United States v. Marciano Vasquez
Opinion
Just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, lies the city of Piedras Negras. A violent drug cartel, the Zetas, dominated the city. The cartel stocked vast warehouses in Piedras Negras with drugs and used the city as a base to smuggle them into the United States. The defendant, Marciano Millan Vasquez, was a hitman for the cartel and the so-called "plaza boss" of Piedras Negras. He directed the traffic in drugs and did whatever was required to protect the cartel's bottom line. He kidnapped, tortured, and killed scores of men, women, and children-often in brutal fashion. The victims were informants, debtors, defectors, military, law enforcement, members of rival cartels, and anyone else unlucky enough to have drawn the cartel's ire.
A tip led to Vasquez's arrest and, ultimately, his trial on charges of drug trafficking and killing while engaged in various drug-trafficking crimes. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts. Sentenced to seven lifetimes (plus 60 months) in prison, Vasquez appeals. On appeal, he raises an extraterritoriality challenge, claims a double jeopardy violation, and alleges that the district court botched its jury instructions. All of his challenges are subject to plain error review, and none of them surmount its high bar. At the center of this appeal is
I.
A.
The Zetas cartel is an international drug-trafficking organization based in Mexico. It got its start as the security arm of another cartel. Eventually, however, the two organizations fractured. The Zetas cartel then became a drug-trafficking organization in its own right, stocking vast warehouses in Mexico with marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine-all ready for importation into the United States. But drug trafficking was not its only line of business. Kidnapping, extortion, and murder generated additional revenue for the cartel and helped maintain control over its bases (or "plazas").
Marciano Millan Vasquez was a hitman and drug trafficker with the Zetas cartel. 1
*369 Over the years, he worked his way up to become the "plaza boss" of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, a city across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. The Zetas had near total control over the state of Coahuila, and, within that, Vasquez controlled Piedras Negras. As plaza boss, Vasquez directed the flow of drugs across the border and had the power to order executions. He was also responsible for maintaining control of Piedras Negras, which he did by bribing and murdering public officials and law enforcement officers.
During his reign as plaza boss, Vasquez routinely killed and ordered his underlings to kill. The victims were suspected informants, competitors, defectors, debtors, those close to them, and countless others who drew Vasquez's ire for one reason or another.
Suspected informants were a frequent target. Rodolpho Reyes, Jr., a U.S. citizen, worked for the Zetas cartel but began cooperating with U.S. law enforcement in 2009. After law enforcement repeatedly intercepted shipments of drugs, Vasquez grew suspicious. He summoned Reyes to Mexico, where he tortured him until Reyes confessed and gave up the name of another informant. Vasquez then gave him some cocaine, told him to pray, shot him, dismembered his corpse, and burned it. Severino Abascal was another suspected informant. Vasquez, then just the deputy to the plaza boss, advised the then-plaza boss to kidnap and kill Abascal. After Abascal and his girlfriend disappeared, Abascal's father asked a friend linked to the cartel to look into it. The friend called the plaza boss, who told the friend that he and Vasquez had just finished "cooking" them-meaning that they had dissolved the bodies in acid or diesel gasoline.
The Zetas cartel also orchestrated mass slaughters. Pancho Cuellar was once a high-ranking member of the cartel. According to one witness who worked with him, he "was in charge of all of the cocaine movement in Piedras Negras." Cuellar-rumored to be working with law enforcement and indebted to the Zetas to the tune of $10 million-fled to the United States and began cooperating with law enforcement. In retaliation, the Zetas organized, according to one trial witness, "one of the largest massacres that ha[s] happened in Coahuila." Members of the cartel swiftly rounded up more than 30 people, 2 including children, and took them to a vacant lot outside Piedras Negras, where they shot them and disposed of their bodies. Vasquez helped to plan, coordinate, and, ultimately, carry out the round-up and the slaughter. The Zetas then rounded up hundreds more in the nearby town of Allende and murdered them as well.
Vasquez and the cartel also used murder to punish and intimidate those who stole from and owed money to them. The Zetas killed a man who laundered its money, as well as his friend and his brother, when it suspected that he had stolen from the cartel. 3 Another man, Jorge De Leon, smuggled drugs, firearms, and money for Vasquez but incurred a debt when he lost a shipment. When De Leon failed to pay by Vasquez's deadline, Vasquez kidnapped *370 him and held him hostage. Vasquez demanded that De Leon's family and friends pay a $100,000 ransom.
