United States v. Steven Deason

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[PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 17-12218
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 5:16-cr-00011-MTT-CHW-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
STEVEN DEASON,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Georgia
________________________
(July 17, 2020)
Before BRANCH, TJOFLAT, and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges.
ED CARNES, Circuit Judge:
This is one of the many cases we see in which an adult male pedophile
communicates with and propositions an underage female via the internet only to
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discover to his surprise that she is not underage and often, as in this case, not even
female. Surprise is followed by arrest and prosecution, which are usually followed
by conviction and appeal, which are usually followed by affirmance. So it is here.
I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Steven Deason responded by email to a Craigslist ad by someone who
supposedly was a female living on Robins Air Force Base. The ad said that she
was “lookin[g] to hang out wit[h] some cool guys.” Deason asked “[h]ow old are
you and what are you into[?]” She answered that she was 14 years old. He
continued to message with her, claiming that he was 30 years old (he was actually
39). She told him her name was Amber and that she lived on base with her
parents.
Deason and Amber chatted digitally (mainly on Yahoo Messenger) over a
period of about a month, from January 6 to February 4, 2016. Deason quickly
introduced sexual topics into their conversations. The focus of many of their
conversations was sexual experiences and encounters, proposed sexual acts
between the two, and a meeting so that they could engage in those acts. Deason
emailed Amber pornographic images on January 12, January 15, January 19,
January 22, and January 27, 2016. On February 1, he sent her three links to
sexually explicit videos. The first video depicted “an older bald gentleman” and a
female engaging in various sexual acts including sexual intercourse. The second
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video depicted a female engaging in various sex acts with “an older, bald, white
male.” While it is debatable that Deason’s 39 years made him “old” or “older,”
there is no debate that he was a “bald white male.” The third video Deason sent a
link to was an instructional video about masturbation for women. It, at least, did
not feature an old bald man.
Amber told Deason that her parents would be out of town on February 4, and
they agreed to get together at her house on that day to engage in several sexual
acts, including oral sex, vaginal sex, analingus, and the like. The morning of
February 4 Deason drove past the house he believed to be Amber’s on his way to a
Burger King to get breakfast for her. An undercover officer involved in the sting
operation was there to observe. While Deason was waiting for his order to be
prepared, two uniformed military police officers, who had nothing to do with the
operation, happened to walk in. Shortly after they did, Deason walked out
hurriedly, got into his car, sped away from the base at more than 70 m.p.h. in a 45
m.p.h. zone, and didn’t go to Amber’s house as he had intended.
Later that day Deason messaged Amber. After asking for her father’s name,
he told her that the reason he had been saying sexually explicit things and sending
pornographic material to her was to help her understand that those things were
wrong because she was so young. Deason told Amber that he was “trying to save”
her and that he had been: “hoping all the dirty things I said to you would click in
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your head and at some point you would say no to all of it.” When Amber asked
him why he would “say all that stuff for so long and do all those things,” Deason
told her that he had sent her all the sexually explicit messages and the porn hoping
she would “tell [him] how gross it was . . . omg, an old man and a young girl.”
Those messages implicitly, but clearly, carried with it the incriminating admission
that he had sent sexually explicit material to a girl he knew was underage.
He must have realized his slip up in that regard because he belatedly
changed course. After Amber called him a liar who had broken her heart and said
that she was through talking to him, he sent a couple of messages asking her if she
wanted to find true love. Amber didn’t respond. Deason then mentioned “role
playing” for the first time, claiming to Amber that he “really thought we was [sic]
role playing up until this week . . . Then I realized you was [sic] not.” He told
Amber not to post on Craigslist anymore because it “is dangerous” and people
would “think you are role playing.” He was, of course, half right: “Amber”
actually was role playing.
The next day, she showed up at Deason’s house in the person of Air Force
Special Investigations Officer Adam Ring, an adult male, who all along had been
pretending to be the underage female named Amber. He had with him several
other law enforcement agents and a warrant to search Deason’s cell phone.
Deason agreed to talk with Ring and another agent inside his house.
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They didn’t read Deason his Miranda rights, preferring instead to keep the
conversation non-custodial. At the beginning of their videotaped talk with Deason,
Ring told him that he was not under arrest, that he was not in custody, and that they
would leave at any time he told them to go. During their conversation, Deason
confessed that he had actually believed the mythical Amber was a non-mythical
fourteen-year-old girl.
II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In March 2016 a federal grand jury indicted Deason on one count of
attempted online enticement of a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b), and six
counts of attempted transfer of obscene matter to a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 1470 –– one count for each of the six days he transferred obscene matter to
Amber.
