas’s ethnicity on the side of the scale
indicating guilt by stating or implying that a defendant of
Hispanic descent is more likely to be involved in the drug
trade. Put another way, it did not try to inflame any jury
prejudice against Hispanic defendants by tying Hispanic identity
to a propensity for criminality. Rather, as the government now
concedes, 4 it inappropriately relied on an ethnically based
generalization to refute Garcia-Lagunas’s suggestion that he was
too poor to be a major drug dealer. 5
4The government nonetheless denies that its use of such
evidence was reversible error.
5The government’s brief directs our attention to United
States v. Khan, 787 F.2d 28 (2d Cir. 1986). In Khan, the
defendant, a Pakistani man, “attempted to rebut the government’s
portrayal of him as a major drug dealer by suggesting that he
was a poor
man.” 787 F.2d at 34. The government responded by
introducing an expert who testified, in part, that “heroin
dealers in Pakistan, like all Pakistanis, [wear] the same
national dress-pantaloon, baggy pants, and a knee length top.”
Id. The Second Circuit found that the testimony was relevant
and not unduly prejudicial because it explained that “even if
[the defendant] had made a great deal of money in the heroin
trade, it would not necessarily show from the manner of his
dress.”
Id.
Khan does not help the government here. First, the
government’s witness in Khan was testifying as an expert.
Second, Khan lived in Pakistan, so the testimony could fairly be
understood to be about a cultural practice in the country,
(Continued)
16
This use of stereotype was particularly inapt because of
the lack of evidence that Garcia-Lagunas himself was sending
significant money anywhere. The record shows that since 1988,
Garcia-Lagunas has spent the great majority of his time in the
United States. While he does have two children living in
Mexico, he also has two children living in this country, and at
the time of his arrest his parents lived next door to him.
Thus, the government’s only “evidence” that Garcia-Lagunas was
remitting money was its generalization about Hispanic drug
traffickers.
Nonetheless, although the government made improper use of
an ethnic stereotype, it did not encourage the jury to consider
Garcia-Lagunas’s ethnicity as evidence of his guilt.
Accordingly, we find no constitutional violation, although we
also conclude that the evidence was irrelevant. Testing the
evidentiary error for harm, however, we find none.
Here, the “over-arching issue at trial” was whether Garcia-
Lagunas conspired to deal in large quantities of cocaine, not
what he did with any proceeds he made. United States v. Cole,
631 F.3d 146, 155 (4th Cir. 2011). Significant evidence
rather than a generalization about how a certain ethnicity or
nationality behaves. Finally, the testimony in Khan was about a
readily observable practice.
17
supported the jury’s finding that he did so conspire. At trial,
four witnesses who did not know each other testified
consistently to their dealings with Garcia-Lagunas. See United
States v. Briley, 770 F.3d 267, 277 (4th Cir. 2014) (finding
evidentiary error harmless where “[a]n array of witnesses gave
clear, compelling, and consistent accounts about [the
defendant’s] actions”), cert. denied,
135 S. Ct. 1844 (2015);
cf.
Johnson, 617 F.3d at 295 (finding erroneous admission of a
DEA agent’s testimony as a lay witness was not harmless where
the only direct evidence linking the defendant to the charged
crime was the testimony of one codefendant that was contradicted
by another codefendant’s testimony). In addition, when Garcia-
Lagunas was arrested, he had white powder on his nose, $600 in
cash, and was near a handgun. In his room, the police found 800
grams of a white powder substance, two digital scales, and body
armor. Bags used for drug dealing were also found at locations
associated with Garcia-Lagunas. Finally, his phone number,
which matched that of Reed’s source of supply, “Alex,” was
connected to several known drug dealers.
On this record then, “[w]e can say, ‘with fair assurance,
after pondering all that happened without stripping the
erroneous action from the whole,’ that the jury’s consideration
was not ‘substantially swayed’” by Orellano’s testimony.
Briley, 770 F.3d at 278 (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328
18
U.S. 750, 765 (1946)). 6 We therefore find no cause to reverse
based on the error.
B.
We next address Garcia-Lagunas’s argument that the district
court erred in admitting evidence regarding his immigration
status and use of an interpreter at trial. Because the defense
failed to timely object at trial, we review for plain error.