He then showed De Leon what would happen to him if they failed. Over the 13 days he was held hostage, De Leon testified that he was forced to watch one brutal murder after another. Vasquez and his underlings first dismembered four men and one woman in front of him, burning their corpses afterward. Four children suspected of working for a rival cartel and two men were "cut up" while De Leon was forced to watch. Three Mexican military personnel were shot right in front of him. And he was forced to watch as Vasquez dismembered and then burned a six-year-old girl in front of her parents. After they watched their daughter die, Vasquez murdered the parents too. Vasquez finally released De Leon when his mother raised $20,000 by selling her home. If he failed to raise an additional $100,000, Vasquez told him, he would suffer through the same horrors yet again. De Leon failed to raise the money. Fearing for himself and his family, he fled to the United States and brought his wife, son, and father with him.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Vasquez in San Antonio in July 2015. Based on a tip, they tracked him to a house registered to his common law wife. When asked his name, Vasquez told the marshals that he was Rigoberto Sanchez and gave them a false identification card. Although the marshals told Vasquez that they knew who he was, he initially continued to insist that he was Rigoberto Sanchez but ultimately confessed his real identity.
B.
A grand jury in the Western District of Texas returned a ten-count indictment against Vasquez. Count one of the indictment charged Vasquez with killing while engaged in offenses punishable under
After an 11-day trial, a jury found Vasquez guilty on all counts. As for the murder charges, the jury returned a special verdict form finding Vasquez guilty of every charged murder. 4
Vasquez filed a post-verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal. He argued for the first time that
The district court then imposed seven consecutive terms of life imprisonment on counts one, two, three, four, six, seven, and eight. It imposed concurrent sentences of ten years' incarceration on count five and *371 twenty years' on count nine. Finally, it imposed a consecutive sentence of five years' incarceration on count ten.
C.
Convicted and sentenced to more than seven lifetimes' worth of imprisonment, Vasquez appeals. According to Vasquez, his murder convictions cannot stand because the statute under which he was convicted does not apply beyond the territory of the United States. He also argues that the district court flubbed its jury instruction on the murder counts, allowing the jury to convict him even if it found no "substantive connection" between the murders and Vasquez's drug-trafficking crimes. These errors, Vasquez next contends, "spilled over" to taint the other counts, meaning that his remaining convictions cannot stand if we reverse on the murder counts. Finally, Vasquez claims that his drug-trafficking convictions are actually lesser-included offenses of his murder convictions, such that the Double Jeopardy Clause precludes punishing him for both.
In the sections that follow, we consider and reject each argument in turn.
II.
We turn first to Vasquez's extraterritoriality argument.
A.
The parties disagree about the standard of review. Vasquez contends that his extraterritoriality challenge is properly preserved. The Government contends that it is waived-that is, subject not to plain error review but to no review at all. Both parties are wrong.
Whether Vasquez preserved the argument depends on whether he raised it at the right time in the district court. Vasquez first argued that
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12 governs the timing of pretrial motions. "A motion that the court lacks jurisdiction may be made at any time while the case is pending." Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(2). But other motions "must be raised by pretrial motion if the basis for the motion is then reasonably available and the motion can be determined without a trial on the merits." Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3). This includes motions alleging "a defect in the indictment," such as the "failure to state an offense." Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3)(B)(v). If a party advances such an argument after the deadline for pretrial motions, then "the motion is untimely." Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(c)(3). The court may nonetheless consider the motion "if the party shows good cause."
Extraterritoriality "is a question on the merits rather than a question of a tribunal's power to hear the case."
United States v. Rojas
,
Nor could Vasquez's argument on appeal reasonably be characterized as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. The
*372
Government did not charge murders only in the United States but then present evidence of murders only in Mexico. The indictment charged murders that took place in Mexico. And Vasquez has briefed only the purely legal question of whether the statute applies extraterritorially at all. The basis for that argument was "reasonably available" long before trial and could have been "determined without a trial on the merits."
See
Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3). Vasquez therefore should have raised it in a pretrial motion to dismiss the indictment, not in a post-verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal.
Cf.
Rojas
,
Vasquez's argument is unpreserved, but it is not "waived." Before 2014, Rule 12 deemed a motion "waived" if not timely filed.
See, e.g.