Deason moved to quash the six § 1470 counts or to exclude evidence of the
obscene matter underlying those counts because the indictment did not specify
which obscene matter was the basis of which counts. The government responded
by filing a superseding indictment that added more details to all of the § 1470
counts. As superseded, five of the § 1470 counts (counts two through six)
specified that each one was for obscene images Deason had sent Amber on one of
the five specified days in January (the 12th, 15th, 19th, 22nd, and 27th),
respectively. The other § 1470 count (count seven) specified it was for the links to
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three obscene videos that he had sent her on February 1.1 As a result, Deason
withdrew his motion to quash the indictment or to exclude the evidence underlying
the counts.
Deason also moved to suppress the videotape of the conversation that took
place at his house. He argued that the content of that conversation was not
admissible because he was in custody when the interview occurred, his admissions
were involuntary, and he had not been read his Miranda rights. After holding an
evidentiary hearing, the district court denied his motion.
The jury found Deason guilty on every count. The court denied his motions
for judgment of acquittal and sentenced him to 144 months on count one and 120
months on counts two through seven, to be served concurrently.
III. ANALYSIS
Deason contends that the district court erred by denying his motion to
suppress the statements he made while being questioned in his house by Ring and
the other agent. He contends that there was insufficient evidence to convict on
count seven, the one that involved the links to videos he had sent. He contends the
six counts of attempted transfer of obscene matter to a minor were flawed because
each count referred to all the obscene matter transferred on a particular date
1
Deason does not contest that sending a link to an obscene video is equivalent to sending
an obscene video.
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without listing specific items that were obscene (for example, count two stated that
“on or about January 12, 2016, . . . Deason . . . did use . . . the Internet and a
cellular telephone to knowingly attempt to transfer obscene matter, to-wit: e-mails
[sic] containing images depicting sexual activity” to an individual he believed to be
fourteen years old). And Deason challenges for the first time: (1) the admissibility
of screenshots and testimony about the three videos; (2) whether each of the counts
charging attempted transfer of obscene matter to a minor improperly charged
multiple crimes in a single count; and (3) whether the district court erred by failing
to give the jury instructions to cure that problem.
A. Motion To Suppress
Everyone agrees that during the interview in his home Deason never
received a Miranda warning and that he was not under arrest at any time that day.
The only question is whether he was “in custody” at some point during the
interview, which would have required a Miranda warning. See Stansbury v.
California, 511 U.S. 318, 322 (1994). The only correct answer is “no.”
“A defendant is in custody for the purposes of Miranda when there has been
a formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a
formal arrest.” United States v. Brown, 441 F.3d 1330, 1347 (11th Cir. 2006)
(quotation marks omitted). To determine whether Deason was in “custody” during
the interview we look at the totality of the circumstances and ask whether “a
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reasonable man in his position would feel a restraint on his freedom of movement
to such extent that he would not feel free to leave.” Id. “The test is objective: the
actual, subjective beliefs of the defendant and the interviewing officer on whether
the defendant was free to leave are irrelevant.” Id. And under the test, “the
reasonable person from whose perspective ‘custody’ is defined is a reasonable
innocent person.” Id.
1. The Interview
After it held an evidentiary hearing, the district court found these facts, none
of which are disputed.
On February 5, 2016, Special Agent Ring obtained a warrant for the search
and seizure of Deason’s mobile phone at his house. That same day Ring and seven
other law enforcement agents went to the house in several vehicles, without lights
or sirens. As they approached his house, Deason stepped out onto his front porch.
Ring and the other officers got out of their vehicles with their guns drawn but
pointed at the ground in front of them, which is a defensive posture. Every officer
was in civilian clothes wearing body armor with law enforcement markings except
for one, a sheriff’s deputy who was in uniform.
Ring introduced himself and asked Deason if there was anyone else inside
the house. Deason said that his daughter was, Ring asked him to bring her outside,
he did so, and she was placed in the deputy’s vehicle. Ring holstered his weapon
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and asked Deason to come down from the porch to talk, which he did. Ring
informed him that they were there to execute a search warrant for his mobile
phone. Deason told him where the phone was, and the other agents went inside the
house and retrieved it.
Ring offered to tell Deason about what was going on, either in his house or
in one of the law enforcement vehicles. Deason chose his house. So Deason,
Ring, and another law enforcement officer, Agent Agrelius, went into the house
and sat at the kitchen table. They set up a video camera to record the conversation.
Ring started by telling Deason he was not under arrest or in custody:
[F]irst and foremost, the most important thing is you’re not under arrest.
Alright? You’re not under arrest right now. We ain’t got you in
custody or anything like that, right? We’re here in your house right
now because that’s where we came and that’s where you are. . . . If you
don’t want us here then you tell us to leave and we will leave. Alright?
. . . [Y]ou are not in custody, you are not detained, if you want us to
leave you say the word.
Deason responded “[o]kay, okay” and “[Y]eah, I’m fine.” Ring asked “You sure?”
and Deason said “Yeah, I’m alright.” Ring reiterated the officers’ willingness to
leave, saying that “anytime you want us to leave you just point to the door we will .