Evidence of a crime or wrong is not admissible to prove a
defendant’s bad character in order to show that he acted in
accordance with that character. Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(1). Such
evidence may be admissible, however, “for another purpose, such
as proving . . . identity.” Id. 404(b)(2). Under Rule 404(b),
we use a four-part test to assess admissibility: “(1) the prior-
act evidence must be relevant to an issue other than character,
such as intent; (2) it must be necessary to prove an element of
the crime charged; (3) it must be reliable; and (4) . . . its
probative value must not be substantially outweighed by its
prejudicial nature.” United States v. Lespier,
725 F.3d 437,
448 (4th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. Queen,
132 F.3d
991, 995 (4th Cir. 1997)).
6 Garcia-Lagunas also alleges that Detective Orellano should
not have been permitted to testify to the practices of Hispanic
drug traffickers because he was not testifying as an expert.
Having determined that Orellano’s testimony was irrelevant but
harmless, we do not address this separate objection.
19
1.
The government presented evidence that Garcia-Lagunas was
an alien illegally in the United States. The government argues
that this was relevant to Garcia-Lagunas’s identity. At trial,
the officers explained that “they learned that a Mexican man
going by the name ‘Alex’ was a significant source of cocaine in
Cumberland and Robeson Counties.” Appellee’s Br. at 42.
According to the government, Garcia-Lagunas’s immigration status
was thereby relevant as evidence that he was “Alex.” We do not
agree.
Collins testified solely that “[t]he defendant was
previously deported from the United States and is an alien
illegally in the United States right now.” J.A. 150. This
testimony has almost no probative value concerning Garcia-
Lagunas’s Mexican nationality; it establishes only that he is
not a United States citizen. We reject the notion that an
individual’s status as an illegal alien, without more, creates
an inference of Mexican nationality. And, importantly, the
government could easily have shown that Garcia-Lagunas was from
Mexico without highlighting his immigration status. See Fed. R.
Evid. 404(b) advisory committee’s note (“The determination must
be made whether the danger of undue prejudice outweighs the
probative value of the evidence in view of the availability of
other means of proof . . . .”). Because the probative value of
20
Garcia-Lagunas’s immigration status, especially without
reference to his country of citizenship, was so low, we find
that it was substantially outweighed by its prejudicial nature.
It was not, therefore, permissible 404(b) evidence. See
Lespier, 725 F.3d at 448.
Garcia-Lagunas’s evidentiary challenge, however, fails on
plain error review. “To be ‘plain,’ an error must be ‘clear’ or
‘obvious.’” United States v. Ramirez-Castillo, 748 F.3d 205,
215 (4th Cir. 2014) (quoting United States v. Olano,
507 U.S.
725, 734 (1993)). Even if the error here was plain, we “may
correct the error” only if it also “affects substantial rights.”
Olano, 507 U.S. at 732 (emphasis and alteration omitted). An
error affects substantial rights “in most cases” if it “affected
the outcome of the district court proceedings.” Ramirez-
Castillo, 748 F.3d at 215 (quoting
Olano, 507 U.S. at 734).
We need not address whether the improper admission of
Garcia-Lagunas’s immigration status was plain because we find
that it did not affect the outcome of the trial. The jury had
before it substantial evidence of Garcia-Lagunas’s participation
in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and his immigration
status was not referenced again after Collins’s testimony.
Thus, we decline to find plain error on this record.
21
2.
Garcia-Lagunas also challenges the government’s references
to his use of an interpreter at trial, arguing that they were
intended to paint him as a “faker” for relying on an interpreter
when he did not need one. Appellant’s Br. at 36.
The government’s witnesses told the jury that they spoke to
Garcia-Lagunas in English when they dealt with him, and some of
those witnesses could only speak English. To prove that Garcia-
Lagunas was the man who dealt with these witnesses, the
government had good reason to clarify to the jury that he could
in fact speak English, in spite of the impression his use of an
interpreter might have created. We therefore find that the
government’s references to Garcia-Lagunas’s interpreter were
relevant to identity, and their probative value was not
substantially outweighed by any threat of prejudice. See
Lespier, 725 F.3d at 448. Accordingly, we find no error.
C.
1.
