United States v. Erskine

── United States v. Erskine ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Date: June 02, 2026 Category: General 24-3202 (L) United States v. Erskine UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 2nd day of June, two thousand twenty-six. PRESENT: RICHARD C. WESLEY, RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, JOSEPH F. BIANCO, Judges. _____________________________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. Nos. 24-3202 (L), 25-101 (Con) CASWELL SENIOR, a.k.a. CASANOVA, WALTER LUSTER, a.k.a. SHELLS, NAYA AUSTIN, a.k.a. BABY, BRANDON NIEVES, a.k.a. UNTOUCHABLE DOT, DEZON WASHINGTON, a.k.a. BLAKK, ROBERT WOODS, a.k.a. BLAKK ROB, STEPHEN HUGH, a.k.a. CHINO, JORDAN INGRAM, a.k.a. FLOW, SHANAY OUTLAW, a.k.a. EASY, ISAIAH SANTOS, a.k.a. ZAY, ROBERTA SLIGH, a.k.a. TROUBLE, BRINAE THORNTON, a.k.a. LUXURY, JAMAL TRENT, a.k.a. TRAP SMOKE, JARRETT CRISLER, JR., a.k.a. JAYECEE, JR., DONAVAN GILLARD, a.k.a. DONNIE LOVE, BRANDON SOTO, a.k.a STACKS, DWIGHT REID, a.k.a. DICK WOLF, AHMED WALKER, a.k.a. AMMO, Defendants, CHRISTOPHER ERSKINE, a.k.a. BEAGLE, DESHAWN THOMAS, a.k.a. DON, Defendants-Appellants. _____________________________________ For Defendant-Appellant BEVERLY VAN NESS, New York, NY. Christopher Erskine: For Defendant-Appellant DAVID TOUGER, Peluso & Touger, LLP, Deshawn Thomas: New York, NY. For Appellee: SHIVA H. LOGARAJAH (David R. Felton, Courtney Heavey, Kathryn Wheelock, Olga I. Zverovich, on the brief), Assistant United States Attorneys, for Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY. 2  Appeal from judgments of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Philip M. Halpern, Judge). UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the December 2, 2024 and December 23, 2024 judgments of the district court are AFFIRMED. Christopher Erskine appeals from a judgment of conviction following an eleven-day jury trial in which he was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(d) and 1963 (Count One); possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count Two); and narcotics conspiracy, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (Count Three), for which he was sentenced to concurrent terms of 420 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by five years’ supervised release. Deshawn Thomas separately appeals from a judgment following his plea of guilty to racketeering conspiracy (Count One), and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c)(1)(A)(i) and 2 (Count Seventeen), for which he was