. . bust out’a here.” Deason said “Alright.” Ring then asked Deason if he
understood, and Deason said that he did.
Deason told the agents that he thought they were there because of his
communications with someone he met on Craigslist. He claimed that he had
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believed that he was roleplaying with someone pretending to be a child but started
to worry that he was actually talking to a child. Ring pushed back on Deason’s
story, gradually becoming more confrontational, but eventually things cooled
down. At no time did Ring or the other agent threaten Deason or indicate that he
could not stop the interview at any time.
About half an hour into the conversation, Deason asked if he could have
something to drink. Ring immediately responded: “You want me to get something
to drink? Where’s it at?” Deason pointed to the refrigerator behind Ring and told
him where he could find a beverage. While Ring was looking for Deason’s drink,
Agent Agrelius asked Deason where his ID card was located. Deason felt in his
pockets and then, leaning slightly forward in his chair, pointed behind Agrelius and
stated that it was on top of the furniture he had pointed to. As he leaned forward,
Agrelius told him to “stay there, stay there.” Ring testified that they asked Deason
to stay seated then because they “desire[d] . . . to reasonably restrain [Deason’s]
movement for [their] protection.”
The conversation resumed and became more confrontational when Ring
accused Deason of trying to cover his tracks. About forty-five minutes into the
interview, Ring accused Deason of not meeting with Amber as he had intended at
the Burger King because he had been spooked.
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Ring told Deason that he had gotten a call from Amber’s father who was
frantic and that was why they were at Deason’s house (which was a ruse). He also
told Deason that he had read all of his chats with Amber (which was true since
Ring was Amber).
Deason stuck to his story, and Ring turned the interview over to Agent
Agrelius, who was more confrontational and told Deason what he thought had
happened. He spoke in a sharp and firm voice and repeatedly told Deason not to
interrupt him. But he never yelled at or berated Deason. He eventually got Deason
to admit that he thought Amber was 14.
About an hour into the conversation, Deason’s wife came home. She asked
Deason why he was talking to the agents if they were not arresting him. He told
her to “please go outside and let me finish talking to them” and stated “I want to
finish talking to them.” At that point she asked the agents to step outside of the
house, and take the video camera with them, so that she could talk to her husband
alone. They did what she asked. Deason tried to follow the agents outside, but his
wife would not let him.
After Deason and his wife had talked alone in the house for about 15
minutes, he asked Agents Ring and Agrelius to come back inside. At that point,
they handed Deason the warrant for his cell phone and told him again that he could
“tell [them] to leave at any time, you’re not under arrest, you’re not in custody.”
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He appeared visibly dejected for the rest of their conversation. Deason asked the
two agents a few questions, Agrelius recapped what he thought had happened, and
then all of the officers left.
2. The Custody Question
Based on the totality of the circumstances, we agree with the district court
that Deason was not in custody at any point during the interview. Agent Ring told
him several times that he was not under arrest, that he was not in custody, and that
he could end the conversation at any time. As Ring said to Deason at one point, if
he wanted them to leave he could just point at the door and they would “bust out’a
here.” “[T]he fact that an individual is told he is not under arrest and is free to
leave is a fact of substantial importance in determining whether a reasonable
person would have felt free to leave.” Brown, 441 F.3d at 1347. Obviously. And
Deason “said he understood the officers’ advice that he was not under arrest and
was free to leave,” which “strengthens the force of the instructions.” Id. at 1348.
Obviously. The fact that the interview took place at the kitchen table in Deason’s
home is significant because “courts are much less likely to find the circumstances
custodial when the interrogation occurs in familiar or at least neutral surroundings,
such as the suspect’s home.” Id. (brackets and quotation marks omitted).
Obviously.
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The events that occurred after Deason’s wife arrived also undermine his
claim of involuntariness. She wanted him to shut up, but Deason would not be
silenced and insisted he be allowed to finish talking to the two agents. When his
wife asked the agents to leave the house and take the video equipment with them,
they did so, proving by their actions that, as promised, they would leave when
asked. But Deason didn’t want them to leave. He tried to follow them outside and
would have had his wife not stopped him.
It was Deason himself who, after talking with his wife for about a quarter of
an hour, asked the agents to come back inside the house. When they complied
with his request, they reminded him that he was not under arrest or in custody. It’s
no wonder Deason conceded in the district court that he couldn’t argue in good
faith that the interview was custodial at any point after the two agents left the
house at his wife’s request and then returned at his request.
And Deason cannot argue convincingly that a reasonable person would have
believed at any time during the interview that he was not free to end it and have the
agents leave. Brown, 441 F.3d at 1349. He points to the fact that eight officers
came to his house –– not in it, but to it –– and approached his house with guns
drawn. That’s true, but their “weapons were pointed downward in a protective
posture and were holstered shortly after the initial arrival,” were never drawn
again, and no officer ever handcuffed Deason or even touched him. United States
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v. Luna-Encinas, 603 F.3d 876, 881–82 (11th Cir. 2010); see also id. (concluding
defendant was not in custody despite officers first encountering him with their
guns drawn in a protective posture when entering the property).
