United States v. Myers

Myers, born in 1958, has used 105 other names, 11 other dates of birth, and 11 other social security numbers to devote his life to stealing. His criminal record began at age 12, when he was charged with shoplifting. He eventually became a serial thief of motor homes, stealing at least eight and selling them to unsuspecting dealers using clone titles. A jury convicted him of multiple counts of interstate transportation of stolen vehicles, money laundering, and related conspiracies, and he was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting claims of multiplicitous charging, improper denial of self-representation, erroneous sentencing, and that the district in which he stole the motor homes was not the proper venue for his money-laundering convictions, because he sold the homes outside of that district. Proper venue lay in the trial district under the plain text of the money-laundering statute because Myers was properly charged with his interstate thefts in the district and because Myers participated in removing the theft’s proceeds out of the district. Venue was constitutionally permissible because Myers partially committed concealment money laundering in the trial district by there obtaining possession of the theft’s unlawful proceeds, which he would launder elsewhere. View "United States v. Myers" on Justia Law