Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. A jury found Robert Paters guilty of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. secs.
Paters raises two issues on appeal.
He argues that the trial court erred in refusing to give his proffered theory of defense instruction and that the court erroneously calculated the amount of cocaine for sentencing purposes. We address his arguments in turn. I. Jury Instruction Paters argues that the district court wrongfully refused to give his proffered instruction stating that the jury must acquit Paters if it found that the evidence established a mere buyer-seller relationship rather than a conspiracy. A sale, by definition, requires two parties. A buy-sell transaction is not probative of an agreement to join together to accomplish a criminal objective beyond that already being accomplished by the transaction.