Wade Parker v. United States


USCA11 Case: 19-14943 Date Filed: 04/06/2021 Page: 1 of 17 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-14943 ________________________ D.C. Docket Nos. 0:19-cv-62070-WPD; 0:07-cr-60238-WPD-3 WADE PARKER, Petitioner - Appellant, versus UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent - Appellee. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida _______________________ (April 6, 2021) Before LAGOA, HULL, and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. MARCUS, Circuit Judge: An ATF reverse sting operation caught Wade Parker in the midst of an effort to commit armed robbery of a house he believed held the cocaine stash of a USCA11 Case: 19-14943 Date Filed: 04/06/2021 Page: 2 of 17 Colombian cartel. A jury convicted Parker, among other things, of both conspiring to use and using a firearm during a crime of violence or drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(o) and § 924(c). In Parker’s first visit to our Court, we affirmed his convictions and the ensuing sentence. United States v. Parker, 376 F. App’x 1, 3 (11th Cir. 2010). Now, Parker appeals the district court’s rejection of his § 2255 collateral attack on these convictions. Parker claims that under United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019), the only crime-of-violence offense that the jury could have relied on to predicate the challenged convictions -- conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery -- is not actually a crime of violence. He’s right about that, but his § 2255 motion still fails. In addition to the Hobbs Act conspiracy, the district court instructed the jury that it could predicate the challenged § 924(c) and (o) convictions on two drug trafficking offenses, attempt and conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute. Given the facts and circumstances presented at trial, the jury could not have relied on the invalid Hobbs Act conspiracy predicate without also relying on the drug trafficking offenses, each of which remain valid predicates. Under Granda v. United States, --- F.3d ----, No. 17-15194, 2021 WL 923282, at *9 (11th Cir. Mar. 11, 2021), this defeats Parker’s claims. We affirm. 2 USCA11 Case: 19-14943 Date Filed: 04/06/2021 Page: 3 of 17 I. A. These are the essential facts surrounding this case. In the summer of 2007, an ATF confidential informant (“CI”) told Ishwade Subran that he knew someone who was looking for help robbing some 15 kilograms of cocaine from a local stash house. Subran and his associate Patrick Aiken met with the CI and an undercover ATF agent (“UC”) at a Sunrise, Florida restaurant to discuss the robbery. The UC introduced himself as a disgruntled employee of a Colombian drug cartel and asked if Subran and Aiken would rob his bosses’ stash house, which would be protected by one or two armed guards. The undercover agent explained that he was a courier who transported kilogram quantities of cocaine for the cartel, and that he had seen at least 15 kilograms of cocaine in its stash houses. Subran and Aiken agreed, and indicated they …

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