Opinion ID: 784866
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence Proving a Single Conspiracy (García-García, de León Maysonet, Gonzalez-Ayala)

Text: 29 To join a drug conspiracy, a defendant must agree with others to advance the aim of the conspiracy — here, to possess drugs for distribution. United States v. Garcia-Torres, 280 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 2002). Advancing the aim of the conspiracy can involve performing ancillary functions such as processing and cooking drugs, procuring weapons, collecting monies, enforcing discipline, chastising rivals, accounting, and the like, as long as such actions are performed with the aim of furthering the conspiracy. See id. To hold that defendants have joined a conspiracy, there must be sufficient evidence both that they knew about the conspiracy and that they knew the ancillary service would advance that conspiracy. Id. 30 Special issues arise when defendants argue that there were multiple conspiracies and that their activities were not part of the conspiracy charged. The initial issue — and the only issue we need to reach here — is whether the government proved the conspiracy charged in the indictment. This issue, assuming a properly instructed jury, resolves into a sufficiency-of-evidence question. United States v. Martinez-Medina, 279 F.3d 105, 113 & n. 2 (1st Cir.2002); United States v. Wihbey, 75 F.3d 761, 773-74 (1st Cir.1996). If the evidence is sufficient to support the jury's finding that all the defendants are guilty of the single conspiracy charged, then no error has occurred. 1 31 A number of factors come into play in determining whether the evidence establishes a single conspiracy, 2 including (1) the existence of a common purpose, such as selling drugs for profit, (2) the interdependency of various elements in the plan, such as whether the success of an individual's own drug transactions depends on the health and success of the drug trafficking network that supplies him, and (3) the degree of overlap among the participants. See Martinez-Medina, 279 F.3d at 114; United States v. Rivera-Ruiz, 244 F.3d 263, 268 (1st Cir.2001); United States v. Portela, 167 F.3d 687, 697 (1st Cir.1999). We looto the totality of the evidence to see if it supports a finding of a single conspiracy. Rivera-Ruiz, 244 F.3d at 268; Portela, 167 F.3d at 696. The government need not show that each conspirator knew of or had contact with all other members. Nor need it show that the conspirators knew all of the details of the conspiracy or participated in every act in furtherance of the conspiracy. United States v. Mena-Robles, 4 F.3d 1026, 1032 (1st Cir.1993). Changes in the cast of characters do not preclude a finding of a single overarching conspiracy. United States v. Shea, 211 F.3d 658, 665 (1st Cir.2000). 32 The defendants present two main challenges to the sufficiency of evidence proving a single conspiracy. First, they argue that there was no conspiracy at all because Soto-Ramírez and Soto-Beníquez were simply common distributors to a number of diverse and independent drug points. This argument is belied by the record, which shows a great deal more than common distribution. The evidence establishes not only that Soto-Ramírez and Soto-Beníquez were the primary suppliers of the six drug points, but also that the six drug points shared a common system of defense. Various defendants stood guard at drug points owned by other co-conspirators to protect them from rival gang members. For example, Vega-Colón, who worked at his father's point on Laguna Street, also stood as an armed guard at Rodríguez-López's point on Callejón Nueve. Those standing guard at different drug points shared resources with each other. They communicated among themselves via walkie-talkies or radios, issuing alerts when the police or unfamiliar cars from outside Bitumul were in the area. They also shared rifles purchased and stored by Soto-Beníquez, and ammunition purchased by Vega-Cosme after taking up collections from each of the drug points. When the drug points were threatened by rival gangs, members of the group would join together to guard vulnerable points from attack. After the shootout with the Chacho gang in December 1992, Negrón-Maldonado, Fernández-Malavé, and Vega-Pacheco stood guard together at Callejón Dos. And after the conspiracy was threatened by members of the El Vizco gang, Soto-Beníquez, Negrón-Maldonado, Fernández-Malavé, and Cintrón-Caraballo stood guard together at the Street B drug point. The six drug points also negotiated as a group in settling disputes with rival gangs. When war broke out against the Chacho gang at the end of 1992, Vega-Cosme met with Chacho to negotiate on behalf of all six drug points because the war was interfering with drug sales at the Bitumul points. 