In the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

AUGUST TERM 2022

No. 21-2763-cr

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,

v.

AZIBO AQUART, AKA D., AKA DREDDY, AKA JUMBO, AKA AZIBO SMITH, AKA AZIBO SIWATU JAHI SMITH, Defendant-Appellant,

AZIKIWE AQUART, AKA ZEE, NATHANIEL GRANT, AKA CORRECTIONAL OFFICER STONE, EFRAIN JOHNSON, Defendants. __________

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut __________

ARGUED: MAY 9, 2023 DECIDED: JANUARY 29, 2024 ________________ Before: LIVINGSTON, Chief Judge, RAGGI, and CARNEY, Circuit Judges. ________________

In 2012, appellant Azibo Aquart was found guilty after trial in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Arterton, J.) of multiple federal homicide and drug trafficking crimes and sentenced to death. On Aquart’s initial direct appeal, this court affirmed his conviction insofar as it adjudicated guilt, but vacated his death sentence and remanded the case for a new penalty proceeding. See United States v. Aquart, 912 F.3d 1, 10 (2d Cir. 2018). When, on remand, the government decided not to pursue the death penalty, the district court resentenced Aquart to a total sentence of life imprisonment, a term statutorily mandated for certain of his crimes of conviction. On this appeal, Aquart argues that the district court erred in (1) relying on the mandate rule in declining to address new challenges on remand to the guilt component of his conviction, and (2) sentencing him for both drug-related murder and drug conspiracy in violation of double jeopardy. The appeal fails because the district court correctly applied the mandate rule, and Aquart’s double jeopardy argument is without merit.

AFFIRMED.

_________________

DANIEL HABIB, Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., New York, NY (Monica Foster, Executive Director, Indiana Federal Community Defenders, Indianapolis, IN; David A. Moraghan, Smith Keefe Moraghan & Waterfall, LLC, Torrington, CT, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant.

ELENA LALLI CORONADO, Assistant United States Attorney (Sandra S. Glover, Tara E. Levens, Assistant United States Attorneys, on the brief), for Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, New Haven, CT, for Appellee.

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2 REENA RAGGI, Circuit Judge:

Defendant Azibo Aquart is no stranger to this court. For almost six years, between 2012 and 2018, he pursued an appeal from a judgment of conviction entered in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Janet Bond Arterton, Judge) for various federal crimes relating to the brutal drug-related murder of three persons: Tina Johnson, Basil Williams, and James Reid. See United States v. Aquart (“Aquart I”), 912 F.3d 1 (2d Cir. 2018). Specifically, after a five-week jury trial, Aquart was convicted of one conspiracy and three substantive counts of violent crime in aid of racketeering (“VICAR murder”), see 18 U