US v. Kelvin Manrich

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 1:11-cr-00122-CCB-20 Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [999450611]. [13-4807]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 13-4807

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
KELVIN QUADE MANRICH,
Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
Maryland, at Baltimore.
Catherine C. Blake, District Judge.
(1:11-cr-00122-CCB-20)

Submitted:

September 29, 2014

Decided:

October 7, 2014

Before KING, GREGORY, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Bruce A. Johnson, Jr., LAW OFFICES OF BRUCE A. JOHNSON, JR.,
LLC, Bowie, Maryland, for Appellant. Rod J. Rosenstein, United
States Attorney, Kathleen O. Gavin, Assistant United States
Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Kelvin

Quade

Manrich,

a

former

officer

with

the

Baltimore Police Department (“BPD”), appeals the forty-one-month
sentence

imposed

remanded

his

after

case

we

for

vacated

his

resentencing.

original
See

sentence

United

and

States

Manrich, 529 F. App’x 322 (4th Cir. 2013) (No. 12-4624).

v.
The

only issue in this appeal is whether the district court properly
calculated

the

sentencing

loss

purposes.

amount
See

attributable

U.S.

(“USSG”) § 2B1.1(b) (2011).

to

Sentencing

Manrich

Guidelines

for

Manual

For the reasons that follow, we

affirm the amended criminal judgment.
Following

five

days

of

trial

testimony,

Manrich

entered a straight up guilty plea to conspiracy to obstruct,
delay, and affect commerce by extortion by means of unlawfully
obtaining,

under

color

of

official

right,

money

and

other

property from Hernan Alexis Moreno and Edwin Javier Mejia, who
jointly

owned

and

operated

Majestic

Auto

Repair

Shop,

LLC,

(“Majestic”), in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1951(a) (2012),
and three substantive counts of the same, in violation of 18
U.S.C. §§ 1951(a), 2 (2012).
the

overarching

purpose

of

As discussed in our prior opinion,
the

underlying

conspiracy

was

to

“enrich” the involved BPD officers and to “benefit” Moreno and
Mejia

by

positions

bribing
and

police

influence

officers
to

cause
2

to

use

vehicles

“their
to

be

official
towed

or

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otherwise

delivered

to

repair.”

(J.A. 14). 1

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Majestic

for

automobile

The scheme was simple:

services

and

a BPD officer

would respond to the scene of a vehicle accident; the officer
would

encourage

the

vehicle

owner

to

have

Majestic

tow

the

damaged vehicle and/or repair the damage sustained during the
collision.

Moreno and Mejia paid the BPD officers a “referral

fee” for directing accident victims to Majestic.

This fee, more

appropriately called a kickback, ranged from $250 to $300 per
vehicle.

Majestic, in turn, would repair the damage sustained

in the accident.
also

repair

resulting

However, for some vehicles, Majestic would

pre-existing

from

the

damage

accident.

and/or

Majestic

add

to

would

the

then

damage

submit

an

insurance claim for both the legitimate and fraudulent damage.
Manrich was initially assigned a base offense level of
fourteen.
levels

because

extortion.
applied

See

an

USSG
the

USSG

§

§

2C1.1(a)(1).

offense

involved

2C1.1(b)(1).

eight-level

increase

This
more

The

was

increased

than

one

probation

because

the

two

bribe

or

officer

then

foreseeable

loss

amount attributable to Manrich was more than $70,000 but less
than

$120,000.

1

This

was

Citations to the
submitted by the parties.

a

specific

“J.A.”

3

refer

offense

to

the

characteristic

joint

appendix

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pursuant to USSG § 2C1.1(b)(2), which cross-references the loss
table found in § 2B1.1(b)(1).
To

substantiate

the

loss

determination,

FBI

Agent

Robert Guynn prepared a Loss Summary Chart, which was offered at
the resentencing hearing.

Although the conspiracy spanned many

years and involved a substantial number of vehicles, Guynn had
included only fourteen vehicles, all of which were referred to
Majestic either by Manrich or by one of the four officers whose
involvement in the conspiracy Manrich admittedly knew.
At the resentencing hearing, Guynn described how he
compiled this chart.

