Opinion ID: 475421
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Continuing Criminal Enterprise Charge

Text: 40 Although Quinones did not take exception at trial, he now objects to that part of Judge Motley's charge on the continuing criminal enterprise count concerning the element of substantial income. The continuing criminal enterprise statute, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 848, was enacted to provide harsher penalties for large scale dealings in drugs from which substantial income is obtained. The statute requires proof that the plaintiff actually received substantial sums of money from a series of drug transactions. The defense was concerned that the jury might have convicted Quinones based on his anticipated income from the resale of the 35 kilograms of cocaine which he had arranged to buy from Agent de la Cova. Specifically, Quinones objects to the court's language regarding anticipated profits: 41 Income in this context is considered to mean gross income or profit, and includes anticipated profits as well as those actually realized. 11 42 This portion of the jury charge was erroneous. Although it is well settled that anticipated income may serve as circumstantial evidence of income actually gained by a defendant, see United States v. Chagra, 669 F.2d 241, 257 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 846, 103 S.Ct. 102, 74 L.Ed.2d 92 (1982); see also United States v. Ayala, 769 F.2d 98, 102 (2d Cir.1985), the plain language of the statute indicates that the element to be proved is income actually obtained. The court's charge indicated that the jury need not find any income actually obtained if it found instead that income was anticipated. 43 Since the claim of error is one of constitutional magnitude, the question becomes whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, or, as we recently stated it, whether there exists a reasonable possibility that the error may have contributed to [the defendant's] conviction. Hawkins v. LeFevre, 758 F.2d 866, 877 (2d Cir.1985). Given the mass of evidence about Quinones' long term successes in the drug business, we conclude that there was no reasonable possibility that the jury based its finding of the substantial income element on the profits anticipated from the government sting operation. Not only was there evidence of many thousands of dollars in cash being moved around at Quinones' behest, there was also evidence of money being given to him for drugs and testimony that he told a government agent that he had made a lot of money in narcotics which he had invested in various ways. Thus, taking the jury charge as a whole and considering the amount of evidence presented on this element of the crime, we hold that the court's error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Hawkins v. LeFevre, 758 F.2d at 877-78.III. Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements and Sufficiency of Evidence Against Pinto 44 Carmen Pinto makes two arguments: (1) that there was insufficient non-hearsay evidence of her involvement in the conspiracy to permit the introduction of co-conspirators' statements against her. United States v. Geaney, 417 F.2d 1116 (2d Cir.1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1028, 90 S.Ct. 1276, 25 L.Ed.2d 539 (1970) and; (2) that there was insufficient evidence to convict her of the conspiracy. 45 The hearsay evidence against Pinto was properly admitted as there was ample independent evidence of her membership in the conspiracy. Eddie Quinones testified that he observed Pinto and Pinto-Rodriguez take money from the Camden drug sales to Quinones in the Bronx. He further testified that he observed Juan Quinones give Pinto $3,000 for safekeeping after discussing the fact that the money came from drug deals. Sardina observed Pinto's son take money from drug sales made at The Point in Camden to Pinto's house and then return to The Point with additional heroin. Salas testified that he had seen Pinto take drugs she had stored under her sofa and give them to Bueno-Risquet. Additionally, Salas testified that he had seen Pinto give Pinto-Rodriguez heroin outside Pinto's house where everyone could see it, and that he had seen Pinto helping Pinto-Rodriguez sell drugs at The Point.