Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-14-03229/USCOURTS-ca8-14-03229-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Manuel Maldonado Aguilar
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

___________________________

No. 14-3229

___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Manuel Maldonado Aguilar

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant

____________

Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock

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 Submitted: May 11, 2015

 Filed: July 2, 2015 

[Unpublished]

____________

Before WOLLMAN, SMITH, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

Manuel Maldonado Aguilar (Maldonado) was convicted by a jury of conspiracy

to possess with intent to distribute at least five but less than fifty grams of

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methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), and 841(b)(1)(A).1

On appeal, Maldonado argues that the district court2

 erred in denying his motion for

judgment of acquittal and in calculating the amount of methamphetamine attributable

to him. We affirm.

The facts elicited at Maldonado’s trial are presented in the light most favorable

to the jury’s verdict. See United States v. Castillo, 713 F.3d 407, 411 (8th Cir. 2013). 

In August 2011, Arkansas police conducted a traffic-violation stop of a Jeep being

driven by Julio Rapan. Rapan consented to a search of the Jeep, and officers

discovered approximately 4.6 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in the vehicle’s

spare tire. Rapan agreed to cooperate in a controlled delivery of the

methamphetamine. Rapan was fitted with a recording device and was told by his

supplier in a recorded call to meet Oswaldo Larranaga Lizarraga (Larranaga) in a

drug-store parking lot in Little Rock, where officers were positioned to observe the

transaction. Rapan drove to the meeting place and parked the Jeep. Shortly thereafter,

officers observed two Hispanic males, later identified as Maldonado and Larranaga,

arrive in a Dodge and park next to Rapan. Officers ran the license plate of the Dodge

and learned that it was registered to Maldonado at a residence on Mansfield Drive. 

Additional officers were dispatched to monitor the Mansfield Drive residence.

In the meantime, Larranaga exited the Dodge and entered the Jeep, while

Maldonado remained behind the wheel of the Dodge. Rapan then complied with

Larranaga’s direction to drive the Jeep to a nearby restaurant, with Maldonado

1

This was Maldonado’s second jury trial on these charges. Maldonado appealed

the guilty verdict in his first trial, and a panel of this court reversed his conviction and

remanded for a new trial after concluding that Maldonado was prejudiced by an

alternate juror’s presence in the jury room during deliberations. See United States v.

Aguilar, 752 F.3d 1148, 1149 (8th Cir. 2014). 

2

The Honorable Brian S. Miller, Chief Judge, United States District Court for

the Eastern District of Arkansas. 

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following them in the Dodge. During this short drive, Rapan’s recording device

captured Larranaga explaining that he was going to “unload the [Jeep]” and

instructing Rapan to wait at the restaurant for Larranaga to return with the Jeep. 

When the Jeep and the Dodge arrived at the restaurant parking lot, Rapan exited the

Jeep and went into the restaurant, and Larranaga moved into the driver’s seat of the

Jeep and drove away from the restaurant. Maldonado followed in the Dodge. 

The two vehicles traveled in tandem for several miles, until their paths diverged

at a stop sign. Although both vehicles eventually arrived at the Mansfield Drive

residence and parked in the driveway, the Jeep took a more direct route to the

residence and arrived first, while the Dodge took a more circuitous route through the

surrounding neighborhood before pulling into the driveway behind the Jeep. An

officer explained at trial that by taking this indirect route to the Mansfield Drive

residence, Maldonado engaged in a “heat run,” the purpose of which was to try and

detect whether he was being followed by law enforcement.

 

Shortly after Maldonado arrived at the Mansfield Drive residence, officers

converged on the scene, entered the residence to secure it, and arrested Larranaga and

Maldonado. Maldonado consented to a search of the residence, and officers recovered

approximately $46,000 from a shoebox in the master bedroom closet; a loaded .22-

caliber revolver from a master bedroom night stand; an electronic scale from a kitchen

utility closet, later testing of which revealed the presence of methamphetamine; and

several spare tires and tire-disassembly tools from the back yard. Maldonado

disavowed ownership of the $46,000, telling officers that he was holding the money

for a friend whose name he could not recall.