Garcia-Lagunas next contends that the district court erred
in allowing Detective Collins to testify as an expert witness
where the government failed to comply with the expert disclosure
requirements. Because the defense failed to timely object at
trial, we again review for plain error.
22
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(a)(1)(G) requires the
government, on the defendant’s request, to provide the defendant
a written summary of any expert testimony that it intends to
use. That summary “must describe the witness’s opinions, the
bases and reasons for those opinions, and the witness’s
qualifications.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 16(a)(1)(G). “Rule
16(a)(1)(G) ‘is intended to minimize surprise that often results
from unexpected expert testimony . . . and to provide the
opponent with a fair opportunity to test the merit of the
expert’s testimony through focused cross-examination.’” United
States v. Smith, 701 F.3d 1002, 1007 (4th Cir. 2012) (quoting
Fed. R. Crim. P. 16(a)(1)(G) advisory committee’s note to 1993
amendment).
Garcia-Lagunas points out that the government’s notice that
Collins would “testify about drug trafficking investigations and
methods utilized by drug traffickers to operate and protect
their business,” J.A. 32, failed to state Collins’s
qualifications, opinions, or “the bases and reasons for his
opinions.” Appellant’s Br. at 38.
While Garcia-Lagunas has a viable argument that the
government’s short and summary notice failed to meet the
requirements of Rule 16(a)(1)(G), we need not decide whether the
district court’s admission of the testimony was plain error, as
23
Garcia-Lagunas cannot establish that any such error affected his
substantial rights.
On that score, while Garcia-Lagunas claims that Collins’s
testimony was “completely unexpected,” id. at 39, he fails to
point to any specific portion of the testimony that took him by
surprise. Collins’s testimony largely served to provide the
jury the contextual background of how drug trafficking
organizations function and explain the significance of certain
physical evidence. Given the limited scope of the physical
evidence and that the government would clearly try to explain
why the white powder did not test positive for any controlled
substance in the laboratory, Garcia-Lagunas cannot establish
that more specific notice of the scope of Collins’s testimony
would have so changed his counsel’s ability to cross-examine
Collins that the trial would have come out differently. See
United States v. Jones,
739 F.3d 364, 370 (7th Cir. 2014) (“We
need not consider whether the error [of admitting expert
testimony without notice] could be considered plain, because
[the defendant] cannot demonstrate that he would not have been
convicted absent the error, or that the introduction of that
testimony without complying with the expert testimony
requirements resulted in a miscarriage of justice.”).
24
2.
Garcia-Lagunas also contends that Collins’s testimony
explaining how the white powder might have field-tested positive
but tested negative in the laboratory for any controlled
substance was improper lay opinion testimony, as Collins was not
an expert in SBI laboratory techniques. Counsel objected at
trial; therefore we review for harmless error.
After defense counsel’s objection, the government elicited
testimony from Collins demonstrating his familiarity with the
methods used by the SBI in its laboratory tests. In particular,
he testified that he knew from his training and experience that
they would test only a portion of a controlled substance. This
foundation testimony adequately demonstrated Collins’s
competence to testify on this issue. 7
III.
Garcia-Lagunas next challenges his sentence. “We review a
criminal sentence for procedural and substantive reasonableness
7Garcia-Lagunas also contends that the district court erred
in admitting lay opinion testimony from Detectives Taylor and
Stein concerning the use of small plastic baggies and vacuum-
sealed bags in drug trafficking. Because Garcia-Lagunas did not
object at trial, we review for plain error. Garcia-Lagunas
cannot meet that high bar. Given the weight of the evidence
against him, we are confident that the complained-of testimony
did not affect the outcome of the proceeding.
25
under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.” Washington,
743 F.3d at 943 (citing Gall v. United States,
552 U.S. 38, 51
(2007)). First, we must “ensure that the district court
committed no significant procedural error, such as failing to
calculate (or improperly calculating) the Guidelines range.”
Gall, 552 U.S. at 51. If the sentence is procedurally sound, we
then move on to “consider the substantive reasonableness of the
sentence imposed under an abuse-of-discretion standard.”
Id.
Because Garcia-Lagunas did not object to any of the alleged
sentencing errors, we review for plain error. United States v.
Lynn,
592 F.3d 572, 576–77 (4th Cir. 2010).
A.