Deason also argues that “the interrogation was pointed and aggressive” and
that he “was the only suspect.” But “[h]is status as a suspect, and the ‘coercive
environment’ that exists in virtually every interview by a police officer of a crime
suspect, did not automatically create a custodial situation.” United States v.
Muegge, 225 F.3d 1267, 1270 (11th Cir. 2000). For safety reasons Agent Agrelius
told Deason not to get up for his identification, but that does not amount to a
“restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.”
Brown, 441 F.3d at 1347.
Deason complains that the agents kept his eight-year-old daughter in a police
car during a portion of the interview. Immediately after she was placed in the
police vehicle, however, Agent Ring made clear to Deason that he was not in
custody or under arrest and that he could ask the agents to leave at any time.
Deason said he understood that. A reasonable person also would have understood
that his daughter would be returned to the house if the agents left. (She actually
was released to another family member even earlier than that, at some point during
the interview.)
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“[A] reasonable person in [Deason’s] position would not have believed that
he was utterly at the mercy of the police, away from the protection of any public
scrutiny, and had better confess or else.” Luna-Encinas, 603 F.3d at 882 (quotation
marks omitted). He was interviewed in his own home, a location he preferred, and
was told many times and in many ways that he was not in custody or under arrest.
The voluntariness of the interview could not have been more dramatically
demonstrated than it was by what happened when his wife showed up.
For all of these reasons, the district court correctly concluded that Deason
was not in custody, that no Miranda warning was required, and that the motion to
suppress should be denied.
B. Proving Obscenity
Deason contends there was insufficient evidence to prove he was guilty of
count seven, which charged him with attempted transfer of obscene matter to a
minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1470, because the government did not put into
evidence the entirety of the three videos underlying that count. Instead, Agent
Ring testified about the contents of each video, and screenshots from each video
were admitted into evidence. That is not enough, Deason insists; the jury must
have the work as a whole.
“We review de novo the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction,
viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and drawing all
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reasonable inferences and credibility choices in the verdict’s favor.” United States
v. Godwin, 765 F.3d 1306, 1319 (11th Cir. 2014) (quotation marks omitted). A
guilty verdict “cannot be overturned if any reasonable construction of the evidence
would have allowed the jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable
doubt.” United States v. Rodriguez, 732 F.3d 1299, 1303 (11th Cir. 2013).
The Supreme Court has set out a three-part test for the trier of fact to use in
determining if matter is “obscene.” Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24 (1973).
The trier of fact must determine:
(a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community
standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the
prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently
offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable
state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious
literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Id. (quotation marks and citations omitted) (emphasis added). Two of those
elements require that the work be “taken as a whole.” Id.
From that requirement springs Deason’s contention. He argues that the jury
could evaluate the obscenity of each video “as a whole” only if it saw the whole
video, not just parts of the video. He insists that screenshots and testimony about
the contents of the videos were not enough for the government to carry its burden
of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the videos were obscene.
We disagree. Miller does not require that all the matter alleged to be
obscene be admitted into evidence and put before the trier of fact. The “taken as a
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whole” language in Miller ensures (1) that the matter is placed in context so that
the jury can properly determine whether the work as a whole appeals to the
prurient interest, and (2) that any serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific
value present in the matter as a whole is not lost because only select portions are
viewed. Still, works that are destroyed, unrecorded live performances, or works
otherwise not presented in their entirety can still be found to be obscene under
Miller. See Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 67 (1973) (discussing
how a public sex act would not be protected by Constitution). We look at the
evidence that was presented. All of it.
The evidence before the jury was sufficient to support its conviction of
Deason of count seven. Agent Ring described each of the videos as a whole to the
jury and his descriptions were supported by screenshots taken from the videos.
The title of the first video started with “Barely Legal Teen.” Ring testified about
that first video as follows:
The video . . . [is] 6 minutes and 22 seconds long. . . . [T]here was an
older — older bald gentleman sitting at a table in what appeared to be
some sort of a kitchen area. A female walked into the area, began to
physically seduce the individual that was sitting there. The two
engaged in various sexual acts and then sexual intercourse. To
completion. And then the video ended.
Ring testified about the second video as follows:
[T]hat video depicted a female that was eating a lollipop, and she
encountered an older, bald, white male who began to physically seduce
her. And the two engaged in various sexual acts throughout the video,
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which was 12 minutes and 40 seconds long. At the culmination of the
video, the individual — he ejaculates onto the lollipop that the girl was
consuming, and the girl continues to consume the lollipop.
