United States v. Nina

United States v. Nina

Opinion

 [*29]  SUMMARY ORDER

UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.

Defendant-Appellant Adony Nina appeals from a judgment of conviction entered on March 22, 2016, after two jury trials, sentencing him to life imprisonment. The convictions stem from Nina's leadership of a violent heroin and crack-cocaine dealing organization in the Bronx, referred to below as "the Crew." We assume the parties' familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, and the issues on appeal.

The trial on the seventh superseding indictment (hereinafter "2013 [**2]  Indictment") took place in October 2013, and the trial on the twelfth superseding indictment (hereinafter "2015 Indictment") took place in May 2015. At the conclusion of the first trial, Nina was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(b)(1)(A) (Count One of 2013 Indictment), and using and possessing a firearm to commit a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A) (Count Three of 2013 Indictment). At the conclusion of the second trial, Nina was found guilty of the murder of Aisha Morales in connection with a drug trafficking offense, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1)(A) (Count One of 2015 Indictment), and using and possessing a firearm to commit that murder in connection with the drug trafficking offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(j) (Count Two of 2015 Indictment). Nina was sentenced to concurrent terms of life imprisonment on Count One of the 2013 Indictment and Count One of the 2015 Indictment, a consecutive term of life imprisonment on Count Two of the 2015 Indictment, and a consecutive term of 10 years' imprisonment on Count Three of the 2013 Indictment.³

On appeal, Nina argues that: (1) a judgment of acquittal should have been entered with respect to both counts of conviction in the second [**3]  trial because the Government failed to prove a sufficient connection between the homicide and the drug conspiracy; (2) he is entitled to new trials on all counts due to the admission at both trials of evidence of certain instances of violent  [*30]  conduct that he argues is irrelevant; (3) the district court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial during the first trial on the basis that the Government elicited testimony that a woman with whom Nina was in a sexual relationship was 16 years old at the time of the relationship; (4) his conviction for murder in connection with a narcotics trafficking offense in the second trial should be vacated because the 2015 indictment failed to specify the quantity of drugs associated with the narcotics conspiracy; (5) his sentence for violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(j)(1) was procedurally unreasonable because the district court incorrectly held that that sentence had to run consecutively to the other sentences imposed; and (6) his life sentence for conspiracy to distribute narcotics was substantively unreasonable. We reject all of these arguments, and affirm his conviction and sentence.

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