Opinion ID: 349992
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 42 In disposing of a motion for a judgment of acquittal, the District Court applies the same standard as does the Court of Appeals in reviewing the disposition: 43 (V)iewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the government as prevailing party, is the court satisfied that the jurors reasonably could decide that they would not hesitate to act in their own serious affairs upon factual assumptions as probable as the conclusions that the defendant is guilty as charged? 44 United States v. Kaplan, 554 F.2d 958, 963 (9th Cir. 1977). With this test in mind, we turn again to aspects of the evidence as summarized above. Much of what follows is repetitious. The justification is critical analysis. 45 The only common bridges remotely established between the computer and the buoy-transformer transactions indeed the only persons having any discernible connection with both are Mandeville and Shinafelt. We now look to these two once more: 46
47 Mandeville's connections relate to his leasehold of the Escondido warehouse and Zeligs' rental of the forklift under the name Mandeville Engineering Co. The bare facts have already been set forth. But, having been stated, they raise more questions than they resolve. 48
49 In August, 1974, Mandeville, in his own name and for a period of two years, leased the Escondido warehouse. The computers were transferred there at a later date, following the completion of the work done on the computers at Roushan's place of business by him and the body and fender man. While at the warehouse, the computers were crated and in May, 1975, so crated, they were transported to a public storage facility. At about the same time, a purported representative of Mandeville contacted the lessor of the premises and cancelled the lease. 50 Much has been made by the Government of the timing of these transactions. A point which has not been sufficiently stressed, however, is that effective June 1, 1975, Shinafelt and Dunn leased a warehouse at Oceanside. Since the Escondido lease had been terminated, it was clearly reasonable that the latter premises be wholly vacated. A part of this evacuation, of course, would necessarily consist of the removal of the computers and Mandeville's transfer of the lumber, for whatever purpose it was being used, to Oceanside. 51 The circumstances under which, and by whom, the arrangements for the occupancy of the Escondido warehouse by the computers and those connected with them is not known and probably never will be. But from this, nothing sinister can be inferred beyond a reasonable doubt. The new acquisition of the Oceanside warehouse is fully sufficient to explain the coincidental timing of the cancellation of the Escondido lease. It also explains the otherwise puzzling step of moving the computers from the Escondido warehouse to the public storage facility. 22 52
53 In connection with the repeated shuffling around of the computers among various warehouses, storage facilities, airline terminals, and the like, a forklift was employed which had been rented by Zeligs under the name of Mandeville Engineering Company. In view of the fact that Zeligs' testimony in respect to the circumstances of his use of this name was not forthcoming, and why this name was used probably will never be certainly known. The name had never been used by Mandeville himself, although he identified himself for certain purposes as an engineer, and it seems as likely as not that the name was, either on his own initiative or at the suggestion of a person unknown, assumed by Zeligs, who habitually did not use his own unusual name in connection with the computer transactions. Possibly Zeligs used the name because Mandeville had had prior dealings with the forklift rental agency in connection with the buoys. Possibly Zeligs knew that the warehouse was leased in the name of Mandeville and felt that the removal of the property from the warehouse would be less suspicious if Mandeville's name were connected therewith. In any event, there is no evidence that Mandeville ever authorized either the rental of the forklifts or the use of his name in that connection. In fact there is no showing whatsoever of any contact of any kind between Zeligs and Mandeville. 23 54 Finally, insofar as Mandeville is concerned, it is worthy of note that even though faced with a miasma of evidence confusing the computer, buoy, and transformer transactions, the jury apparently had its greatest difficulty in arriving at a verdict in connection with Mandeville. Not only was it the last of the verdicts, which were returned separately, as permitted by Fed.R.Crim.P. 31(b), but it was the only one in which a defendant was found guilty of less than all of the four counts charged. 55
56 Shinafelt is even less closely connected. He knew both Mandeville (from junior high school days) and Zeligs, at least from the latter's work on his pickup truck. In the context of paperback fiction, he would have been the intermediary between the computer group and the buoy-transformer group, the one who arranged for Mandeville to allow the storage of the computer in his warehouse and suggested to Zeligs that he use Mandeville's name in connection with the forklift rental. Suspicious? Of course. But proof beyond a reasonable doubt? By no means.III. CONCLUSION. 57 An overall review of the record leaves us with the surest conviction that there was not sufficient evidence to justify the convictions of Dunn, Milligan, Mandeville, and Shinafelt. Reviewing the evidence as a whole, we can only conclude that the picture laid before the court and jury was one of a group of long-time friends on the one hand, and mutual acquaintances of some of them on the other, who were engaged in various transactions of a shady or suspicious nature, but not shown either to have been illegal or to have had any significant resemblance to, or connection with, the computer-hashish operation. In a similar context, we long ago wrote: 58 There is, of course, evidence of an intimate personal relationship between William and Josephine, who handled the heroin in question. But guilt may not be inferred from mere association. Ong Way Jong v. United States, 9 Cir., 245 F.2d 392, 394. 59 Evans v. United States, 257 F.2d 121, 126 (9th Cir. 1958), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 866, 79 S.Ct. 98, 3 L.Ed.2d 99 (1958); accord, United States v. Kompinski, 373 F.2d 429 (2d Cir. 1967). More recently, we emphasized: 60 Neither mere association and activity with a co-conspirator nor even knowledge of the conspiracy's existence not proven here meets the standards we require to bind a defendant to the conspiracy charged. 