33 Furthermore, members of the group jointly avenged the deaths of others involved in the operation of the six drug points. After the death of Cosme-Sobrado, who managed Soto-Ramírez's drug points while he was in prison, members of the group met at Callejón Dos. Individuals from different drug points attended the meeting, including Soto-Beníquez and Alicea-Torres (Cuba Street point), Vega-Cosme and Vega-Colón (Laguna Street point), Cintrón-Caraballo (Street B point), and Negrón-Maldonado (Callejón Nueve point). As a result of the meeting, Negrón-Maldonado and Cintrón-Caraballo came together to kidnap and murder Rivera-González, whom Soto-Ramírez's wife suspected of participating in Cosme-Sobrado's murder. 34 In addition to this system of common defense, the co-conspirators had agreements regarding the distribution of narcotics at the drug points. Vega-Cosme and Negrón-Maldonado met at least three times to assign colors to the caps of crack capsules sold at different points in the Bitumul Ward so that their origin could be identified and competition between the points avoided. Vega-Cosme also asked Soto-Ramírez for permission before setting up his drug point with his son Vega-Colón on Laguna Street. 35 The evidence supports the jury's finding that each of the defendants joined in this common enterprise. First, the evidence establishes that each defendant joined in the common defense of the points. Seven of the defendants — Soto-Ramírez, Soto-Beníquez, Alicea-Torres, Vega-Pacheco, Fernández-Malavé, García-García, and Cintrón-Caraballo — ordered or participated in murders to protect the drug points. Soto-Ramírez and Alicea-Torres killed a police officer and a government informant who were about to discover the group's stash of weapons used to protect the drug points. Soto-Ramírez ordered the murder of one of his drug dealers when some cocaine and a machine gun disappeared, sending the message that those who broke ranks and stole from the group would be punished. See United States v. Rodriguez, 162 F.3d 135, 143 (1st Cir.1998) (finding the beating of a member of the conspiracy suspected of being an informant to be in furtherance of the conspiracy because it served to maintain[] discipline in [the conspiracy's] ranks). On Soto-Beníquez's orders, Cintrón-Caraballo kidnapped Rivera-González and brought him to Bitumul to be killed to avenge the death of Cosme-Sobrado. Vega-Pacheco participated in the Quintana massacre to avenge the death of Rivera-Pagán, a member of the group. While defending the group's territory at Callejón Nueve, Fernández-Malavé killed Tito Dones-Sanchez by opening fire on a van suspected of containing rival gang members. García-García killed a member of the rival Chacho gang who threatened Rodríguez-López. 36 Although not direct participants in those murders, the remaining four defendants also contributed to the common defense of the drug points. We put aside, for the moment, the issue of whether the group's post-1993 activities involved a separate conspiracy. De León Maysonet and Gonzalez-Ayala went to Fajardo for the purpose of killing someone who threatened Rodríguez-López. Vega-Cosme supplied ammunition for shootings of rival gang members in 1992 and 1993 and negotiated on behalf of the group with the Chacho gang. Vega-Colón stood as an armed guard at Rodríguez-López's point on Callejón Nueve. 37 Second, in addition to evidence that each defendant participated in the system of common defense, there is evidence that each defendant participated in the common enterprise of selling drugs through the six points. We again put aside for the moment whether the group's post-1993 activities involved a separate conspiracy. Soto-Ramírez controlled several drug points, and his house was used to prepare and package crack and heroin for distribution at several of the drug points. Soto-Beníquez was the primary supplier of cocaine and crack to the six drug points. Alicea-Torres and Vega-Pacheco sold narcotics for points owned by Soto-Beníquez and Soto-Ramírez from 1990 to 1991. Fernández-Malavé packaged crack cocaine, cocaine, and heroin from 1992 to 1993, and packaged cocaine specifically for Soto-Ramírez from May 1992 to December 1992. García-García sold narcotics for Soto-Beníquez and Soto-Ramírez from 1990 to 1991, packaged narcotics in 1992, and returned to selling narcotics for Rodríguez-López in 1993. Cintrón-Caraballo supervised a drug point for crack cocaine and distributed cocaine and crack cocaine for Soto-Ramírez throughout the duration of the conspiracy. Gonzalez-Ayala helped Rodríguez-López steal 200 kilograms of cocaine for the conspiracy in 1993 and subsequently packaged and distributed it. De León-Maysonet packaged and stored narcotics for the conspiracy from 1990 to 1992 and then sold narcotics at the Callejón Nueve point in 1993. Vega-Cosme supplied ammunition and narcotics to Soto-Ramírez and distributed heroin at a drug point with Soto-Ramírez's permission throughout the duration of the conspiracy. Vega-Colón, Vega-Cosme's son, packaged crack, heroin, and marijuana for his father's point. 