United States v. Guzman-Cordoba

988 F.3d 391

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.Angelica GUZMAN-CORDOBA and Joel Alvarado-Santiago, Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 19-2526 & 19-2937

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued December 7, 2020

Decided February 12, 2021

Rehearing Denied March 8, 2021

Lawrence D. Hilton, M. Kendra Klump, Attorneys, Office of the United States Attorney, Indianapolis, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Daniel J. Hillis, Attorney, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Springfield, IL, Thomas W. Patton, Attorney, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Peoria, IL, for Defendant-Appellant Angelica N. Guzman-Cordoba.

Paul H. Tzur, Attorney, Blank Rome LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellant Joel Alvarado-Santiago.

Before Sykes, Chief Judge, and Brennan and St. Eve, Circuit Judges.

St. Eve, Circuit Judge.

Between 2016 and 2017, Angelica Guzman-Cordoba and Joel Alvarado-Santiago participated in an extensive drug trafficking organization operating out of Indianapolis and Chicago. Nine defendants were ultimately indicted as part of a federal investigation into the organization's activities. This consolidated appeal concerns just two of those defendants: Guzman-Cordoba worked as a drug courier, drug seller, and stash house guard for the organization while Alvarado-Santiago, known as "el catero" or "el kartero" ("the mailman"), laundered the drug proceeds by wiring large sums from the grocery store that he managed in Indianapolis to California and Mexico.

In April 2019, a jury convicted Guzman-Cordoba of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and distribution of methamphetamine. The jury also convicted Alvarado-Santiago of conspiracy to launder money. At trial, Guzman-Cordoba presented a duress defense, in which she asserted that she had been forced to join the drug trafficking organization through violence and threats of violence to herself and her family. Alvarado-Santiago defended himself on the grounds that he did not know that the money he had sent to California and Mexico was drug money. He claimed he was just an unknowing and innocent conduit for the funds.

On appeal, Guzman-Cordoba and Alvarado-Santiago argue that the district court made several errors during trial. First, Guzman-Cordoba maintains that the district court erred in limiting the evidence she attempted to introduce regarding her duress defense and also erred in instructing the jury on that defense. Guzman-Cordoba further contends that the district court erred in ordering her to forfeit roughly $10,000 in cash that was found at one of the organization's stash houses. For his part, Alvarado-Santiago insists that the district court erred in only admitting a portion of his post-arrest statement and further erred in admitting a statement by Guzman-Cordoba without limiting the jury's ability to consider that evidence against him. Finally, he claims the district court erred in giving the jury an instruction on deliberate avoidance of knowledge, also known as the "ostrich instruction."

Finding no reversible error as to either Guzman-Cordoba or Alvarado-Santiago, we affirm their convictions and sentences.

I. Background

This case is about Guzman-Cordoba and Alvarado-Santiago's participation in a large-scale drug trafficking organization ("DTO") operating out of Indianapolis. Co-conspirators Ricardo Ochoa-Beltran and Miguel Lara-Leon led the organization and were also indicted for their crimes.¹ At their direction, several co-conspirators distributed methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana and sent the proceeds to California and Mexico. The operation included several stash houses in the Indianapolis area.

Cesar Salgado, another co-conspirator and Guzman-Cordoba's boyfriend, brought her into the organization. Over time, Guzman-Cordoba began to sell drugs directly on behalf of the DTO, guard an Indianapolis stash house, and carry drugs and money between Indianapolis and Chicago. During the investigation of the DTO, Guzman-Cordoba sold drugs to confidential informants and to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents in controlled-buy transactions. Guzman-Cordoba was charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 and with distributing methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2.

Alvarado-Santiago was not charged as a co-conspirator in the DTO, but was instead charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956. As the manager of his family's grocery store, Alvarado-Santiago laundered the drug proceeds through the grocery store's wire transfer service, offered through InterCambio Express. Over the course of two years, his store funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug trafficking proceeds out of Indianapolis.