Garcia-Lagunas first challenges the district court’s
determination that it did not commit a Collins error in failing
to instruct the jury to determine the quantity of cocaine
Garcia-Lagunas was responsible for within the conspiracy.
For drug offenses, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b) “sets forth a
graduated penalty scheme based on the quantity of drugs
attributable to the defendant.” United States v. Foster, 507
F.3d 233, 250 (4th Cir. 2007). The statute imposes mandatory
minimum and maximum penalties when a defendant is responsible
for a threshold quantity of drugs. Here, Garcia-Lagunas was
convicted of a conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of
cocaine. Under § 841(b)(1)(B), Garcia-Lagunas was subject to a
26
sentence of no less than five and no more than 40 years’
imprisonment.
However, in United States v. Collins, we held that “an
individual defendant, found guilty of conspiracy to violate
§ 841(a), [should not] be sentenced under § 841(b) by
considering the amount of narcotics distributed by the entire
conspiracy,” 415 F.3d 304, 312 (4th Cir. 2005), but rather “the
jury must determine what amount of cocaine base was attributable
to [each defendant],”
id. at 314.
The district court, relying on United States v. Williams,
439 F. App’x 254 (4th Cir. 2011) (per curiam), found that it did
not need to submit this question to the jury, as “there [was] no
uncertainty regarding the amount of cocaine the defendant
distributed and no co-conspirators for the jury to consider,”
and therefore “the drug quantity charged in the indictment can
serve as the statutory sentencing threshold under § 841(b).”
J.A. 639.
We hold that this was not plain error. Although Williams
was unpublished and therefore not precedential, it suggests that
even if the district court erred, such error was not plain. See
Williams, 439 F. App’x at 257; see also United States v. Hughes,
401 F.3d 540, 547 (4th Cir. 2005) (“An error is plain ‘where the
law at the time of trial was settled and clearly contrary to the
law at the time of appeal.’” (quoting Johnson v. United States,
27
520 U.S. 461, 468 (1997))). In addition, there is no indication
that the district court was inclined to go below the mandatory
minimum of five years’ imprisonment, and thus Garcia-Lagunas
cannot establish that the error affected his substantial rights.
B.
Finally, Garcia-Lagunas argues that the district court
erred procedurally when it calculated his offense level as 36.
We agree, and also find that the error was plain and
substantially affected Garcia-Lagunas’s rights.
At sentencing, the district court announced that Garcia-
Lagunas’s total offense level was 36 after sustaining two of his
objections to the PSR’s calculation. The government responded
that it would not object to a downward departure of two levels
to reflect upcoming amendments to the Guidelines, and the court
agreed to go down those two levels. Thus, Garcia-Lagunas’s
total offense level should have been 34, which would have
yielded a Guidelines range of 151 to 188 months’ imprisonment.
While the 188 month sentence the court imposed was within this
range, the court specifically stated that it was “impos[ing] a
sentence at the low end of the range.” J.A. 683. Additionally,
in its “Statement of Reasons” form, the court scored Garcia-
Lagunas’s total offense level at 36, noting that it sustained
one of Garcia-Lagunas’s objections to the PSR and used the
anticipated Guidelines amendment reduction, but not
28
acknowledging that it sustained a second objection. Thus, the
court’s error in sentencing Garcia-Lagunas under offense level
36 instead of 34 was plain. See United States v. Ford, 88 F.3d
1350, 1356 (4th Cir. 1996) (finding plain and prejudicial error
where the erroneous addition of points to the defendant’s
criminal history score caused the defendant “to be sentenced at
a more severe guideline range”).
We also find that the error significantly affected Garcia-
Lagunas’s substantial rights. The district court made clear
that it intended to sentence Garcia-Lagunas at the low end of
the range to reflect his lack of criminal history. Thus, had it
consulted the correct range, there is good reason to believe the
court would have sentenced Garcia-Lagunas to 151, rather than
188, months’ imprisonment.
This fact distinguishes United States v. Molina-Martinez,
588 F. App’x 333 (5th Cir. 2014) (per curiam), cert. granted,
136 S. Ct. 26 (2015). There, the Fifth Circuit found that the
defendant could not show that the plain error in sentencing him
under the wrong offense level affected his substantial rights
because (1) his sentence under the wrong level fell within the
range for the correct level, and (2) he could not “point to
‘additional evidence’ in the record, other than the difference
in ranges, to show an effect on his substantial rights.”