38 The second argument challenging the sufficiency of evidence proving a single conspiracy is presented by defendants García-García, de León Maysonet and Gonzalez-Ayala. They argue that the government overreached in counting as part of one massive conspiracy a separate, later, and antagonistic drug-selling group. The three defendants argue that they cannot be guilty of the continuing conspiracy when they were in competition with the original conspiracy and the original conspirators were out to kill the head of their drug group. They concede that the evidence does show their involvement with separate drug points. But the evidence does not, they contend, show that they participated in an overall drug conspiracy headed by Soto-Beníquez and Soto-Ramírez. They argue that this conspiracy effectively ended by the summer of 1993. In January 1992, Soto-Ramírez was arrested and incarcerated. And William Soto-Beníquez, after escaping death in a shootout, ceased activities in Bitumul in December 1992 and moved to Florida in 1993. Cosme-Sobrado, who succeeded Soto-Ramírez, was killed on May 12, 1992, and Victor Negrón-Maldonado left for Philadelphia in June or July 1993. 39 The three defendants argue that later events centered around a separate conspiracy, led by Rodríguez-López. Rodríguez-López, who had originally been part of the conspiracy headed by Soto-Ramírez and Soto-Beníquez, left Bitumul for Fajardo in the summer of 1993 to avoid being arrested for his involvement in the Quintana massacre. While in Fajardo, he stole a 200 kilogram shipment of cocaine. Upon his return to San Juan in June or July of 1993, and without consulting anyone in Bitumul, Rodríguez-López reestablished a drug point at Callejón Nueve with the stolen cocaine, employing outsiders from Fajardo to operate the point. Negrón-Maldonado testified that while he was in Philadelphia, he had telephone conversations with people in Bitumul, including Cintrón-Caraballo, who wanted to kill Rodríguez-López for bringing outsiders into the Bitumul operation; Torrens-Alicea confirmed that some members of the original group were out to kill Rodríguez-López. 40 Each of the three defendants argues that the multiple conspiracies theory affects his liability in a different way. Gonzalez-Ayala contends that, at most, he was a member only of a later uncharged conspiracy headed by Rodríguez-López; he did not join any conspiracy at all until the summer of 1993, when he helped Rodríguez-López steal the shipment of cocaine and returned with Rodríguez-López to set up the drug point at Callejón Nueve. Gonzalez-Ayala thus contends that no evidence ties him to the other Bitumul drug points or the earlier murders connected with those drug points. 41 De León Maysonet contends that he was prejudiced by the government's single conspiracy theory because all of his participation in the original conspiracy occurred while he was a minor. He was nonetheless held liable as an adult because he supposedly ratified the conspiracy by continuing to participate after he turned eighteen on January 12, 1992. United States v. Welch, 15 F.3d 1202, 1211-12 (1st Cir.1993). He contends, however, that the only acts of ratification presented by the government occurred after the original conspiracy had ended and Rodríguez-López had taken over. 42 García-García argues that the government's presentation of a single overarching conspiracy, rather than multiple conspiracies, subjected him to evidence of murders in which he did not participate. García-García contends that the only murder in which he allegedly participated — that of Oscar Nazario-Rivera — occurred after the original conspiracy ended and was not drug-related. 43 The jury was instructed on multiple conspiracies, at the request of the defense. The district court informed the jury that it must acquit [e]ven if the evidence in the case shows that defendants were a member of some conspiracy, and not the single conspiracy charged in the indictment. As noted earlier, where the jury was properly instructed and found the defendants guilty of conspiracy, its verdict is reviewable only for sufficiency of evidence. David, 940 F.2d at 732. 44 On the evidence, a jury could have concluded that there was a later, rival conspiracy, but it was not compelled to do so. There is sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict of guilt, as well as its implicit finding that a single conspiracy existed that extended through the summer of 1993. The jury could plausibly have found that Rodríguez-López was a member of the original conspiracy, that the reestablishment of the Callejón Nueve drug point in the small neighborhood of Bitumul was part of an agreed-upon general operation to sell drugs and to control the drug trade in Bitumul, that the tension among the members of the overarching group did not destroy the overall agreement, that those tensions were worked out, and that the cooperation worked to everyone's benefit and continued to provide a system of common defense. 