Opinion ID: 202914
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence of Attempted Robbery

Text: Turner next argues that the evidence does not support a conviction for attempted robbery. He maintains that, at the time of the arrest, his actions could at best be characterized as mere preparation because he was far from the designated target, Loomis Fargo, and was driving away from the rallying point when apprehended. To his view, the arrest should have been made after the group arrived at Loomis Fargo or, at the earliest, when they had assembled, prepared, and left TRC in their vehicles. We assess a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence by determining whether the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to the government, supports the guilty verdict. United States v. Burgos, 254 F.3d 8, 11 (1st Cir.2001). To prove attempt, the government must establish both an intent to commit the substantive offense and a substantial step towards its commission. Id. at 12 (internal citation omitted). While mere preparation does not constitute a substantial step, a defendant does not have to get very far along the line toward ultimate commission of the object crime in order to commit the attempt offense. United States v. Doyon, 194 F.3d 207, 211 (1st Cir.1999). Under this standard, the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict. Turner and his compatriots planned the offense in great detail, assembled weapons and other robbery equipment, prepared vehicles, surveiled the target, practiced dry-runs, and gathered at the designated assembly point on the day scheduled for the robbery. No more is required. See generally United States v. LiCausi, 167 F.3d 36, 48 (1st Cir.1999); United States v. Chapdelaine, 989 F.2d 28, 30-33 (1st Cir.1993). Indeed, the facts in both LiCausi and Chapdelaine are strikingly similar to the conduct of Turner and his cohorts in this case. The LiCausi and Chapdelaine defendants surveiled the target, assembled weapons, utilized disguises/robbery clothes, stole and positioned vehicles for use in the robbery and subsequent escape, and used a radio scanner to monitor police activity. See id. As in each of those cases, the evidence here suffices to support a conviction for attempted armed robbery. Moreover, there is no requirement that the actions constituting the attempt have a particular geographic proximity to the object of the substantive offense. See generally Doyon, 194 F.3d at 212 (drug dealer's payment of past drug debt to supplier constituted a substantial step in his attempt to make a future narcotics purchase). And the fact that Turner may have detected the FBI's surveillance and tried to abandon the attempt at the last moment is irrelevant. See LiCausi, 167 F.3d at 48 (that defendants abandoned the attempt after seeing a large number of people in front of the target and intercepting a police call on a radio scanner was inconsequential as they had already taken a substantial step toward the robbery); United States v. Del Carmen Ramirez, 823 F.2d 1, 1-2 (1st Cir.1987)(that defendants hid guns in grass and attempted to leave area when they spotted police is irrelevant because defendants had already completed a substantial step). [9]