Opinion ID: 2981775
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Defendant argues the government presented insufficient evidence for a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the charged crime. We disagree. “A defendant claiming insufficiency of the evidence bears a very heavy burden.” White, 492 F.3d at 393 (internal quotation marks omitted). This court reviews sufficiency of the evidence claims to determine whether “any rational trier of fact could find the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. This court reviews the “evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, . . . giving the government the benefit of all inferences that could reasonably be drawn from the testimony.” Id. “[C]ircumstantial evidence alone can sustain a guilty verdict and . . . [such] evidence need not remove every reasonable hypothesis except that of guilt.” United States v. Stone, 748 F.2d 361, 362 (6th Cir. 1984). The court must resolve all conflicts in testimony in favor of the verdict. United States v. Amos, 423 F. App’x 541, 548 (6th Cir. 2011). Under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(1), the government must prove: “(1) the defendant knowingly transported or shipped, (2) in interstate or foreign commerce, (3) any visual depiction involving the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.” United States v. Chambers, 441 F.3d 438, 449 (6th Cir. 2006). Defendant solely argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding that he, rather than another person, posted the images to the xcon28 website account. The government presented strong circumstantial evidence linking defendant to the xcon28 user account. Agent Lies confirmed defendant had a prior conviction, and was twenty-eight years old when the xcon28 account was created. The government proved the xcon28 account was set up with the email address phillipclingman@yahoo.com. Defendant admitted he owned this email address. Defendant also admitted he previously owned the cellular phone linked to the account. 16 Defendant’s email address received emails from the website, and defendant acknowledged he had visited the website. The government also presented sufficient evidence establishing defendant uploaded the images to the xcon28 account. Images were uploaded from both TTC and Greenhouse computers during times when defendant had internet access from those organizations. After defendant left TTC, uploading from that location ceased. Likewise, logins to the account stopped, and images did not appear on the account while defendant was incarcerated. Finally, an image on the xcon28 account contained the same distinctive lettering, “MDMNFILI,” found on an image in the phone that defendant previously owned. This evidence provided a sufficient basis for the jury to conclude that defendant was responsible for posting the images to the xcon28 user account. Defendant presented rebuttal evidence showing he may not have uploaded images to the website on certain dates. Specifically, one image was uploaded on December 21, 2007, a TTC student holiday, and students generally did not have computer access on holidays. Another image was uploaded on July 2, 2008. Craun testified he spent that afternoon with defendant and defendant did not access a computer during at that time. Finally, there was an unsuccessful login attempt to the xcon28 account during defendant’s incarceration, showing another person at least attempted to access the xcon28 account. However, this court may conclude the jury discounted defendant’s rebuttal testimony and credited the testimony that favored the government. Amos, 423 F. App’x at 548. When considered in light of the strong evidence supporting defendant’s conviction, this evidence does not fatally undermine the jury’s verdict. 17