United States v. Hatcher

323 F.3d 666 (8th Cir. 2003)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Michael Hatcher, Angelo Porrello, and Joseph Anthony Porrello were convicted on charges stemming from the armed robberies of jewelry stores in the Kansas City area. Clarence Burnett organized a group of robbers who successfully robbed numerous jewelry stores. The makeup of the crew changed from robbery to robbery. Burnett took the jewels to J's Pawnshop, operated by Angelo and Joseph Porrello, to fence the jewels. At trial, Clarence Burnett testified that the Porrellos were involved not only in the fencing of the jewelry but also in the planning of the robberies including providing guns, bulletproof vests, and jewelry-store floor plans. Burnett eventually confessed these crimes to the authorities in an attempt to get a lighter sentence in an unrelated case. At trial, the majority of the evidence came from cooperating co-conspirators in exchange for reduced sentences. There was substantial evidence indicating that the Porrellos acted as the fences for the jewelry. The only evidence directly linking the Porrellos to the planning of the crime came either from Burnett on the witness stand or through other witnesses relating what Burnett had told them at the time of the robberies. Ds were convicted and appealed. Ds argue in part that the district court had erred in finding attorney-client privilege applied to tape recordings between the co-conspirators and their counsel discussing their testimony that were recorded by the government while the co-conspirators were incarcerated. The parties to these conversations were aware that they were being recorded by the prison.