Ring testified about the third video as follows:
The video was approximately 26 minutes and 25 seconds long. The
video essentially was a masturbation instructional video for females. It
showed a woman lying on a bed, not wearing any bottoms, no
underwear, no pants, while there was a narration going on that
described the different parts of the woman — or of the female anatomy.
It described different techniques and methods for female masturbation
and was quite detailed about the effects and how to successfully
masturbate as a female.
Deason has not contested the accuracy of those descriptions in Ring’s testimony.
Nor has Deason argued that Agent Ring’s descriptions left out important
details or otherwise failed to place the matter in its proper context. Ring’s
testimony and the related screenshots that the jury saw provide sufficient evidence
that each of the videos “is devoted exclusively to the explicit depiction of various
sexual practices[,] . . . appeals to the prurient interest and depicts sexual conduct in
a patently offensive manner,” and “is devoid of . . . serious value, aside from its
intended commercial purpose to cater to a prurient interest in sex.” United States
v. Bagnell, 679 F.2d 826, 837 (11th Cir. 1982). There was enough evidence for the
jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that each video, taken as a whole, was
obscene.2
2
Deason notes in his opening brief to us that he argued in his motion for a judgment of
acquittal before the district court “that one of the videos was not obscene and that it had
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C. Specificity Issues
Deason next contends that the six counts of attempting to transfer obscene
matter to a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1470 were flawed because they did
not specify which of the 67 images and which of the three videos that he sent
Amber the links for were alleged to be obscene. Each § 1470 count of the
superseding indictment referred to obscene matter transferred on a particular date
without listing the specific items; it instead described the obscene matter as
“emails containing images depicting sexual activity” or “links to videos depicting
sexual activity.” For example, count two (Attempted Transfer of Obscene Matter
to a Minor) states that “on or about January 12, 2016 . . . Deason . . . did use . . .
the Internet and a cellular telephone, to knowingly attempt to transfer obscene
matter, to-wit: e-mails [sic] containing images depicting sexual activity, to A., an
individual he believed to be a fourteen (14) year old female.”
educational value because it was an instructional video on female masturbation,” but he does not
otherwise press the argument. His reply brief includes one sentence asserting that there are
“legitimate arguments that the third video” is not obscene. Because Deason did not properly
present this argument on appeal, it is not properly before us. See Keister v. Bell, 879 F.3d 1282,
1287 n.2 (11th Cir. 2018).
And as the district court noted, even if Deason is correct, there is no question that the
evidence of the other two videos being obscene is sufficient to sustain his conviction on count
seven. “Courts have repeatedly held that where a statute defines two or more ways in which an
offense may be committed, all may be alleged in the conjunctive in one count.” United States v.
Felts, 579 F.3d 1341, 1344 (11th Cir. 2009) (quotation marks omitted). “Proof of any one of
those acts conjunctively charged may support a conviction.” Id.; see also United States v.
Croteau, 819 F.3d 1293, 1308 (11th Cir. 2016) (“And here, since the indictment alleged
alternative means by which Croteau violated § 7212(a), we need only find that sufficient
evidence supported the jury’s verdict as to any one of those means.”). In this case there is proof
of two of three ways Deason is alleged to have committed the offense, so he loses.
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An indictment is valid only if it “contains the elements of the offense
intended to be charged, and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be
prepared to meet.” Russell v. United States, 369 U.S. 749, 763 (1962) (quotation
marks omitted); accord United States v. Bobo, 344 F.3d 1076, 1083 (11th Cir.
2003). An indictment violates a defendant’s constitutional rights if it (1) does not
present the essential elements of the charged offense; (2) fails to notify the accused
of the charges to be defended against; or (3) does not allow the accused to rely
upon a judgment under the indictment as a bar against double jeopardy for any
future prosecutions of the same offense. Russell, 369 U.S. at 763–64 (discussing
protections that the guaranty of a grand jury confers).
But if “a party invites error, the Court is precluded from reviewing that error
on appeal.” United States v. Brannan, 562 F.3d 1300, 1306 (11th Cir. 2009)
(quotation marks omitted). The superseding indictment in this case is the result of
Deason’s challenge to the original indictment on specificity grounds. He did argue
in his motion to quash counts two through seven of the original indictment that the
six § 1470 counts in that indictment failed to identify or describe the “obscene
matter” he attempted to transfer and thus violated his Fifth Amendment rights by
exposing him to the risk of double jeopardy and by not sufficiently apprising him
of the charges against him.
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After the government secured the superseding indictment, however, Deason
withdrew his motion because his trial counsel believed that the superseding
indictment cured the problem. She “agree[d]” that the superseding indictment
addressed the issue that she had raised and told the court that she “d[id] not have
that same challenge” to the superseding indictment. She asked the Court to give
her “a reasonable amount of time to review” the superseding indictment in case she
had “any additional challenges to it,” but she never raised any additional challenge.