61 United States v. Peterson, 549 F.2d 654, 658 (9th Cir. 1977); accord, United States v. Basurto, 497 F.2d 781, 793 (9th Cir. 1974). 62 Some aspects of the 1975 buoy operation suggest that it may have constituted a smuggling attempt of some kind, as is conceivable in any case wherein essentially useless but hollow containers are shipped abroad with the apparent intent of having them returned, particularly when they are shipped loaded with useless materials in an apparent attempt to avoid weight discrepancies on return. On the other hand, the intent may have been to defraud certain purchasers. It could have been an effort to establish a reputation for these various individuals as customary exporters and importers of heavy objects to and from the Middle East for some ulterior purpose, or the intent may have been something entirely different that does not readily suggest itself. But indulging in such speculations is contrary to well-established principles. We do not deny certain broad similarities, but these, such as they are, could have been found between perfectly innocent transactions. Of more legal and dispositive significance, they fail to show beyond a reasonable doubt any connection between the two groups. To affirm all of the convictions herein would be to endorse the principle of guilt by association to an extent hitherto unknown in our experience. While inferences have their place in the chain of evidence in any trial,  '. . . charges of conspiracy are not to be made out by piling inference upon inference . . ., thus fashioning . . . a dragnet to draw in all substantive crimes.'  Direct Sales Co. v. United States, 319 U.S. 703, 711, 63 S.Ct. 1265, 1269, 87 L.Ed. 1674 (1943); Ingram v. United States, 360 U.S. 672, 680, 79 S.Ct. 1314, 3 L.Ed.2d 1503 (1959). See also United States v. Grow, 394 F.2d 182, 199 (4th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 840, 89 S.Ct. 118, 21 L.Ed.2d 111 (1968). The whole concept of conspiracy prosecutions has been the subject of much debate, see Krulewich v. United States, supra, and there is much to be argued on both sides, but to find all appellants guilty here would be to extend the breadth of conspiracy cases and the liberality permitted in proving them far beyond the utmost limits. 63 In our study of the record here, it has become clear that the situation is remarkably akin to that eloquently summed up by Chief Judge Lumbard in United States v. Bufalino, 285 F.2d 408, 419 (2d Cir. 1960): 64 The administration of our system of criminal justice and our basic concepts of fair dealing are centered on the requirement that in each case we reach a result based solely on the charges made in the particular indictment and on the evidence which appears on the record with regard to those charges. Doubtless many of (one of the defendants') visitors are bad people, . . . . But bad as many of these alleged conspirators may be, their conviction for a crime which the government could not prove, on inferences no more valid than others equally supported by reason and experience, and on evidence which a jury could not properly assess, cannot be permitted to stand. 65 It may appear that the jury's verdict was somewhat incongruous, inasmuch as the jury found Dunn and Milligan, as to whose guilt there was scarcely a scintilla of incriminating evidence, guilty on all four counts, Shinafelt, as to whom there was even less proof of guilt, likewise guilty on four counts, and Mandeville, as to whom the prosecution's evidence was somewhat greater but still wholly inadequate, guilty on two counts. 66 The nature of the verdicts, however, does not, of course, afford a justifiable basis for the reversal of the convictions of all the appellants. In the first place the admissible evidence against Zeligs was overwhelming. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a); United States v. Fernandez, 497 F.2d 730, 735 (9th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 990, 95 S.Ct. 1423, 43 L.Ed.2d 670 (1975); cf. Bates v. Nelson, 485 F.2d 90 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied sub nom. Chavez v. McCarthy, 414 U.S. 1134, 94 S.Ct. 877, 38 L.Ed.2d 759 (1974). Secondly, the law is uniform that the verdicts against multiple defendants are to be considered separately as to each defendant and as to multiple counts against a single defendant, each count is to be considered separately. 24 This is true even though the evidence is identical as to each defendant and count, United States v. Russo, 335 F.2d 299, 301 (7th Cir. 1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 962, 85 S.Ct. 651, 13 L.Ed.2d 556 (1965). Thus, in the leading case of Apodaca v. United States, 188 F.2d 932 (10th Cir. 1951), which in some respects closely resembles our present case, three defendants were indicted on two counts of conspiracy to violate civil rights. The evidence was virtually identical as to each defendant. Nevertheless, the court upheld the conviction of one defendant on both counts, although the verdict as to the other two defendants were, respectively guilty on count one, not guilty on count two, and vice-versa. The matter is cogently discussed in Fuller v. United States, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 264, 407 F.2d 1199, 1223, 1232 (1968) (en banc), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1120, 89 S.Ct. 999, 22 L.Ed.2d 125 (1969). 67 The question does not seem to have been squarely decided by our court or by the Supreme Court. However, we feel that the law is settled nationwide, by virtually every court that has considered it, and that on grounds of uniformity, if nothing else, we cannot reverse the conviction of Zeligs. 68 We can, of course, reverse the convictions of the other appellants and direct the disposition of them on remand. 28 U.S.C. § 2106; Bryan v. United States, 338 U.S. 552, 70 S.Ct. 317, 94 L.Ed. 335 (1950); cf. United States v. Bufalino, supra. Each duly filed motions for acquittal or new trial. Fed.R.Crim.P. 29(c), 33. Since the evidence against them was wholly insufficient to sustain a conviction, motions for acquittal should have been granted. 69 The judgment of conviction of Zeligs is affirmed. The judgments of conviction of Milligan, Dunn, Shinafelt, and Mandeville are reversed, and upon remand, the indictments against them will be dismissed. United States v. Howard, 432 F.2d 1188, 1191 (9th Cir. 1970) (Concurring opinion of the majority). 70 AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED and REMANDED in part, with directions.