45 Government informant Luis Torrens-Alicea testified that differences between Rodríguez-López and the original Bitumul conspiracy were ironed out during two meetings involving Rodríguez-López, Negrón-Maldonado, and Cintrón-Caraballo at the El Trebol housing project in August or September of 1993. 3 Other evidence corroborates this account. Members of the original group continued to transact and meet with Rodríguez-López after his return. Negrón-Maldonado bought heroin on credit from Rodríguez-López on at least one occasion, and cooked crack cocaine for Rodríguez-López. Peter, who managed Soto-Ramírez's point, Alicea-Torres, and Vega-Cosme all distributed kilograms of cocaine for Rodríguez-López after his return. On September 12, 1993, García-García, de León Maysonet, and two other members of the original Bitumul group joined together with newcomers Gonzalez-Ayala and Torrens-Alicea to find and kill Vitito, who had been hired to kill those who had stolen the 200 kilogram shipment of cocaine in Fajardo. Furthermore, after Rodríguez-López's return, Soto-Ramírez, Vega-Cosme, Cintrón-Caraballo, and Negrón-Maldonado all continued to operate the same drug points, and García-García, de León Maysonet, Alicea-Torres, Fernández-Malavé, and two other members of the original conspiracy continued to work at those points. 46 Moreover, contrary to defendants' assertions that the drug points operated independently after the summer of 1993, the evidence permitted the conclusion that they continued to work together. Negrón-Maldonado's three meetings with Vega-Cosme to coordinate the cap colors for crack capsules occurred between September and November of 1993, three to five months after Rodríguez-López's return. In addition, members of the conspiracy acted jointly to defend each other from threats. Vega-Cosme continued to purchase ammunition for the collective defense of the drug points. On September 12, 1993, as mentioned earlier, members of the original Bitumul group joined with the newcomers to find and kill Vitito, who had been hired to kill Rodríguez-López and others. On October 11, 1993, Torrens-Alicea, García-García, and two other individuals murdered Oscar Nazario-Rivera, a member of the rival Chacho gang who had threatened Rodríguez-López. Members of the conspiracy also continued to warn one another about possible threats. In 1994, after Vega-Cosme's drug point was shot at by individuals from San Jose, he went to Cintrón-Caraballo and Negrón-Maldonado to warn them of the danger. And on several occasions in early 1994, after Alberto Santiago-Figueroa, who ran the El Palo point on Laguna Street, saw people armed with rifles driving by his point, he sent a messenger to inform Negrón-Maldonado of what he had seen. 47 Because the record supports the jury's finding of a single conspiracy, the three defendants are liable for their participation. Although Gonzalez-Ayala may have joined the conspiracy late, as long as he did so knowingly, he is liable for the conspiracy itself and earlier acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. David, 940 F.2d at 735. A jury could easily have found that he joined knowingly. Gonzalez-Ayala was present at the meeting of Negrón-Maldonado, Cintrón-Caraballo, and Rodríguez-López in August or September of 1993, in which they worked out their differences. He also participated in the trip to Fajardo to kill Vitito. Mere association with conspirators does not establish a knowing intent to join a conspiracy. United States v. Gomez-Pabon, 911 F.2d 847, 853 (1st Cir.1990). But, in this situation, the jury could have reasonably inferred from Gonzalez-Ayala's presence at negotiations between major players in the gang and from his participation in the hunt for Vitito that he knew or learned of the essential nature of the plan to distribute narcotics in Bitumul and the violent tactics used to carry out that distribution. Mena-Robles, 4 F.3d at 1032 (quoting United States v. O'Campo, 973 F.2d 1015, 1019 (1st Cir.1992)). 48 Similarly, although de León Maysonet joined the conspiracy as a minor, he ratified his participation after he had turned eighteen. In 1993, he stood guard at the Callejón Nueve point, packaged and stored narcotics for the point, and participated in the unsuccessful mission to Fajardo in 1993 to find and kill Vitito. 49 García-García actively participated in the conspiracy from the beginning, selling drugs at the Cuba Street point from 1990 to 1991 and packaging narcotics for drug points from 1992 to 1993. 50 We reject the defendants' multiple conspiracies arguments.