NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
File Name: 23a0270n.06
No. 22-5195
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED
Jun 13, 2023
) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
)
Plaintiff-Appellee, )
) ON APPEAL FROM THE
v. ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT
) COURT FOR THE MIDDLE
TAVARIE WILLIAMS, ) DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE
Defendant-Appellant. )
) OPINION
)
)
Before: WHITE, THAPAR, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges.
HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. After a jury found Defendant Tavarie Williams
guilty of one count of sex trafficking of a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a), (b)(1), (c),
and one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in prostitution or criminal sexual
activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a), he moved for a new trial contending that the
prosecution presented false testimony at trial. The district court denied his motion, and we
AFFIRM.
I.
The following recitation of facts is largely taken from Jane Doe’s testimony at trial and is
limited to the facts necessary to understand this appeal.
On June 20, 2016, Jane Doe—a twelve-year old—ran away from her San Antonio, Texas
home and encountered Defendant-Appellant Tavarie Williams. Williams waved at her from his
car, but she did not wave back. He drove up to her, and when Doe refused to get in his car, he
No. 22-5195, United States v. Williams
“put a gun to [her] head, . . . pushed [her] in and locked the doors,” telling her that she “was his
girl now.” R.279 PID 2497. Williams brought Doe back to his hotel room, where she met Arterio
Holman for the first time. Holman helped Williams advertise Doe on a sex trafficking website.
Holman also tried to have sex with Doe but was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Williams
immediately began trafficking Doe; that first night in San Antonio, Doe had sex with roughly five
clients.
Williams brought Doe to Tennessee where he continued to traffic her. In Memphis, Doe
had sex with three or four clients. They then went to Knoxville, where more “[men] came, had
sex with [her], paid, and left.” Id. PID 2506–07, 2569. After Knoxville they went to Nashville,
where she had sex with three clients at a La Quinta hotel.
In July 2016, Doe reached out to her family for help. Law enforcement rescued Doe on
July 29 from an Extended Stay hotel in Nashville and arrested Williams. According to Doe,
Williams deprived her of food, drink, and sleep for the entirety of the thirty-nine days they were
together.
After a trial at which Doe testified, a jury found Williams guilty of sex trafficking a minor
in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a), (b)(1), (c), and transporting a minor with intent to engage in
prostitution or criminal sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a). Williams moved for a
new trial, contending Doe’s testimony was “so incredible, inconsistent, and problematic, that the
convictions in [his] case cannot stand with any judicial integrity.” R.291 PID 3367.
Williams identified nine fabrications in total. To establish the falsity of the first eight, he
focused on Doe’s earlier statements to law enforcement. First, Doe stated that when Williams
waved at her during their first encounter, she waved back. Second, Doe stated that she “hopped”
into his car and never mentioned any gun. R.293 PID 3386. Third, Doe stated that she had known
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Holman for two years prior to seeing him in Williams’s San Antonio hotel room. Fourth, she
shared that Holman raped her. Fifth, Doe equivocated on the number of clients with whom she
had sex on the first night; Doe’s answers switched between ten, one, none, and four. Sixth, Doe
stated she did not have sex with any clients in Memphis. Seventh, Doe told law enforcement that
she went from Memphis to Nashville and then to Knoxville. Eighth, she stated she had sex with
ten clients at the La Quinta hotel in Nashville. The ninth fabrication is obvious: Doe could not
have been deprived of food, drink, and sleep for all thirty-nine days she spent with Williams
because she would have died.
The district court denied Williams’s motion for a new trial. It determined that Williams
failed to show “that there [was] any reasonable probability that the false statements would have
affected the judgment of the jury” because the “inconsistencies [did] not directly go to” the two
charges’ elements nor “cast doubt on the gravamen of the [prosecution’s] entire theory of the case:
that [Williams] transported Ms. Doe across state lines to pimp her out.” R.305 PID 3965.
Williams timely appealed.
II.