She never moved to quash the superseding indictment or suppress the evidence
because of any problem with that indictment.
Given the statements and inactions of his counsel, if there were any
problems with the specificity of the superseding indictment, Deason waived or
invited the error, or he at least consented to it. See id. at 1306–07 (“[W]e are
constrained to conclude that [the defendant] affirmatively waived his right to
challenge the charging document on appeal because he encouraged the district
court to proceed to trial on the allegedly faulty count. . . . Not only did [the
defendant] fail to object to the charging instrument nor move to dismiss it, he
affirmatively encouraged the district court to try this case on the very charge he
thought defective.”).
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D. Plain Error Contentions
Deason also contends that: (1) the screenshots and testimony relating to
count seven, concerning the transfer of the three videos, should not have been
admitted into evidence; (2) all six of the § 1470 counts improperly charged
multiple crimes — an error known as duplicity; and (3) the district court erred by
not giving on its own initiative jury instructions to cure the duplicity error. None
of those issues were timely raised in the district court.
Because his trial counsel didn’t timely raise the issues in the district court,
our review is limited to plain error. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b). The plain error
rule places a “daunting obstacle” before Deason. United States v. Pielago, 135
F.3d 703, 708 (11th Cir. 1998). “To demonstrate plain error, the defendant must
show that there is (1) error, (2) that is plain and (3) that affects substantial rights.”
United States v. Turner, 474 F.3d 1265, 1276 (11th Cir. 2007) (quotation marks
omitted). “If all three conditions are met, an appellate court may then exercise its
discretion to notice a forfeited error, but only if (4) the error seriously affects the
fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Id. (quotation
marks omitted).
We exercise our discretion to notice an unpreserved error only “sparingly”
and only “in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise
result.” United States v. Rodriguez, 398 F.3d 1291, 1298 (11th Cir. 2005) (first
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quoting Jones v. United States, 527 U.S. 373, 389 (1999); and then quoting United
States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 736 (1993)). The plain error test is meant to be
difficult to meet. Id. As we have explained:
The narrowness of the plain error rule is a reflection of the
importance, indeed necessity, of the contemporaneous objection rule to
which it is an exception. The contemporaneous objection rule fosters
finality of judgment and deters “sandbagging,” saving an issue for
appeal in hopes of having another shot at trial if the first one misses.
The contemporaneous objection rule also promotes the salutary
interest of making the trial the main event. Failure to enforce it tends
to detract from the perception of the trial of a criminal case as a decisive
and portentous event. Moreover, requiring timely objections allows
trial courts to develop a full record on the issue, consider the matter,
and correct any error before substantial judicial resources are wasted on
appeal and then in an unnecessary retrial. A full record and a prior
decision in the district court are essential ingredients to our substantive
review of issues—they flesh out an issue in a way the parties’ briefs
may not.
Pielago, 135 F.3d at 709 (cleaned up).
1. Admissibility of Video Screenshots and Testimony
In order to prove Deason guilty of count seven (attempting to transfer the
links to three obscene videos to a minor in violation of § 1470), the government
put into evidence screenshots from each of those three videos and had Agent Ring
describe the content of each video to the jury. Deason argues that under the best
evidence rule, which “requires the production of originals to prove the content of
any writing, recording or photograph,” each of the videos should have been
admitted in its entirety. United States v. Guevara, 894 F.3d 1301, 1309 (11th Cir.
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2018) (citing Fed. R. Evid. 1002). He also argues the district court erred in ruling
that the screenshots and testimony describing the videos were admissible under
Federal Rule of Evidence 1006, which allows the admission of summaries to prove
the content of voluminous materials; Deason argues that the videos were not
actually voluminous. And he argues that Ring’s descriptions amounted to
improper lay opinion testimony both because Ring had no personal knowledge of
the videos (despite having seen them) and because his testimony was not helpful to
the jury. As we have explained, we review only for plain error because Deason did
not raise any of those objections at trial. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b).
Even if Deason is correct that admitting the screenshots and allowing Ring
to testify about the content of the videos was error under the best evidence rule, or
was error under Rule 1006, or was improper lay opinion testimony, he still cannot
establish the third element of plain error review: that the error affected his
substantial rights.
For an error to have affected a defendant’s substantial rights, a defendant
must establish that it had a “‘substantial influence’ on the outcome of [his] case” or
that there is “‘grave doubt’ as to whether [it] affected the outcome of [his] case.”
Turner, 474 F.3d at 1276 (quoting United States v. Frazier, 387 F.3d 1244, 1268
n.20 (11th Cir. 2004) (en banc)). He has to show that the error caused him
prejudice, which means that there is a reasonable probability of a different result if
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the error had not been committed. See Molina-Martinez v. United States, 136 S.