,
United States v. Warren
,
The language about "waiver" was subsequently deleted, and the Rule now says that the motion is merely "untimely." Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(c)(3). The advisory committee explained that it revised the rule "to avoid possible confusion" stemming from the use of the word "waiver," given that Rule 12"never required any determination that a party who failed to make a timely motion intended to relinquish a defense, objection, or request." Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(c) advisory committee's note to 2014 amendment. "The Advisory Committee Notes are instructive on the drafters' intent in promulgating the federal rules."
United States v. Navarro
,
Vasquez bears the burden of proving plain error.
See
United States v. Dominguez Benitez
,
B.
"Congress has the authority to enforce its laws beyond the territorial boundaries of the United States."
EEOC v. Arabian Am. Oil Co. ("Aramco")
,
The Supreme Court has developed a two-step framework to apply the presumption.
RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Cmty.
, --- U.S. ----,
If the conduct relevant to the statute's focus occurred in the United States, then the case involves a permissible domestic application even if other conduct occurred abroad; but if the conduct relevant to the focus occurred in a foreign country, then the case involves an impermissible extraterritorial application regardless of any other conduct that occurred in U.S. territory.
C.
To the first step, then: does § 848(e)(1)(A)"give[ ] a clear, affirmative indication that it applies extraterritorially?" RJR Nabisco , 136 S.Ct. at 2101. RJR Nabisco effectively mandates that we answer in the affirmative. Like the statute in that case, a conviction under § 848(e)(1)(A) requires proof of underlying offenses that themselves apply extraterritorially. We therefore hold that § 848(e)(1)(A) applies extraterritorially to the same extent as those underlying offenses.
In
RJR Nabisco
, the Supreme Court considered the extraterritorial application of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, more commonly known as "RICO,"
*375
The Court rejected the defendant's argument that RICO did not apply extraterritorially because " 'RICO itself' does not refer to extraterritorial application."
The Court made clear that RICO's extraterritorial application was limited to its terms.
See
We set out § 848(e)(1)(A) in full:
(1) In addition to the other penalties set forth in this section-
(A) any person engaging in or working in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise, or any person engaging in an offense punishable under section 841(b)(1)(A) of this title or section 960(b)(1) of this title who intentionally kills or counsels, commands, induces, procures, or causes the intentional killing of an individual and such killing results, shall be sentenced to any term of imprisonment, which shall not be less than 20 years, and which may be up to life imprisonment, or may be sentenced to death; ....
The structure of the statute resembles RICO. It sets forth penalties for intentionally killing or counseling, commanding, inducing, procuring, or causing a killing.
The predicate offenses outlaw different types of acts.
7
As relevant here, § 841(a) makes it "unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally ... to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance."
Section 848(e)(1)(A) 's predicate offenses "plainly apply to at least some foreign conduct."
See
RJR Nabisco
, 136 S.Ct. at 2101. This court has held that § 841(a)(1) applies extraterritorially "so long as it is clear that the intended distribution would occur within the territorial United States."
United States v. Baker
,
The RJR Nabisco Court found "a clear, affirmative indication" that Congress intended for RICO to apply extraterritorially because "a number of [RICO] predicates ... apply to at least some foreign conduct." 136 S.Ct. at 2101-02. Section 848(e)(1)(A) has a leg up on RICO in overcoming the presumption against extraterritoriality. While a "number" of RICO predicates "apply to at least some foreign conduct," all of § 848(e)(1)(A) 's predicates do. The inclusion of just some extraterritorial predicates was enough for the RJR Nabisco Court to find a "clear, affirmative indication" that Congress intended for RICO to apply to at least some foreign conduct. See id. at 2102-03. The Court explained, "Short of an explicit declaration, it is hard to imagine how Congress could have more clearly indicated that it intended RICO to have (some) extraterritorial effect." Id. But Congress did so here. It crafted an offense based on predicate acts that all apply extraterritorially. 8
*377
Vasquez argues that § 848(e)(1)(A) does not apply extraterritorially because it does not state so explicitly. This is a misunderstanding of the law. The presumption against extraterritoriality requires a "clear indication of extraterritorial effect," not "an express statement."
RJR Nabisco
, 136 S.Ct. at 2102. Put differently, the presumption against extraterritoriality is not a "clear statement rule."
Morrison
,
Because the scope of § 848(e)(1)(A) 's extraterritorial application is limited by its underlying offenses,
see
id.
at 2102, we would normally consider whether the indictment nonetheless "allege[s] impermissibly extraterritorial violations,"
id.
at 2105. In other words, we would consider whether the predicate offenses apply to the extraterritorial conduct alleged to violate them. Vasquez does not address this issue and has therefore forfeited on appeal any argument that the indictment alleges impermissibly extraterritorial violations.