Specifically, Guynn explained that the

data presented in the chart was culled from witness testimony
from the trial and the plea agreements and stipulated statements
of facts accepted by the admitted co-conspirators.
explained

that

he

had

consulted

with

insurance

Guynn also
adjusters

determine what percentage of each claim was fraudulent.

to
The

insurance companies paid $63,971.95 for repairs to the fourteen
selected vehicles.

Of this, Guynn concluded that $48,966.96 was

paid to repair fraudulent damage. 2

2

Manrich argues on appeal that Guynn did not sufficiently
particularize how he determined the fraud percentage for two
claims that were not 100% fraudulent. But Manrich did not raise
this objection in the district court and, given Guynn’s
testimony, we discern no plain error in the court’s acceptance
of the Loss Summary Chart as to these findings.
See United
(Continued)
4

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The

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sentencing

estimate of the loss.”

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court

“need

only

make

a

reasonable

USSG § 2B1.1 cmt. n.3(C); see United

States v. Keita, 742 F.3d 184, 192 (4th Cir. 2014) (recognizing
that the loss amount “need not be determined with precision”
(internal
$49,000

quotation
in

marks

fraudulent

omitted)).

insurance

Added

claims

are

to

the

the

nearly

kickbacks

received by Manrich and his acknowledged co-conspirators, which
total, at minimum, $37,000. 3

The record as supplemented thus

amply demonstrates the basis for the court’s determination of a
loss amount of at least $70,000.
Manrich

advances

three

arguments

to

undermine

this

finding, two of which attack Hernan Moreno’s testimony at the
resentencing

hearing.

But

any

concerns

regarding

Moreno’s

credibility or lack of specific recollection are ameliorated by
Guynn’s testimony, which established a proper foundation for the
Loss Summary Chart.

States v. Hamilton, 701 F.3d 404, 410 (4th Cir. 2012), cert.
denied, 133 S. Ct. 1838 (2013).
3

As the Government aptly points out, we resolved the issue
of the foreseeability of these payments in Manrich’s first
appeal, see Manrich, 529 F. App’x at 325, and will not revisit
the issue here. See MacDonald v. Moose, 710 F.3d 154, 161 n.10
(4th Cir.) (“[T]he doctrine of law of the case restricts a court
to legal decisions it has made on the same issues in the same
case.”), cert. denied, 134 S. Ct. 200 (2013).

5

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Finally,

Manrich

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asserts

that

the

fraudulently

obtained insurance proceeds paid to two of his co-conspirators,
Jerry Diggs and Leonel Rodriguez, were improperly included in
the

loss

claims

amount.

were

agreements

100%

entered

Guynn’s

determination

fraudulent
into

by

is

these

that

of

these

with

the

plea

co-conspirators.

On

this

consistent

both

record and given our foreseeability ruling in Manrich’s first
appeal, see Manrich, 529 F. App’x at 325, there is no error in
finding these amounts were reasonably foreseeable to Manrich. 4
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the Government
satisfied its burden of proving a loss amount between $70,000
and

$120,000,

which

supported

Manrich’s offense level.

the

eight-level

increase

in

As this is the only issue in dispute,

we affirm the amended criminal judgment.

We dispense with oral

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately

4

For the first time on appeal, Manrich argues that the
$15,215 paid to Rodriguez should be excluded from the loss
determination because the fraudulent conduct underlying that
claim occurred prior to Manrich’s entrance into the conspiracy.
But even if this entire amount were excluded, the combined loss
amount would still exceed $70,000. Thus, because Manrich cannot
establish any prejudice resulting from including this amount in
the loss determination, he does not satisfy the rigorous plain
error standard applicable to this newly raised claim.
See
United States v. Byers, 649 F.3d 197, 213 (4th Cir. 2011)
(“Plain error review is strictly circumscribed and meeting all
four prongs is difficult, as it should be.” (internal quotation
marks and alteration omitted)).

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presented in the materials before this court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED

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