United States v. Mageno

762 F.3d 933

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Nancy MAGENO, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 12–10474.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Sept. 10, 2013.

Filed Aug. 11, 2014.

Mace J. Yampolsky (argued), Mace J. Yampolsky, Ltd., Las Vegas, NV, for Defendant–Appellant.

Adam M. Flake (argued), Assistant United States Attorney; Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney; Robert L. Ellman, Appellate Chief, Office of the United States Attorney, Las Vegas, NV, for Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, James C. Mahan, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 2:11–cr–00048–JCM–CWH–7.

Before: J. CLIFFORD WALLACE, RAYMOND C. FISHER, and MARSHA S. BERZON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge BERZON; Dissent by Judge WALLACE.

OPINION

BERZON, Circuit Judge:

Nancy Mageno's godson, a leader of a methamphetamine conspiracy, did not speak English fluently, so Mageno translated telephone calls for him. As a result, Mageno was prosecuted for knowingly joining and participating in the drug conspiracy by fostering communication between its participants and her godson. In a separate disposition, we reject Mageno's argument that the evidence against her was insufficient to sustain the conviction. Here, we consider related issues commendably raised by the government itself on appeal: Did the prosecutors' several misstatements of fact during the closing argument encourage the jury to convict Mageno on the basis of evidence not presented at trial? If so, is there a reasonable probability that the misstatements affected the outcome? After determining that we should reach these questions although Mageno did not raise them, we answer both questions “yes,” and reverse.

I

Mageno's godson, Jesus Guadalupe Felix Burgos, his wife, and his young son, lived with Mageno in a two-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas, Nevada. While Burgos lived with her, Mageno served as his informal English–Spanish translator. Drug deals were often the topic of the conversations Mageno translated. When the government indicted Burgos and eight others for conspiring to distribute a controlled substance, it indicted Mageno as well. Mageno was charged with two counts; one alleging that she, Burgos, and others conspired to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)(viii) and 846, and the other accusing her of distributing more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)(viii) and 18 U.S.C. § 2, on or about October 7, 2010.

The Drug Enforcement Agency began investigating methamphetamine distribution in the Billings, Montana area with the aid of an undercover officer, Agent Joseph Kirkland. After Kirkland purchased high-grade methamphetamine from two brothers in the Billings area, he traced the brothers' supplier to Las Vegas. The supplier, Paco Francisco Flores, eventually led Kirkland to Burgos, the individual the government now maintains was at the center of the distribution operation. Burgos identified himself to Kirkland as “Virrio,” invited Kirkland to travel to Las Vegas to buy methamphetamine, and provided Kirkland with a phone number to contact him.

To help develop a case against Burgos and his associates, the government obtained a warrant to tap Burgos's phone. At Mageno's trial, the government introduced a total of five intercepted calls involving Mageno:

(1) A September 22, 2010, phone call between an unknown man and Burgos, in which Mageno acted as a translator. The unknown man complained that, “[t]he stuff that I just got is garbage. It's full of cut.... it's like, looks like soap. I [cook] this up I look stupid.” An agent testified that this meant the drugs were poor quality and could not be resold. The caller said that he was going to “take ... the rock out of it” and wanted a “return on” the “other stuff.”

(2) An October 1, 2010, phone call between co-defendant John Asher, Burgos, and Mageno. Mageno translated for Burgos, saying to Asher: “He says right now he doesn't have anything. What he does have is not any good.... They're waiting for—the new shipment to come in.”

(3) An October 7, 2010, phone call between Kirkland and Burgos, in which Mageno translated as they arranged a meeting. Kirkland called Burgos on that day, the date of the planned Las Vegas transaction. During the call, Burgos had trouble communicating with Kirkland in English so Mageno translated part of the conversation. The questions and responses Mageno translated facilitated the transaction by providing details about Kirkland's car, location and clothing. Mageno also conveyed a question from Kirkland as to “price,” although Kirkland never specified the “price” was for drugs. Burgos's response to the “price” question, also translated by Mageno, was, “This time it's the same price. Next time he can give it to you cheaper because right now they're having a hard time.”