See
Yohey v. Collins
,
In short, there is a clear, affirmative indication of congressional intent that § 848(e)(1)(A) apply extraterritorially. The presumption against extraterritoriality has therefore been overcome. Looking to the statutory "focus" to determine whether the case involves a domestic application is therefore unnecessary. See RJR Nabisco , 136 S.Ct. at 2103-04. 10
D.
Congress clearly and affirmatively indicated that it intended for § 848(e)(1) to apply extraterritorially-at least to the extent that the underlying predicate offenses do. Vasquez led a vast drug-trafficking and *378 distribution conspiracy, and therefore the underlying predicate offenses would apply to his extraterritorial conduct. The district court did not err-plainly or otherwise-by concluding that § 848(e)(1) applies extraterritorially.
III.
Vasquez next argues that the district court should have further defined the "engaging in" element of § 848(e)(1)(A). According to Vasquez, the district court erred by simply reciting the statutory language. By doing so, he claims, it allowed the jury to convict based on a mere temporal connection between the killings and the drug trafficking, rather than the "substantive connection" some courts have required. Reviewing for plain error, we conclude otherwise.
A.
Vasquez never requested further definition of the "engaging in" element in the district court. We therefore review for plain error.
United States v. Percel
,
B.
Section 848(e)(1)(A) applies only if the defendant is "engaging in an offense punishable under section 841(b)(1)(A) of this title or section 960(b) of this title."
First: That an individual was intentionally killed;
Second: That the defendant killed the individual or that the defendant counseled, commanded, induced, procured, or caused the intentional killing of the individual; and
Third: That the defendant did so while engaged in offenses punishable under Title 21, United States Code, Section 841(b)(l)(A) or Title 21, United States Code, Section 960(b)(l).
The court did not further define "engaged in."
This is an issue of first impression-a circumstance that bodes ill for Vasquez.
Cf.
SEC v. Life Partners Holdings, Inc.
,
*379
The courts of appeals to consider the issue have all held that § 848(e)(1)(A) 's "engaging in" element requires a "substantive, and not merely temporal, connection" between the murder and the predicate offense.
See
United States v. Aguilar
,
If the district court erred by not further defining the "engaging in" element, its error was hardly "clear or obvious." Not only has this circuit not defined the "engaging in" element, it has not even been precisely defined by those circuits holding that it requires a "substantive connection."
See, e.g.
,
Aguilar
,
What is more, it is not even clear that the district court's instruction would be deemed error in the circuits that have adopted the "substantive connection" standard. Those courts have affirmed convictions based on jury instructions identical or similar to the one given in this case.
Cf., e.g.
,
Tipton
,
Even if erroneous, the instruction did not, by any stretch of the imagination, "mean[ ] the difference between acquittal and conviction."
McClatchy
,
Vasquez challenges none of this evidence. Instead, he asserts without any citation to the record that it is impossible to determine whether the jury found the appropriate connection for any given murder. Even assuming for the sake of argument that the instruction was erroneous, Vasquez's mere speculation that the jury may not have found a substantive connection for some of the many charged murders is not enough to demonstrate a "likelihood" that the instruction "could have meant the difference between acquittal and conviction,"
see
McClatchy
,
Vasquez has not demonstrated that the jury instruction was plainly erroneous. 12
IV.
Vasquez finally argues that convicting him of both the predicate drug offenses and the § 848(e)(1)(A) offense violated the Double Jeopardy Clause. In his view, the drug offenses are lesser-included offenses of § 848(e)(1)(A). Therefore, he insists, convictions for both are multiplicitous. Again reviewing for plain error, we conclude otherwise.
A.
Vasquez first raised his multiplicity challenge in a post-verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal. "A claim that convictions are multiplicitous cannot be raised for the first time on appeal; such a claim must be raised by motion before trial."
United States v. Ogba
,
The Government concedes that this court will review Vasquez's challenge to his consecutive sentences de novo. That concession is irrelevant. "A party cannot waive, concede, or abandon the applicable standard of review."
United States v. Escobar
,
The Government is therefore incorrect that this court will review Vasquez's challenge to his cumulative sentences de novo. Vasquez has not briefed any such challenge for us to consider, and we decline to take it up on our own initiative.