Maldonado moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the government’s

evidence and again at the close of all the evidence, arguing that the government had

failed to prove that he had conspired with Rapan and Larranaga to possess with intent

to distribute the methamphetamine recovered from the Jeep. The district court

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overruled both motions, concluding that “the government has put on enough evidence

for the case to go to the jury.” After several hours of deliberation, the jury found

Maldonado guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute at least five but

less than fifty grams of methamphetamine. Based on the jury-found quantity of

methamphetamine, Maldonado faced a statutory minimum sentence of five years and

a statutory maximum sentence of forty years in prison under § 841(b)(1)(B). The

Presentence Investigation Report (PSR), however, attributed to Maldonado the entire

4.6-kilogram quantity of methamphetamine recovered from the Jeep, leading to a base

offense level of 38 under § 2D1.1 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual

(U.S.S.G. or Guidelines), which, coupled with a Category I criminal history score,

resulted in an advisory Guidelines sentencing range of 235 to 293 months’

imprisonment. Neither party objected to the facts set forth in the PSR, and the district

court “adopt[ed] the report as written.” Maldonado argued for a departure or variance

from the Guidelines range, asserting as relevant here that his role in the conspiracy

was limited and that the entire 4.6-kilogram quantity of methamphetamine was not

foreseeable to him. The district court rejected Maldonado’s arguments and sentenced

him to 235 months’ imprisonment, the bottom of the advisory Guidelines sentencing

range. 

Maldonado first argues that the district court erred in denying his motions for

judgment of acquittal because there was insufficient evidence on which a reasonable

juror could find him guilty of conspiracy. We review de novo the denial of a motion

for judgment of acquittal and will affirm if any rational jury could have found the

evidence sufficient to prove the essential elements of the charged offense beyond a

reasonable doubt. United States v. Aponte, 619 F.3d 799, 804 (8th Cir. 2010). We

view the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict and accept all

reasonable inferences that support the verdict. Id. To prove the conspiracy, the

government was required to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Maldonado

reached an agreement with at least one other person to possess the methamphetamine

with intent to distribute, that Maldonado voluntarily and intentionally entered into the

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agreement, and that Maldonado knew the essential purpose of the agreement when he

entered into it. United States v. Jackson, 610 F.3d 1038, 1044 (8th Cir. 2010). 

Conspiracy may be proved by either direct or circumstantial evidence, see id., and a

defendant who played only a minor role may nevertheless be convicted “so long as the

government proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he . . . was a member of the

conspiracy,” United States v. Lopez, 443 F.3d 1026, 1030 (8th Cir. 2006) (en banc). 

The evidence set forth above was sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude

that Maldonado, Rapan, and Larranaga had a common purpose and plan to deliver the

methamphetamine in the Jeep to Maldonado’s residence and to “unload” the

methamphetamine there for further distribution. Contrary to his assertions on appeal,

Maldonado did more than simply provide Larranaga with a ride to pick up the Jeep

at the drug store. Maldonado followed the Jeep from the drug-store parking lot to the

restaurant, waited for Larranaga to take control of the Jeep, followed the Jeep for

several miles after it left the restaurant, and engaged in a “heat run” before eventually

parking behind the Jeep at his Mansfield Drive residence. Moreover, the spare tires

and tire-disassembly tools, the electronic scales with methamphetamine residue, and

the dubiously explained $46,000 in cash recovered from Maldonado’s residence

constitute further evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that

Maldonado was a knowing participant in the conspiracy to possess and distribute the

methamphetamine. Considering the evidence presented at Maldonado’s trial in its

entirety, see Jackson, 610 F.3d at 1044, and keeping in mind our “very strict” standard

of review, United States v. Malloy, 614 F.3d 852, 861 (8th Cir. 2010) (citations

omitted), we cannot say that no reasonable jury could have found Maldonado guilty

of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The district court thus did not err

in denying Maldonado’s motions for judgment of acquittal.

Maldonado next argues that his sentence is “invalid” because the government

presented no evidence and the district court made no finding that the conspiracy’s 4.6

kilograms of methamphetamine were foreseeable to him. This argument is without

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merit. A conspiracy defendant’s drug-quantity objection requires the district court to

determine whether the quantity attributed by the PSR was reasonably foreseeable to

him. United States v. Montanye, 996 F.2d 190, 192 (8th Cir. 1993) (en banc). In the

absence of such an objection, the district court is under no obligation to make

foreseeability findings. Id. Similarly, “the Government’s obligation to present

evidence in support of a PSR’s factual statements,” including drug quantity, “only

arises for the facts the defendant disputes.” Id. at 193. As noted above, Maldonado

did not object to the drug quantity attributed to him in the PSR, and the district court

adopted the PSR—including the drug quantity attributed to Maldonado—in its

entirety. We conclude that the district court did not err, plainly or otherwise, in

sentencing Maldonado. See id. at 192 (noting that plain-error review applies when

issues are not raised in district court); United States v. Douglas, 646 F.3d 1134, 1137

(8th Cir. 2011) (stating that a court may accept as true facts in PSR to which defendant

did not object).

The judgment is affirmed.

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