Opinion ID: 673533
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: burl eugene dink causey, jr.

Text: 9 Trial testimony established that Burl Eugene Dink Causey, Jr. was at least a customer of Cabanzon and some of his co-conspirators. The two most important pieces of evidence to prove Causey's participation in the distribution conspiracy were (1) a page from a notebook belonging to Cabanzon that, according to the prosecution, proved that Causey owed Cabanzon in excess of $44,000; and (2) testimony from Doris Erwin allegedly proving that Causey delivered cocaine to her late husband, Sammy Erwin. We will address these pieces of evidence in reverse order. 10 Evidence established that Causey was a close associate of Bubba Pullen, who was deceased by the time of trial. Pullen and Causey made occasional visits to the home of an older couple, Sammy and Doris Erwin. Doris Erwin testified at trial that she knew Sammy and Bubba Pullen used cocaine together. R25 at 1642. On one occasion, she saw Pullen deliver an item to the house that looked like a brick wrapped up. Id. at 1634. Although she denied talking to her husband about the contents of this package, Doris Erwin testified that she told her husband to get the package out of the house. 2 Id. at 1635. Other testimony at trial indicated that kilograms of cocaine were often packaged in a brick-like shape wrapped with tape. See, e.g., R23 at 1206 (testimony of Roy Jerome Smith). Furthermore, co-conspirator Maria Venable described a transaction in which she accompanied Pullen to a house with the same description and location as the Erwin's, where Pullen delivered a kilogram of cocaine to Mr. Samuel. R25 at 1460-62. Doris Erwin testified that on another occasion, Causey came to the Erwin residence carrying something in a sack. Doris talked with Sammy about the sack's contents, after which she told Sammy to get the package out of the house--the same response she had to the package earlier delivered by Pullen. Id. at 1637. Doris Erwin further testified that although Causey frequently brought alcohol to the house, she wouldn't have told Sammy to remove the alcohol from the house. In addition, there were numerous instances recounted during the trial in which cocaine was delivered in a paper sack. 11 The second significant piece of evidence against Causey was an entry in a notebook seized from Cabanzon's house. One page from the notebook contained the letters DIN and the notation 449.22. The prosecution contends that this represents a drug debt of $44,922--the approximate price of two kilograms of cocaine--owed by Causey to Cabanzon. Co-conspirator Jeffrey Neil Carter, who oversaw the operation of a cabin near Muscadine, Alabama owned by Cabanzon and used as a cocaine storage and distribution site, testified that Causey was identified on coded telephone lists as DINK and DIN. 3 See, e.g., R18 at 525-26. Neil Carter also testified that his records indicated amounts owed and paid with figures that had the decimal point moved two places to the left; for instance, a payment of $12,750 would be recorded as 127.50. See, e.g., id. at 505-06. The prosecution adduced additional testimony of financial transactions between Cabanzon and others that were recorded in Cabanzon's notebook in the same manner. Furthermore, two witnesses testified that Cabanzon told them that Causey owed him money; one of these witnesses was instructed to stop selling drugs to Causey because of the debt. R18 at 528 (testimony of Neil Carter); R25 at 1532 (testimony of Maria Venable). This is sufficient evidence to lead to a conclusion that Cabanzon's notebook recorded a debt of $44,922 owed by Causey. Although not all debts recorded in the notebook were from drug sales, the totality of the evidence--including Causey's interactions with Pullen and Sammy Erwin, his presence at Cabanzon's house, the testimony that Neil Carter mistakenly delivered a kilogram of cocaine to Causey when Causey only requested an ounce, and the testimony regarding his debt to Cabanzon--supports an inference that the debt was drug-related. Although the question is a close one, the evidence of debt, combined with the delivery to Sammy Erwin, constitutes sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that Causey joined the conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
12 In sentencing Causey, the district court relied heavily on Causey's close association with Bubba Pullen and his contacts with Roberto Cabanzon, attributing more than 5 kilograms of cocaine to Causey. For the reasons discussed supra regarding the sentence of Hilda Bush, we vacate Causey's sentence and remand for resentencing.