Opinion ID: 492031
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sami Annabi

Text: 104 Sami Annabi asserts that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions on two counts which charged him with using a telephone to facilitate the commission of a felony, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 843(b). Count Twenty-Two of the indictment charged Sami Annabi and Murad Nersesian with participation in a phone conversation on or about November 30, 1984 in order to facilitate the conspiracy to distribute heroin as charged in Count One. Count Twenty-Three charged Sami Annabi and Chicky D'Agostino, wife of Basil Cannata, with such a violation on or about November 25, 1984. In the November 30 phone call, Nersesian calls Annabi from a phone booth and, expressing disappointment, says [e]verything, ah bad. Annabi expresses surprise at Nersesian's disappointment. At the end of the conversation, the two arrange to meet later that day. In one November 25 phone call, Annabi speaks to Chicky D'Agostino and demands to know where her husband, Basil Cannata is. In another phone call on November 25, Annabi complains to D'Agostino that he does not need her husband anymore and that after today that's it ... I'm ... giving him an opportunity; I mean, I'm trying to make him and he treats me like a[n] ... idiot. 105 To sustain Annabi's conviction the government must have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Annabi knowingly and intentionally used the telephone on these occasions to cause or facilitate the conspiracy to distribute heroin as set forth in Count One of the indictment. The district court so charged the jury. We believe that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction under Sec. 843(b) based on the evidence of these phone calls on these dates. None of the calls contained any direct reference to the distribution of narcotics. The government argues that circumstantial evidence permits the inference that these calls were related to the charged distribution conspiracy. We agree that circumstantial evidence may be used to prove that a phone call is narcotics-related and was made in furtherance of a conspiracy, but, in this case, there was a dearth of such evidence to suggest that the calls facilitated the narcotics distribution conspiracy charged. With regard to the November 30 phone call, in which a meeting was arranged, there is evidence that a meeting occurred, but none to indicate that the business of the charged conspiracy was discussed. With regard to the November 25 phone calls, in which Sami Annabi inquired as to Cannata's whereabouts and expressed frustration at his inability to locate him, the government argues that the jury could have inferred that the calls facilitated the distribution conspiracy by pressuring Cannata to improve his drug sales efforts. But there is no evidence to tie these conversations to heroin, that Cannata even knew of the calls, or that the calls in any way facilitated the alleged scheme for heroin distribution. There is no appearance of any codes in the calls, nor is there expert testimony which addresses the content of these calls as being drug-related. We are simply unable to conclude that a rational juror could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence that these calls facilitated the distribution conspiracy as charged. Accordingly, Sami Annabi's convictions on Counts Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three are reversed.