We review a trial court’s denial of a motion for a new trial for “clear and manifest abuse
of discretion.” United States v. Matthews, 31 F.4th 436, 449 (6th Cir. 2022) (quoting United States
v. Hughes, 505 F.3d 578, 593 (6th Cir. 2007)). Because Williams asserts that the prosecution used
perjured testimony, Williams must show “(1) that the statements were actually false; (2) the
statements made were material; and (3) [the] prosecution knew they were false.” United States v.
Farrad, 895 F.3d 859, 885 (6th Cir. 2018) (alteration in original) (quoting United States v. Pierce,
62 F.3d 818, 833–34 (6th Cir. 1995)). A statement is not “actually false” if it reflects a “mere
inconsistenc[y] in testimony.” Brooks v. Tennessee, 626 F.3d 878, 894–95 (6th Cir. 2010) (quoting
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No. 22-5195, United States v. Williams
Coe v. Bell, 161 F.3d 320, 343 (6th Cir. 1998)). And a false statement is “material” only “if the
false testimony could in any reasonable likelihood have affected the judgment of the jury.” Id. at
895 (quoting Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154 (1972)).
Preliminarily, we note that Williams has not shown that the first eight instances of allegedly
perjured testimony were “actually false,” as opposed to “mere inconsistencies.” Id. at 894–95; see
Rosencrantz v. Lafler, 568 F.3d 577, 585–86 (6th Cir. 2009) (“[I]nconsistencies between [] trial
testimony,” statements to the police, and “testimony at [a] preliminary hearing” did not “prov[e]
indisputable falsity.”). Clearly, however—and as agreed by all parties and the district court—the
ninth statement is actually false.1 It is impossible to go without food, drink, and sleep for thirty-
nine days. But, in this particular instance, that facial impossibility is so obvious that Doe’s claim
would not have affected the jury’s judgment. See United States v. Collins, 799 F.3d 554, 588 (6th
Cir. 2015) (“Given that Ore’s testimony was wholly unbelievable . . . , there is no reasonable
likelihood that the jury believed Ore’s incorrect statements.”).
None of the statements had any reasonable likelihood of affecting the jury’s judgment. For
one thing, Doe was forthcoming that her answers at prior law enforcement interviews “might be a
little different from what [she was] saying” at trial, R.279 PID 2524, and that there were “details
[that she was] not very clear on,” id. PID 2556; see, e.g., id. PID 2618.
For another, Williams’s cross-examination of Doe highlighted the discrepancies between
Doe’s answers at trial and her answers at law-enforcement interviews. E.g., id. PID 2555–56
(“Q. Okay. So in the past when you told this story, you said that Mr. Williams drove by you and
waved and you waved back, didn’t you?”); id. PID 2559 (“Q. Okay. And now in your other three
1
It is also contradicted by other parts of her trial testimony where she identified what she
ate with Williams: chicken, R.279 PID 2506; breakfast, id. PID 2546; bologna sandwich, id. PID
2565; and snacks, id. PID 2582.
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statements you gave, would you agree with me that you’ve never before mentioned that he pulled
a gun on you to force you to get in the car?”); id. PID 2563–64 (“Q. Okay. In your interview that
you gave on July the 31st, you said that you had known [Holman] since you were about 9 years
old, didn’t you?”); id. PID 2601–02 (“Q. Okay. But isn’t it true that when you were here for a
meeting the day before Thanksgiving to prepare for trial, you made the statement that [Holman]
had forcibly raped you?”); id. PID 2569 (“Q. Okay. Isn’t it true, in the July 30th interview that you
gave, you said that you had not done any prostituting in Memphis?”); id. (“Q. And isn’t it true that
in -- at least on the July 30th and the July 31st interviews, you said you went to Nashville first?”);
id. PID 2565 (“Q. In the past in interviews, you’d said [you ate] a bologna sandwich, didn’t you?”).