Ct. 1338, 1343 (2016) (holding that to establish an error affects substantial rights a
defendant ordinarily must “show a reasonable probability that, but for the error, the
outcome of the proceeding would have been different”) (quotation marks omitted).
The defendant bears the “burden of persuasion” on that requirement. Olano, 507
U.S. at 734.
Deason has not carried that burden. Had he actually objected to admission
of the screenshots and testimony about the contents of the videos, and had the
district court sustained those objections and avoided the asserted error, the
government would have simply put the three videos themselves into evidence.
There is no question that they were admissible. Indeed, Deason’s arguments are
based on the premise that the three videos were admissible in their entirety. He
does not actually argue that there is a reasonable probability that the jury would
have reached a different result had it watched each video in its entirety instead of
considering only the evidence that was admitted about each video. Because
Deason has not established a reasonable probability of a different result but for the
district court’s alleged error in admitting screenshots of the videos and Ring’s
testimony about them, he has not carried his burden of showing that the alleged
error affected his substantial rights, and his failure to object is not to be forgiven
under the plain error rule. See Rodriguez, 398 F.3d at 1299. His argument fails.
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2. Duplicitous Counts
Deason contends that the six counts in the superseding indictment charging
him with attempting to transfer obscene matter to a minor in violation of § 1470
are duplicitous and should have been struck for that reason. A count is duplicitous
if it charges two or more separate and distinct offenses. United States v. Schlei,
122 F.3d 944, 977 (11th Cir. 1997). In criminal pleading duplicity creates the risk
that: “(1) A jury may convict a defendant without unanimously agreeing on the
same offense; (2) A defendant may be prejudiced in a subsequent double jeopardy
defense; and (3) A court may have difficulty determining the admissibility of
evidence.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). Because of Deason’s failure to object,
our review is again only for plain error. United States v. Gonzalez, 834 F.3d 1206,
1217–18 (11th Cir. 2016).
Deason argues that an “allowable unit of prosecution” under § 1470 does not
include all the images a defendant transferred or all the videos he sent the links for
in a given day (which is how the six counts for attempting to transfer obscene
matter organized the charges), and for that reason those counts were duplicitous.
See Ward v. United States, 694 F.2d 654, 659 (11th Cir. 1983). To determine if a
count is duplicitous we consider “what conduct constitutes a single offense.”
Schlei, 122 F.3d at 977. And to do that we look to the text of the underlying
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statute. See Sanabria v. United States, 437 U.S. 54, 69 (1978). The statute behind
these counts provides:
Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign
commerce, knowingly transfers obscene matter to another individual
who has not attained the age of 16 years, knowing that such other
individual has not attained the age of 16 years, or attempts to do so,
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or
both.
18 U.S.C. § 1470. Deason argues that because the transfer of a single image or the
link to a single video is a crime under § 1470, it must follow that the transfer of
multiple images or of links to multiple videos constitutes multiple crimes even if
done on the same day. And from that proposition, he says, it must follow that a
count charging multiple transfers in one day is duplicitous.
The sole risk Deason identifies from how these counts were charged is that
the jury may not have been unanimous in its findings of which transferred images
or linked videos were obscene. For each § 1470 count there were multiple images
or video links. For example, count two involved 28 images — so Deason theorizes
that some jurors might have concluded that only Image 1 was obscene, while
others might have concluded that only Image 2 was obscene, and so on. Because
of that, he could have been found guilty of count two even if the jury did not
unanimously agree that any one of the 28 images in that count was obscene. The
same alleged problem exists for the other § 1470 counts.
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Even if we assume that Deason is correct, and that the § 1470 counts were
duplicitous and that this error was plain, he still is not entitled to have his
convictions on those counts vacated. As with his earlier asserted errors, this
asserted error is not a structural one, so he must establish that it affected his
substantial rights. See Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 8 (1999).3 For an error
to affect a defendant’s substantial rights, he must show that the error caused him
prejudice, which requires that there be a reasonable probability of a different result
if the error had not been committed. See Molina-Martinez, 136 S. Ct. at 1343.
And, again, Deason bears the “burden of persuasion” on that. Olano, 507 U.S. at
734.
A duplicitous count could have affected Deason’s substantial rights only if
there was a reasonable probability that the jury did not unanimously agree that any
one image in a particular count was obscene. See Rodriguez, 398 F.3d at 1301.
But as to the 67 images underlying counts two through six, Deason offers not a
single argument as to how a reasonable juror could conclude that any of those
3
A structural error is a defect so severe that it “infect[s] the entire trial process” and
“render[s] a trial fundamentally unfair.” Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 8 (1999) (quotation
marks omitted). Examples include being completely deprived of counsel or being tried by a
biased judge. Id. at 9. The Supreme Court has made clear that “most constitutional errors can be
harmless” and that there is a “strong presumption that . . . errors that may have occurred are
subject to harmless-error analysis.” Id. at 8 (quotation marks omitted). A duplicitous indictment
is not one of a “very limited class of cases” that constitute a structural error. Id. (quotation marks
omitted); see also United States v. Prescott, 42 F.3d 1165, 1166–67 (8th Cir. 1994) (denying new
trial despite conceded duplicity).