(4) A November 4, 2010, phone call between an unknown caller and Burgos, with Mageno translating as they arranged a meeting. Mageno translated the unknown caller's description of his car.

(5) A November 17, 2010, phone call between a caller identified as “Paco” ¹ and Mageno, in which Mageno hints that she is concerned that the phone might be tapped: When asked what was happening, Mageno responds that she “can't say over the phone.”

The evidence at trial also included testimony that on November 17, 2010, just before the last intercepted call, Mageno was driving with Burgos and his family when they realized they were being followed. Mageno confronted the agent monitoring Burgos, demanding, “Why are you following me?” After that encounter, Mageno made Burgos and his family leave her apartment. But that was not the end of her relationship with Burgos. Not long after Burgos moved out, Mageno traveled with him and two others, including her son-in-law, to Yakima, Washington, which was asserted by the government to be a “known drug hub.” She, Burgos, and the others were detained by drug enforcement authorities but no drugs were found in their car.

Testifying in her defense, Mageno explained that: she did not know the conversations she translated contained references to drugs and “was under the impression that it had to do with [Burgos's] work”; she asked Burgos about the phone calls, and he always said the calls had to do with his work as a day laborer; Burgos told her the first call was a complaint about shoddy workmanship in the laying of cement; she understood that when the caller complained that he couldn't “cook” the product, he was referring to mixing cement in a concrete mixer; Burgos told her the shipment referred to in the October 1 call was a cement purchase; and in translating the October 7 Kirkland call, Mageno thought she was connecting one of Burgos's workers with an employer, so that the worker could follow the employer to his home for a job.

Also, according to Mageno: she did not know Burgos was dealing drugs until the events of November 17, when Burgos admitted his involvement when they realized they were being followed; the reason she was hesitant to speak to Paco later that day was because she did not know Paco well and he was her son's romantic rival, not because she feared the phone was tapped; and, as to the trip to Yakima, she was told its purpose was to visit a relative, not to deal drugs.

Testifying at Mageno's trial in her defense, Burgos said Mageno was “an innocent person,” and “it wouldn't be fair for her to be judged by the crimes another person has done.” He confirmed that he told Mageno they were going to Yakima to visit an ill relative, but denied that Mageno asked him questions about the phone calls she interpreted.

On cross examination, the government questioned Burgos about a prior, drug-related deportation. After he testified that he lived with Mageno for about a year in 2007 before being deported, the government asked whether Mageno knew why he was deported. Mageno's attorney objected on the ground that the answer called for speculation. After a sidebar discussion,² the government agreed to ask “[j]ust one question” of Burgos concerning his deportation, and the prosecutor did so, asking, “Mr. Burgos, going back to ... 2007, the reason why you were deported was because you were trafficking in methamphetamine, isn't that right?” Burgos answered in the affirmative, and the government moved on. But Burgos never said that Mageno knew that he was deported or why, and neither did Mageno—she was never asked.

This truncated line of questioning was transformed into a centerpiece of the closing arguments. The prosecution argued that Mageno knew that Burgos had been deported for drug trafficking, and so must have known the calls she translated related to drug trafficking:

There's one [version of events] that the big, bad government has looped Nancy Mageno unfairly into this large, multi-state drug conspiracy all because she accidentally got on a couple of phone calls where she thought she was assisting in cement sales and pool cleaners and coordinating day laborers who were having clandestine meetings in parking lots of In–and–Out Burgers. That's one story.

And there's another one. There's a second story and that's that, like every individual walking the streets, she had a choice. She had a choice whether to let her godson who she already knew had been deported for distributing methamphetamine move in with her. She had that choice. She had a choice whether or not to get on the phone and begin translating phone calls that dealt with cut and shipments and coordinating these meetings.

She had these choices and she's the one who made the choice to get on those phones. She is the one who made the choice to help her godson, Virrio, the one who had already been deported for distributing methamphetamine. That is the second story line of this case. That is what this case is about. (Emphasis added.)

The prosecutor went on...