Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-91-02204/USCOURTS-ca10-91-02204-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Jose Martinez-Garcia
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

AUG 18 1992 

ROBERT L. HOECKEP.. . Clerk 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

v. 

JOSE MARTINEZ-GARCIA, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

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ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

No. 91-2204 

(D.C. No. CR 91-170-HB) 

(D. New Mexico) 

Before LOGAN, BARRETT and EBEL, Circuit Judges. 

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel 

has determined unanimously to honor the parties' request for a 

decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 

34(f): 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. The court denies the government's 

motion to dismiss the appeal and the motion of counsel for the 

defendant to be allowed to withdraw. 

The only issue in this direct criminal appeal is whether the 

evidence is sufficient to support the jury's finding that defen-

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall not 

be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, except 

for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of the case, 

res judicata, or collateral estoppal. 10th Cir. R. 36.3. 

Appellate Case: 91-2204 Document: 010110276763 Date Filed: 08/18/1992 Page: 1
dant Jose Martinez-Garcia is guilty of unlawfully, knowingly and 

intentionally importing more than fifty kilograms of marijuana 

into the United States, in violation of 21 u.s.c. §§ 952(a), 

960(a)(l) and 960(b)(3), and.possession with intent to distribute 

more than fifty kilograms of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 

§§ 84l(a)(l) and 841(b). 

Defendant was apprehended at a border checkpoint when he 

entered the United States driving a pickup truck which had, in a 

container inside the gas tank, 167 pounds of marijuana. 

Defendant, an American citizen who apparently resides in Mexico, 

testified, supported by the testimony of two of his brothers, that 

he had no knowledge of the presence of the marijuana in the truck, 

which he did not own. The testimony was that defendant was at a 

car wash when an unidentified stranger asked him to drive the 

truck to Columbus, New Mexico, to purchase a fuel pump for the 

stranger and to return to Palomas, Mexico, where he was going to 

meet this man at the Paquima Bar. 

After carefully examining the record we are satisfied that 

there is sufficient evidence for the jury to find guilt beyond a 

reasonable doubt based on defendant's possession of the truck 

containing the marijuana, defendant's behavior during the 

encounter with border agents at the time of entry and during the 

inspection of the vehicle, and the problems of believability of 

defendant's testimony. The jury did not have to accept as truth 

the testimony of the defendant and his two brothers. (To believe 

defendant's story, the jury would have to believe that the 

unidentified truck owner--apparently an .American, as the truck had 

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Appellate Case: 91-2204 Document: 010110276763 Date Filed: 08/18/1992 Page: 2
California tags--would entrust a valuable truck with a more 

valuable illegal cargo to defendant, whom he had just met at a car 

wash in Mexico--apparently not knowing he could pass through the 

border as an American citizen--for a small errand that would 

require the illegal cargo to pass through the U.S. border a second 

time, after the fuel pump trip, if the marijuana was ultimately to 

come to rest in the United States. 

AFFIRMED. The mandate shall issue forthwith. 

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Entered for the Court 

James K. Logan 

Circuit Judge 

Appellate Case: 91-2204 Document: 010110276763 Date Filed: 08/18/1992 Page: 3