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images are not obscene. As to the three linked videos underlying count seven, he
does not contest that two of them are obscene. Even if we assume the third video
is not obscene, see supra page 18 n.2, the jury could not have reasonably concluded
that the other two videos are not obscene. Deason has failed to offer any
reasonable theory for how the jury could have been less than unanimous on at least
one image or linked video underlying each of the six § 1470 counts.
Because the evidence shows that every reasonable jury would have
unanimously concluded that at least one of the emails or linked videos underlying
each § 1470 count was obscene, Deason has not carried his burden of showing
prejudice. He speculates that the jury might have not been unanimous, but
speculation is not enough. See Rodriguez, 398 F.3d at 1301. He must show a
“reasonable probability that the result [of the trial] would have been different but
for the error.” Id. And that different result, obviously, has to be one that would be
favorable to him. See id. at 1302.
Deason has failed to show that he would have been better off if the
“duplicitous” count error had not occurred or had been corrected. In fact, under his
theory, he should have been charged not with seven § 1470 counts but with 70
counts (67 obscene emails and three linked obscene videos). And he has offered
no serious argument that he is innocent of 69 of those charges. If it is at least as
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plausible that an error, if one occurred, worked in the defendant’s favor as against
him, he loses. See id. at 1301. That is the situation here.
The lack of prejudice here stands in stark contrast to cases such as United
States v. Adkinson, 135 F.3d 1363 (11th Cir. 1998). That case involved “a 115–
page, fifteen count indictment against fourteen defendants.” Id. at 1368. Count
one of that indictment was conspiracy to commit an offense against the United
States under 18 U.S.C. § 371. Id. The indictment alleged 227 overt acts in support
of that conspiracy “with no explanation of how they fit into the alleged scheme.”
Id. at 1376. During the course of the trial, however, the count one conspiracy
charge was dismissed. Id. at 1370. And that created a new problem: counts two
and three of the indictment depended on an allegation of an underlying bank fraud
scheme, but the only alleged scheme had been described in count one and then
incorporated by reference into the later counts. Id. at 1376.
We concluded that even if the 227 overt acts could supply the missing
scheme, the jury would have been “free to pick and choose that ‘scheme’ from
wherever they wished among the 227 overt acts.” Id. at 1377. “Under such
circumstances, the probability that the resulting verdict was not unanimous would
be overwhelming.” Id. (emphasis added). An “overwhelming” chance of a non-
unanimous verdict based on 227 choices of acts without any explanation about
how they fit into an alleged scheme was enough to justify reversal even under plain
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error review. Id. Here, by contrast, Deason provides no evidence that the jury
verdict was anything but unanimous on at least one image or linked video
underlying each of the six § 1470 counts. He has not carried his burden under the
plain error rule.4
3. Jury Instructions to Cure Duplicity Problem
Finally, Deason contends that the district court plainly erred by failing to
independently give jury instructions that would have cured what he now argues are
the duplicity problems of the six § 1470 counts. He asserts that any prejudice
created by the allegedly defective counts in the superseding indictment might have
been cured had the district court given specific unanimity instructions as to the
duplicitous counts. See Schlei, 122 F.3d at 980. Because of Deason’s failure to
object to the counts of the superseding indictment or ask for the jury instruction on
unanimity he now asserts the district court should have given, the district court
would have had to ferret out the potential problem itself, raise the matter, and then
add to the jury instructions language that neither party requested. Deason argues
4
Deason’s reliance on United States v. Gipson, 553 F.2d 453 (5th Cir. 1977), and United
States v. Schlei, 122 F.3d 944 (11th Cir. 1997), is misplaced. In both cases the defendant
objected in the district court, review was not limited to plain error, and as a result the defendant
did not have the burden of showing prejudice. Gipson, 553 F.3d at 456; Schlei, 122 F.3d at 975–
76.
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that his “right to a unanimous jury verdict” was violated because the court did not
do that. See United States v. Gipson, 553 F.2d 453, 459 (5th Cir. 1977). 5
Even if the district court committed an error that was otherwise plain by not
giving on its own initiative more specific instructions about a unanimous verdict,
this argument of Deason’s has the same lack-of-prejudice problem as his
duplicitous indictment argument. See supra Section II.D.2. He has to carry his
burden of showing that any “error affected his substantial rights, i.e., caused him
prejudice.” Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 133 (2009). Because he has
failed to do that, he cannot prevail on this issue. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 734.
AFFIRMED.
5
In Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc), we
adopted as binding precedent all decisions of the former Fifth Circuit handed down before
October 1, 1981.
32