Opinion ID: 203367
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Insufficiency of Evidence of Conspiracy

Text: Appellant Cruz-Pereira claims that the district court erred in denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure because the Government presented insufficient evidence of his participation in the charged conspiracy. Review of a district court's denial of a Rule 29 motion is de novo. United States v. Hernandez, 218 F.3d 58, 64 (1st Cir.2000). Challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence and to the denial of the motion for judgment of acquittal raise a single issue.. . . Id. at 64 n. 4 (quoting United States v. Morillo, 158 F.3d 18, 22 (1st Cir.1998) (internal quotation marks omitted)). A district court's denial of a motion for acquittal must be affirmed unless the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, could not have persuaded any trier of fact of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Paradis, 802 F.2d 553, 559 (1st Cir.1986). The reviewing court cannot weigh evidence or make credibility judgments. See United States v. Ortiz, 966 F.2d 707, 711 (1st Cir.1992). The court must reject only those evidentiary interpretations . . . that are unreasonable, insupportable, or overly speculative, and must uphold any verdict that is supported by a plausible rendition of the record. Hernandez, 218 F.3d at 64 (quoting United States v. Spinney, 65 F.3d 231, 234 (1st Cir.1995) (internal quotation marks omitted)). To prove Cruz-Pereira's culpability of the charged conspiracy, the Government was required to show the existence of a conspiracy, the defendant's knowledge of the conspiracy, and the defendant's voluntary participation in the conspiracy. United States v. Gomez-Pabon, 911 F.2d 847, 852 (1st Cir.1990). To establish that Cruz-Pereira belonged to and participated in the drug conspiracy, the Government must show two kinds of intent: intent to agree and intent to commit the substantive offense. Id. at 853 (quoting Rivera-Santiago, 872 F.2d at 1079) (internal quotation marks omitted). The Government was not required to prove that each co-conspirator knew about or had contact with all other members of the conspiracy or knew details about and participated in every act in furtherance of the conspiracy. United States v. Martinez-Medina, 279 F.3d 105, 113 (1st Cir. 2002); see also Rivera-Santiago, 872 F.2d at 1079 (A defendant may culpably join a drug-trafficking conspiracy without knowing the full extent of the enterprise or the identities of all the coconspirators.). Cruz-Pereira argues that, although the Government presented evidence of his drug sales to an undercover agent and an FBI informant, there was no evidence presented that connected Cruz-Pereira with Las Avispas or showed that he conspired with anyone (other than Government agents) to sell drugs. Thus, the defense claims that because the evidence proved only that Cruz-Pereira worked alone, there was insufficient evidence to convict him of conspiracy. As discussed above, the Government presented evidence that Cruz-Pereira not only sold drugs to Agent Rosa-Ferrer and Informant Villodas, but also that Cruz-Pereira engaged in crack transactions with Las Avispas. Specifically, Mendoza-Lebrón testified that he and his cousin, Wilson  an established Avispas dealer  sold crack to both Cruz-Pereira and Cruz-Pereira's co-defendant, Carlos Escobar Figueroa, at the drug points Cruz-Pereira and Escobar operated at Puente Los Jobos, from 1993 until Mendoza-Lebrón's arrest in 1999. Mendoza-Lebrón also testified that he sold drugs to José Cabezón, the leader of Las Avispas. Cruz-Pereira's regular drug purchases from Wilson, an established Avispas member, provided the jury with legally sufficient proof of Cruz-Pereira's participation in the charged conspiracy. In addition, the jury reasonably could have inferred a link between Cruz-Pereira and Las Avispas arising from the fact that Cruz-Pereira bought crack from a dealer (Mendoza-Lebrón) who acted as a common supplier to other members of Las Avispas-namely, Escobar Figueroa and Cabezón. In sum, the Government presented evidence legally sufficient to support the jury's finding that Cruz-Pereira was guilty of the charged conspiracy.