19-3969-cr(L) United States of America v. Betancourt, et al. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. At a stated Term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York on the 21st day of May, two thousand twenty one. Present: GUIDO CALABRESI, ROSEMARY S. POOLER, MICHAEL H. PARK, Circuit Judges. _____________________________________________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. 19-3969-cr (L), 19-4194-cr (CON), 20-346-cr (CON) FRANCISCO BETANCOURT, CARLOS ANTONIO HERNANDEZ, LUCILO CABRERA, Defendants-Appellants. 1 _____________________________________________________ Appearing for Appellants: Christopher Duby, Hamden, CT for Defendant-Appellant Francisco Betancourt. 1 The Clerk of Court is directed to amend the caption as set forth above. John R. Gulash, Gulash & Associates, LLC (Noah J. Kores, on the brief), Bridgeport, CT for Defendant-Appellant Carlos Antonio Hernandez. Andrew H. Freifeld, New York, N.Y. for Defendant-Appellant Lucilo Cabrera. Appearing for Appellee: Robert S. Ruff, Assistant United States Attorney (Sandra S. Glover, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief) for Leonard C. Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, New Haven, CT. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Underhill, J.). ON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the order of said District Court be and it hereby is AFFIRMED. Francisco Betancourt, Carlos Antonio Hernandez, and Lucilo Cabrera appeal from the judgments of conviction entered on November 26, 2019 (Betancourt, Hernandez) and January 21, 2020 (Cabrera) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut (Underhill, J.). After a nine-day trial, a jury convicted Betancourt, Hernandez, and Cabrera of conspiracy to commit federal kidnapping and of multiple kidnappings in violation of the Lindbergh Law, 18 U.S.C. § 1201, and of conspiracy to commit extortion and of multiple extortions in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. §1951. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and specification of issues for review. Roughly from June 2014 to May 2017, Hernandez, Betancourt, Cabrera, and Pascual Rodriguez tricked undocumented immigrants arriving to New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal into believing that they had missed bus trips to Connecticut or were in the wrong bus station. Defendants then took possession of the immigrants’ immigration papers or bus tickets, or sometimes both, and told them that instead, they could travel by taxi, for which defendants would later demand payment of around $1,000 per trip. The jury convicted Hernandez, Betancourt, …
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