Molina-Martinez, 588 F. App’x at 334–35. Indeed, the Fifth
29
Circuit specifically distinguished United States v. Pratt, 728
F.3d 463 (5th Cir. 2013), which had facts much more like this
case. There, “the district court affirmatively stated on the
record that . . . it was choosing a sentence in the middle of
the Guidelines range.” Molina-Martinez, 588 F. App’x at 335
(citing
Pratt, 728 F.3d at 482). 8
In United States v. Knight, 606 F.3d 171 (4th Cir. 2010),
where we found the defendant had not shown that the use of an
incorrect sentencing range affected her substantial rights, we
explicitly distinguished a hypothetical case that is very close
to what happened here. There, the district court plainly erred
in sentencing Knight under a Guidelines offense level of 26,
with an advisory range of 92-115 months’ imprisonment, instead
8 The Supreme Court has granted Molina-Martinez’s petition
for certiorari on the question of whether an appellate court
should presume, for the purposes of plain-error review, that the
application of the wrong Guidelines range to a criminal
defendant affected his substantial rights. See Molina-Martinez,
136 S. Ct. 26 (2015); Petition for Certiorari, Molina-Martinez
v. United States,
2015 WL 5766728 at *i (No. 14-8913). Even if
the Court holds that an appellate court should not make that
presumption, our finding in this case would not be affected, as
we rely not on a presumption but rather on the district court’s
stated intent to sentence Garcia-Lagunas at the low end of the
applicable Guidelines range—the “additional evidence” that was
absent in Molina-Martinez. Alternatively, if the Court holds
that appellate courts should presume a sentence under the
incorrect Guidelines range affects a defendant’s substantial
rights, then it would only confirm that Garcia-Lagunas’s
substantial rights were affected by the error. Thus, we need
not await the Supreme Court’s ruling in Molina-Martinez.
30
of the correct level of 24, with an advisory range of 77-96
months. Knight, 606 F.3d at 177-78. The district court
compared Knight favorably to another defendant the court had
sentenced that day, who had received a sentence of about half of
his Guidelines range.
Id. at 178-79. The district court then
sentenced Knight to 60 months in prison.
Id. at 179. Knight
argued that the court’s intent was to sentence her, like the
other defendant, to “roughly half” of her Guidelines range, and
so the sentencing error affected her substantial rights because
the court would have sentenced her to “roughly half” of 77-96
months under the correct range.
Id.
We rejected this argument, finding it “pure speculation”
that the sentencing “court’s limited statements about the other
defendant” had the meaning that Knight ascribed to them.
Id.
We explicitly distinguished a hypothetical case where the
sentencing court either “explicitly connected Knight’s sentence
to the sentence given to the other defendant” or “explicitly
connected the 60-month sentence ultimately imposed to the
advisory range—for example, by stating that it intended to
impose a sentence that was a certain percentage of the low or
high end of the advisory range.”
Id. Here, the sentencing
court did explicitly connect the sentence imposed to the
advisory range, and thus Garcia-Lagunas’s claim is not “pure
speculation.” Garcia-Lagunas therefore has shown that his
31
substantial rights were affected by the miscalculation because
it is very likely “he would have received a lower sentence had
the error not occurred.” Id. at 178.
And though we need not always correct plain error, Keita,
742 F.3d at 189, we choose to do so here. Fairness dictates
that Garcia-Lagunas be sentenced under the correct Guidelines
range, particularly when doing so could potentially lead to a
sentence reduction. See
Ford, 88 F.3d at 1356 (“[S]entencing a
defendant at the wrong guideline range seriously affects the
fairness, integrity, and public reputation of the judicial
proceedings.”). “Three years of a man’s life is not a trifling
thing.”
Id. 9
IV.
In sum, we hold that any evidentiary errors in Garcia-
Lagunas’s trial were either harmless or did not affect his
substantial rights. The district court, however, plainly erred
in calculating Garcia-Lagunas’s Guidelines range, and such error
affected his substantial rights. Accordingly, we affirm Garcia-
9 As we are vacating on this issue, we need not address
Garcia-Lagunas’s other claim of procedural unreasonableness, his
claim of substantive unreasonableness, or his claim that the
district court’s failure to allow him a presentence allocution
affected his substantial rights.
