United States v. Angel Gomez , 551 F. App'x 554 ( 2014 )

Case: 13-12124 Date Filed: 01/13/2014 Page: 1 of 3
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 13-12124
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 4:10-cr-00100-BAE-GRS-3
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
ANGEL GOMEZ,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia
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(January 13, 2014)
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Before WILSON, PRYOR and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Angel Gomez appeals the denial of his motion for a new trial. Fed. R. Crim.
P. 33. Gomez appealed earlier his convictions for importing controlled substances,
21 U.S.C. §§ 960, 952, 851, possessing controlled substances with intent to
distribute, id. §§ 851, 841(a)(1), and smuggling goods into the United States, 18
U.S.C. § 545, and we affirmed. United States v. Garcia-Duran, No 11-12320 (11th
Cir. Jan. 31, 2012). Gomez now argues that he is entitled to a new trial based on
newly-discovered evidence that his codefendant, Rodrigo Wood, testified falsely at
trial that he had been unsuccessful in his earlier attempts to enter the United States.
Gomez also argues, for the first time, that the district court should have ordered
discovery and conducted an evidentiary hearing. We affirm.
The district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Gomez’s
motion for a new trial. Gomez based on his motion on newly-discovered evidence
that Wood had “recanted” his earlier testimony and admitted to entering the United
States on three occasions before making the trip with Gomez. Gomez argues that
Wood’s statements prove he is a “perjurer and disreputable person” and “a liar as
claimed by the . . . defense . . . [at] trial,” but those arguments reveal that the
evidence was merely impeaching and cumulative to other evidence introduced at
trial that Wood had testified falsely about his role in the conspiracy to import
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controlled substances. See United States v. Champion, 813 F.2d 1154, 1170–71
(11th Cir. 1987). The newly-discovered evidence also would not probably have
changed the outcome of Gomez’s trial. See id. at 1171. Testimony from federal
agents, a longshoreman, and a taxi driver proved that Gomez and his cohorts
transported heroin and cocaine into the United States illegally; Gomez confessed to
a federal agent that he had been involved the conspiracy to import; and Gomez
admitted at trial to strapping cocaine to his body and then attempting to import the
illegal substance to earn $15,000.
The district court also was not required to, and did not plainly err by failing
to, sua sponte order discovery or conduct an evidentiary hearing. The parties and
the district court assumed the truth of the newly-discovered evidence, and “the
record contained all the evidence needed to dispose of . . . [Gomez’s motion] for a
new trial.” See United States v. Scrushy, 721 F.3d 1288, 1305 n.30 (11th Cir.
2013).
We AFFIRM the denial of Gomez’s motion for a new trial.
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