United States v. Gonzalez
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
Defendant-appellant Julio Cesar Gonzalez appeals from a judgment of conviction entered on June 30, 2014, following a jury trial. Gonzalez was convicted of one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and one count of distribution of and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. On appeal, he argues principally that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that he knowingly participated in the conspiracy, and that the District Court abused its discretion by limiting cross-examination and instructing the jury that a portion of defense counsel’s summation was inaccurate. Following this Court’s request for supplemental briefing regarding the District Court’s instructions on the manner in which the jury may consider closing arguments, Gonzalez argued principally that those instructions constituted plain error. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts and record of the prior proceedings, to which we refer only as necessary to explain our decision to affirm.
At trial, Gonzalez’s co-defendant, Jose Benedy Escaño Jimenez, testified that he repeatedly delivered cocaine to Gonzalez, who then re-sold the cocaine to his own customers. Escaño further testified that Gonzalez initiated the transactions. Ramon Feliz, a cooperating witness, testified that in mid-October 2012 Gonzalez brokered an agreement to sell a kilogram of cocaine, which Feliz agreed to purchase for his customer. Having reviewed that and other testimony of Feliz and Escaño, which we assume the jury credited, we
We also reject Gonzalez’s arguments regarding the District Court’s limitations on cross-examination and curative instruction. In particular, Gonzalez argues' that the District Court erred by arbitrarily limiting the length of defense counsel’s cross-examinations, and that the error was not harmless. Assuming that harmless-error rather than plain-error analysis applies, we conclude that the error was harmless. See United States v. Treacy, 639 F.3d 32, 45 (2d Cir. 2011). Defense counsel was able to question Feliz and Escaño extensively on matters related to their credibility, and nothing in the record suggests that counsel was precluded from exploring avenues of inquiry that might have affected the jury’s deliberations. As for the curative instruction, given the lack of evidentiary support for defense counsel’s statement during summation that Feliz “knows he’s' never going to face another day in jail,” the District Court did not err in instructing the jury that Feliz had not yet been sentenced and that defense counsel’s statement was therefore inaccurate. Finally, we conclude that although the District Court committed serious error by twice instructing the jury not to consider counsels’ summations,
. The two erroneous instructions are as follows. First, as part of its admonition concerning defense counsel’s summation, the District Court instructed the jury, "Anything that you hear from the attorneys or anything that you may hear from the outside should not be given any consideration by you.” Second, during deliberations, in connection with giving a curative instruction that counsel had agreed upon, die District Court instructed, "As I reminded you on numerous occasions, what attorneys say during closing arguments is not evidence and should not be considered by you in determining the facts of this case nor are any statements made by attorneys about the applicable law to be considered by you in this connection.”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Julio Cesar GONZALEZ
- Status
- Published