32
Lagunas’s conviction, vacate his sentence, and remand for
resentencing.
AFFIRMED IN PART,
VACATED IN PART,
AND REMANDED
33
DAVIS, Senior Circuit Judge, dissenting:
The Government correctly concedes that it was
constitutional error for prosecutors to elicit and rely upon
testimony consisting of a blatant ethnic generalization in hopes
that the jury would draw inferences adverse to Appellant
Alejandro Garcia-Lagunas. Because the Government failed to
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that its reliance on such
testimony did not contribute to the jury’s verdict, as my
friends in the majority implicitly acknowledge, I am compelled
to dissent from their conclusion to affirm the judgment.
During his trial, Garcia-Lagunas sought to show that he
was, at most, a common drug abuser and not a sophisticated drug
distributor who trafficked in large volumes of cocaine. To make
this distinction, Garcia-Lagunas utilized questions during
cross-examination of prosecution witnesses to establish that he
lived a meager lifestyle devoid of any of the drug proceeds that
should follow a high-volume distributor. For example, when
cross-examining Detective Shawn Collins, Garcia-Lagunas elicited
testimony about the assets discovered at the residences of
Ronnie Reed, one of Garcia-Lagunas’s alleged purchasers and a
Government witness. J.A. 153-55. During searches of Reed’s
residences related to federal drug trafficking charges, officers
found and ultimately seized more than $100,000 in U.S. currency,
multiple telephones, a 2008 Infiniti, a 2006 Chevy Impala, a
34
2004 Acura, a 2004 BMW, a 2002 Lincoln Navigator, and multiple
firearms. J.A. 154-55.
Contrasting this showing of the wealth accumulated by Reed
during the four to five years that he sold drugs prior to his
2012 arrest, the cross-examinations of Detective Collins and
Detective Pedro Orellano established that Garcia-Lagunas lived a
life of limited means. Their testimony showed that, on the
evening detectives arrested Garcia-Lagunas, he was found
shirtless and shoeless in the “kitchen/living room area” of a
small trailer in which he rented a room for less than $350 per
month. J.A. 103-04, 315. The detectives did not find any
vehicles belonging to Garcia-Lagunas, and they only uncovered
$600 in currency. J.A. 176. Ultimately, Garcia-Lagunas hoped
this testimony would cause the jury to ask: how can a man who is
allegedly responsible for selling hundreds of thousands of
dollars in cocaine 1 have no proceeds to evidence those
transactions? Any experienced (and even an inexperienced)
Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting cases in this
Circuit would fully expect (and be prepared for) this kind of
defense tack on this record.
1
According to the testimony of four drug dealers testifying
pursuant to plea agreements, Garcia-Lagunas sold them, in the
aggregate, at least 39 kilos of cocaine, with each kilo of
cocaine valuing approximately $30,000 to $32,000 during the
relevant time frame. J.A. 205, 208, 239, 340-42, 360-61, 388.
35
As Garcia-Lagunas’s defense theory became apparent during
trial, however, the Government seemingly recognized for the
first time the absence of drug trafficking proceeds as a
potential weakness in its case. The Government opted not to
cure the ostensible weakness through the introduction of
admissible evidence by, for example, moving to admit proof of
wire transfers from Garcia-Lagunas to family in Mexico. Either
because such evidence did not exist 2 or because the Government
failed to adequately prepare its case, it instead sought to
counter the theory offered by Garcia-Lagunas by eliciting an
outrageous ethnic stereotype about the propensity of “Hispanic
drug traffickers” to live modestly while sending “the majority
if not all the proceeds back to their native countries.” J.A.
270. The Government then drove this racial generalization home
at the outset of its closing argument, stating:
Ladies and Gentlemen, what did Detective Orellano tell
you about Hispanic drug trafficking organizations and
about what they do with their money? He told you that
they package that money and they send it back to their
home country as part of the drug trafficking
organization. That’s why we don’t have an extravagant
lifestyle associated with this Defendant, fancy cars,
any of the things like Ronnie Reed has talked about.
