## Facts

- Thomas Morocco Hager participated in a crack-cocaine distribution conspiracy in Washington, D.C., working with Arlington Johnson and Lonnie Barnett.
- In October 1993, Hager shot and wounded two rival drug dealers (Christopher Fletcher and Ric Pearson) during a dispute connected to his drug activities.
- After the shooting, Hager went into hiding at his girlfriend Shenita King’s Maryland apartment, which functioned as a location to conceal drugs, money, and firearms.
- Barbara White had a child with a member of the rival Ely Place gang connected to Fletcher and Pearson.
- White attempted to visit King’s apartment, and Hager feared White would reveal his location to the rivals, exposing him and his drug operation to retaliation.
- On November 29, 1993, Hager, Johnson, and Barnett went to White’s apartment and killed her; evidence supported that Johnson and Barnett acted at Hager’s direction.
- A jury found Hager was engaged in a conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of crack cocaine and that White’s killing occurred while he was engaged in that conspiracy.

## Issues

1. Whether sufficient evidence showed Hager intentionally killed White “while engaged in” (and in furtherance of) the charged drug-trafficking conspiracy for purposes of 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1)(A).
2. Whether trial rulings and procedures during the guilt phase and the capital penalty phases (including evidentiary rulings, instructions, and eligibility determinations) required reversal under federal law or the Constitution.
3. Whether the jury’s aggravating/mitigating findings and imposition of the death sentence complied with governing federal capital-sentencing requirements and the Eighth Amendment.

## Decision

- The Fourth Circuit affirmed Hager’s conviction and death sentence.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient to establish the required nexus between the killing and the drug conspiracy under § 848(e)(1)(A).
- The court rejected claimed errors related to the district court’s management of the three-phase capital trial and found no reversible error in the admission of evidence, the instructions given, or the statutory eligibility findings.
- The court upheld the jury’s capital-sentencing determinations against constitutional and statutory challenges.
- A dissenting judge would not have affirmed the death sentence based on concerns about the capital-sentencing analysis and the appropriateness of death on the record.

## Legal Principles

- Under 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1)(A), the government must prove an intentional killing occurred while the defendant was engaged in (and, as applied here, in furtherance of) a qualifying drug-trafficking conspiracy.
- A sufficient nexus may be shown where a killing is motivated by protecting the defendant and the ongoing drug operation from retaliation arising out of the drug enterprise, even if the homicide is not contemporaneous with a drug transaction and the victim is not a drug conspirator.
- In federal capital cases, appellate review assesses whether statutory eligibility requirements were satisfied, whether the trial court’s evidentiary and instructional rulings were legally proper, and whether the sentencing verdict is free from reversible statutory or constitutional error.
- A jury’s weighing of aggravating and mitigating evidence in selecting a death sentence is upheld where supported by the record and not shown to be arbitrary or unconstitutional.

## Conclusion

The Fourth Circuit upheld Hager’s conviction and death sentence for intentionally killing Barbara White during a crack-distribution conspiracy, concluding the evidence supported the statutory drug-conspiracy nexus for § 848(e)(1)(A) and that the capital trial and sentencing proceedings contained no reversible legal error.


United States v. Hager, 721 F.3d 167 (4th Cir. 2013)