When a witness “denie[s] any recollection of events and refuse[s] even to agree that [she] had
made statements recorded,” “what matters is that [a] jury [have] the opportunity to observe [the
witness’s] demeanor.”2 United States v. Burks, 974 F.3d 622, 626 (6th Cir. 2020); United States
v. Ward, 190 F.3d 483, 491 (6th Cir. 1999) (introduction of false testimony did not warrant a new
trial where cross examination brought “inconsistencies in testimony to the attention of the jury”).
It is undisputed that Williams’s jury had that opportunity.
The defense’s closing also called attention to these problematic statements. See R.297 PID
3868–70 (defense counsel stating, at closing argument, that “when [Doe] was questioned about
why she gave prior inconsistent statements, she kind of waffled.”); see Rosencrantz, 568 F.3d at
585–86 (“The defense focused the jury on these inconsistencies, and it was up to the jury . . . to
sort this out.”). The defense expressly told the jury that they “get to decide” whether, in light of
2
In denying a new trial, the district court called specific attention to Doe’s demeanor in
testifying about the alleged food-drink-and-sleep deprivation, noting “an apparent lack of
conviction about what she was saying and a lack of appreciation of what naturally would be the
impact on her of such total and severe deprivation.” R.305 PID 3965 n.19.
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No. 22-5195, United States v. Williams
the inconsistencies, Doe was “lying” or “trying to color her experience in a way that [the jury
would] feel sorry for her.” R.297 PID 3868–70. And the court instructed the jury that evaluating
witness testimony involves asking, “[D]id the witness appear to be lying?” R.322 PID 4156.
We also note, as the district court did, that most of the statements do not go to the charged
crimes’ elements.3 R.305 PID 3965. Williams’s guilt does not turn on, for example, whether Doe
waved to Williams, whether Williams used a gun to get Doe to enter his car, whether she knew
Holman beforehand, whether Holman raped her, the precise number of clients Doe had in San
Antonio, Memphis, or Nashville (i.e., whether it was three clients or ten), or the order of cities Doe
visited. Although the statements are relevant to Doe’s credibility, their truth is not necessary to
support the convictions.
Lastly, we agree with the district court’s rejection of Williams’s argument that the impact
of Doe’s testimony as a whole denied him due process. Id. PID 3965–66; see Appellant Br. at 22
(“Given this testimony[,] it is difficult to see how Jane Doe’s testimony wouldn’t have affected
the judgment of the jury in this matter.”). The prosecution did not hinge its case on Doe’s
testimony. Rather, the “other testimony and evidence admitted at trial support[ted] th[e] notion
that [Williams] pimped out Ms. Doe.” R.305 PID 3949. That evidence included Holman’s
3
To convict Williams of sex trafficking of a minor, the jury had to find that (1) Williams
knowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised, maintained,
patronized, or solicited by any means a person, (2) Williams knew or recklessly disregarded the
fact that the person was under 18 years old and would be caused to engage in a commercial sex
act, and (3) the offense was in or affected interstate commerce. R.322 PID 4160; see 18 U.S.C.
§ 1591(a), (b)(1), (c).
To convict Williams of transporting a minor with intent to engage in prostitution or
criminal sexual activity, the jury had to find that (1) Williams knowingly transported an individual,
(2) the individual transported was under 18 years of age, (3) Williams intended the individual to
engage in prostitution or criminal sexual activity, and (4) the transportation was in interstate
commerce. R.322 PID 4162–63; see 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a).
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No. 22-5195, United States v. Williams
testimony, testimony from a prostitute Williams asked to teach Doe “proper protocol,” Doe’s
advertisements on the sex-trafficking website, text messages between Williams and Doe, photos
from Williams’s cell phone, DNA evidence, and Williams’s testimony itself, which corroborated
many aspects of the prosecution’s theory. Sitting as the “thirteenth juror,” the district court
characterized this evidence as “overwhelming,” id. PID 3957, 3966, and we cannot say it abused
its discretion in doing so.
III.
For these reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Williams’s motion for a new
trial.
7