Alvarado-Santiago employed several strategies to avoid suspicion or detection by InterCambio Express or the authorities. Although members of the DTO might drop off upwards of $10,000 in cash to transfer on a particular day, Alvarado-Santiago broke the funds up into smaller amounts to avoid triggering additional review by InterCambio Express. In addition, he routinely notified his co-conspirators if the system flagged destination names or addresses as suspicious. He provided a receipt from each transaction to a member of the DTO (often Salgado), but those receipts never contained a customer's signature. Salgado or another co-conspirator paid Alvarado-Santiago $400 for each $10,000 drop that he successfully wired.

At trial, the government introduced evidence of the conspiracy through the testimony of a confidential informant, several law enforcement officers, and Salgado, who pled guilty and cooperated with the government. Through these witnesses, the government introduced evidence regarding how the DTO shipped drugs through the mail, the receipts of wire transfers from Alvarado-Santiago's grocery store, a ledger kept by Salgado of those wire transfers, cell phones used by the DTO, text messages between co-conspirators from those phones, videos and pictures from some of the controlled-buy transactions, and the fruits of a search warrant that law enforcement executed at one of the stash houses that Guzman-Cordoba guarded, including drugs (worth over $100,000), firearms, scales and other tools of the drug trade, and cash.

Guzman-Cordoba proffered a duress defense, which the district court permitted her to present to the jury.² She took the stand in her own defense and testified that she had acted under duress throughout the duration of her involvement with the DTO. She had fallen under the organization's control through Salgado—her boyfriend—who ultimately cooperated with the government and testified against her. She feared for her life and those of her children, and members of the conspiracy had made real and immediate threats against her. At times, she was not permitted to see her children, including a young baby, and she believed that her babysitter was under the control of the DTO. She testified in graphic detail to a beating that she received at the hands of a DTO member. According to Guzman-Cordoba, the violence of the DTO was "ever present" and she lived in constant fear for herself and her children. The jury heard further evidence through Salgado of other beatings experienced by non-compliant members of the DTO, including one incident in which Ochoa-Beltran, the leader of the organization, forcibly extracted another man's teeth while at the stash house. Guzman-Cordoba was aware of the teeth-pulling incident and understood this conduct as part of Ochoa-Beltran's efforts to manipulate and control his foot soldiers.

Alvarado-Santiago defended himself by attacking the government's contention that he was aware that he was laundering drug money. He also testified in his defense. He denied that he was the individual referred to as "kartero" and denied knowing that he was laundering drug money. He instead testified that he had written down some of the names he had been asked to wire money to in order to audit, or investigate, what he thought might be suspicious transactions.

Despite these defenses, the jury convicted both Guzman-Cordoba and Alvarado-Santiago of all charges.

II. Guzman-Cordoba's Appeal

On appeal, Guzman-Cordoba makes three arguments. First, she argues that the district court improperly limited the evidence of her duress defense. Second, she argues that the district court erred when instructing the jury regarding her duress defense. Based on these objections, Guzman-Cordoba contends that she is entitled to a new trial. Third, she asks this Court to vacate the district court's forfeiture order, because the district court failed to comply with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2, which governs criminal forfeiture.

A. Evidence of Other Deaths

Guzman-Cordoba first argues that the district court abused its discretion in barring evidence of two deaths that she argued were relevant to her duress defense. The district court allowed Guzman-Cordoba to present a duress defense,³ and instructed the jury accordingly, but the court limited the supporting evidence on relevance grounds. Specifically, the court did not permit her counsel to cross examine the cooperating witness, Salgado, about the death of another DTO member, "Pac-Man." The district court also prohibited counsel from eliciting testimony from Guzman-Cordoba about the death of her father, whom she believed the DTO had murdered in Guatemala for her non-compliance with DTO orders.

We review properly preserved objections to a district court's evidentiary decisions for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Washington , 962 F.3d 901, 905 (7th Cir. 2020). "Abuse of discretion is, of course, a highly deferential standard. We give special deference to evidentiary rulings[.]" United States v. Groce , 891 F.3d 260, 268 (7th Cir. 2018). A trial court abuses its discretion only when "no reasonable person could take the view adopted by...