By: Derek Hawkins//November 1, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: United States of America v. Pawel W. Wrobel, et al
Case No.: 15-2511; 15-3106
Officials: BAUER, POSNER, and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges
Focus: HOBBS Act – Procedural Error – Sufficiency of Evidence
Evidence was more than sufficient to show nexus between offense conducted by the appellants and interstate conduct to satisfy the HOBBS act violation charges.
“Wrobel and Stanislawczyk’s reliance on Mattson is misplaced. They believe that Mattson precludes us from finding that the government satisfied the interstate commerce element because Reichman, like the victim in Mattson, is an individual not engaged in interstate commerce. This argument overlooks a crucial distinction based on well-established law. Unlike the extortion conviction reversed in Mattson, Wrobel and Stanislawczyk’s convictions were for an attempted Hobbs Act robbery. Factual impossibility and mistake of fact are not defenses to an attempt crime. Mitov, 460 F.3d at 908 (citing Bailey, 227 F.3d at 797); Muratovic, 719 F.3d at 814 (noting that the “inability to complete the crime ‘does not diminish the sincerity of any efforts to accomplish that end’” (quoting United States v. Cotts, 14 F.3d 300, 307 (7th Cir. 1994))). It does not matter whether or not Reichman was actually a diamond merchant engaged in interstate commerce. What matters is that the evidence demonstrated that Wrobel and Stanislawczyk acted with the specific intent to rob a diamond merchant and took a substantial step toward robbing diamonds from someone whom they believed to be a diamond merchant. The government presented sufficient evidence to establish the required nexus between the offense and interstate commerce”
Affirmed