2
As my colleagues in the majority point out, Garcia-Lagunas
has resided in the United States since he was a teenager, and
the majority of his family, including his parents, spouse, and
two of his children, also live in the United States, making it
improbable that he was sending large amounts of money back to
family in Mexico.
36
J.A. 520.
The relative ability of this particular stereotype to sway
the jury is evidenced by its effect on the presiding judge. In
response to a renewed objection to Detective Orellano’s
testimony, the trial judge held a bench conference and admitted
that he “wasn’t quite sure the relevance of” the Detective’s
testimony regarding Hispanic drug traffickers, but that, “based
on [his] experience, . . . most Latins send money home whether
they’re drug dealers or not.” 3 J.A. 273. The Government
admittedly hoped the jurors would draw a similar inference when
rendering a verdict. J.A. 273.
As the majority explains, “[a]ppeals to racial, ethnic, or
religious prejudice during the course of a trial violate a
defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to a fair trial.” United v.
Cabrera, 222 F.3d 590, 594 (9th Cir. 2000). A number of our
sister circuits have interpreted this basic principle to mean
that a constitutional error occurs when the Government
3The majority suggests that the trial judge’s statements
could not have independently affected the jury because they were
voiced during a bench conference. To the contrary, I note that,
as Juror Number 2 in a recent state criminal trial (and based on
the “white noise” used in my courtroom when I served as a
federal district judge), statements made during bench
conferences, whether conducted under the hopeful veil of “white
noise” or not, often remain within earshot of nearby and
attentive jurors. There is nothing in the record here to suggest
that the judge’s remarks went unheard in this instance.
37
“invite[s] the jury to put [a defendant’s] racial and cultural
background into the balance in determining their guilt.” United
States v. Vue, 13 F.3d 1206, 1213 (8th Cir. 1994); United
States v. Cruz,
981 F.2d 659, 663-64 (2d Cir. 1992); United
States v. Doe,
903 F.2d 16, 20-24 (D.C. Cir. 1990). This is
exactly what the Government did here.
To counter Garcia-Lagunas’s primary defense theory and cure
a perceived hole in its case, the Government offered up
generalizations about Garcia-Lagunas’s ethnicity to the jury.
The Government hoped that, like the presiding judge, the jurors
would believe that Garcia-Lagunas’s modest lifestyle did not
undermine allegations that he distributed hundreds of thousands
of dollars in cocaine because he had assuredly been sending his
significant proceeds back to his native country, electing to
live like a pauper here. And while the majority seeks to
distinguish the ethnic generalization tactically elicited and
repeated in this case on the ground that the ethnically based
“evidence” was used in a more nuanced fashion than was true in
the cases decided in our sister circuits, the Government’s
specific method for injecting Garcia-Lagunas’s ethnicity as
evidence in favor of his guilt makes it no less improper.
Most tellingly, even the Government concedes that the
elicitation of Detective Orellano’s testimony during re-direct
and recitation of the testimony at the outset of closing
38
argument amounted to a constitutional error. Oral Argument at
20:38-20:51, United States v. Garcia-Lagunas, No. 14-4370 (Sept.
17, 2015), available at
http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/OAarchive/mp3/14-4370-20150917.mps.
During oral argument, when asked whether the error amounted to
constitutional error, counsel for the Government responded
unequivocally, “Yes.” Id. The Panel then asked, as a result of
the Government’s belief that constitutional error had occurred,
whether it was the Government’s burden “to prove beyond a
reasonable doubt that the error had no substantial effect on the
jury’s verdict.”
Id. In response, counsel for the Government
firmly stated, “That’s correct.”
Id.
Accordingly, because the Government’s appeal to an ethnic
generalization was plainly a constitutional error and because
the Government failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
its reliance on such testimony did not contribute to the jury’s
verdict in a drug conspiracy case resting almost entirely on the
testimony of four drug dealers testifying pursuant to plea
agreements, I would vacate and remand for a new trial. By
rejecting the Government’s concession that constitutional error
occurred here, and thereby refusing to apply the only applicable
harmlessness standard, the majority affirms the conviction
because there was sufficient evidence to support it.
It errs in doing so. I respectfully dissent.
39