Cf.
United States v. Willingham
,
We therefore review Vasquez's multiplicity challenge to his convictions for plain error.
B.
The Double Jeopardy Clause commands that "[n]o person shall ... be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." U.S. Const. amend. V. The clause at its core prevents a defendant from being tried more than once for a single offense.
Missouri v. Hunter
,
"There are at least two species of multiplicity challenges," but this appeal implicates only one.
United States v. Woerner
,
Blockburger
defines a rule of statutory construction.
Hunter
,
To divine Congress's intent, we start with the text of the statute.
United States v. Singleton
,
Although we have not previously considered the precise question presented here, our caselaw on a similar issue forecloses Vasquez's argument, particularly on plain error review. In
United States v. Villarreal
, we considered whether § 848(e)(1)(B)
14
created an offense separate
*383
from its predicates or was merely a sentencing enhancement.
See
Every court of appeals to consider the question has concluded that § 848(e)(1)(A) sets forth separate offenses-offenses for which the defendant may be prosecuted, convicted, and punished
in addition to
the underlying predicate drug-trafficking offenses.
See
United States v. Honken
,
Because Congress made clear its intention to authorize cumulative punishment, the "court's task of statutory construction is at an end."
Hunter
,
*384 V.
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM Vasquez's convictions and sentence.
Vasquez does not challenge the sufficiency or reliability of the evidence presented at trial. We therefore summarize the testimony and exhibits offered at trial as uncontested.
These numbers are drawn from witness estimates. The jury returned a special verdict form finding Vasquez guilty of these murders but listing the number of victims as "unknown."
The Government does not point to any evidence linking Vasquez directly to these three murders. The jury nonetheless found Vasquez guilty of all three. On appeal, the Government characterizes Vasquez's role in these murders as aiding and abetting, which is the theory on which the court allowed them to be submitted to the jury. Regardless, Vasquez does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence as to this murder or any other.
The mass murders following Cuellar's defection were listed as a single entry labeled, "The Allende murders (an unknown number of persons)."
Our approach in particular cases decided before the amendment was nonetheless inconsistent.
Compare
Chavez-Valencia
,
Despite relying on
RJR Nabisco
heavily in its brief, the Government for the first time at oral argument took the puzzling position that
RJR Nabisco
does not apply to criminal cases. We reject this argument. RICO is a hybrid statute authorizing criminal prosecution,
Perhaps more to the point, the Supreme Court has indicated in dictum that the presumption applies to criminal statutes.
See
Small v. United States
,
The case on which the Government relies,
United States v. Bowman
, held that the presumption does not apply to criminal statutes intended to protect the Government "itself against obstruction, or fraud wherever perpetrated, especially if committed by its own citizens, officers, or agents."
Section 848(e)(1)(A) references §§ 841(b)(1)(A) and 960(b)(1), which set forth penalties for violations of §§ 841(a) and 960(a). Sections 841(a) and 960(a) identify the prohibited conduct. The referenced penalty provisions set forth penalties for the largest amounts of drugs.
The Government relies heavily on the legislative history of the act that added subsection (e)(1) to
There was abundant trial evidence proving these allegations, including testimony from coconspirators, informants, and law enforcement officers.
We also typically consider "whether applying a statute extraterritorially violates due-process principles."
Rojas
,
It is not clear whether Vasquez also intended to challenge the aiding and abetting instruction. His failure to clearly identify this as a potential basis for relief forfeits the argument on appeal.
See
United States v. Scroggins
,
Because we perceive no defect in Vasquez's conviction under § 848(e)(1)(A), we need not consider his argument that "spillover prejudice" from the allegedly improper § 848(e)(1)(A) conviction tainted his remaining convictions.
Although Vasquez would still be subject to a life sentence on count one if the remaining counts were vacated, the additional convictions are still cumulative punishment because the district court imposed a special assessment for each count.
See
Rutledge v. United States
,
This is the subsection that punishes murders of law enforcement officers "during the commission of, in furtherance of, or while attempting to avoid apprehension, prosecution or service of a prison sentence for, a felony violation" of
There is perhaps a colorable argument-one Vasquez does not make-that the penalties for violations of §§ 841(b)(1)(A) and 960(b)(1) are not "penalties set forth in
this section
," meaning § 848. The sole circuit to confront this argument has rejected it.
See
NJB
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Marciano Millan VASQUEZ, Also Known as Chano, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 68 cases
- Status
- Published