Opinion ID: 164220
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Defendant’s final argument is that there was insufficient evidence to support the guilty verdict. We review de novo the sufficiency of the evidence, and “ask[] whether, when considered in the light most favorable to the government, a reasonable jury could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Lewis, 240 F.3d 866, 870 (10th Cir. 2001). When conducting this review, “[w]e do not question the jury's credibility determinations or its conclusions about the weight of the evidence.” United States v. Allen, 235 F.3d 482, 492 (10th Cir. 2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). -14- Defendant concedes that the government established at trial, through the testimony of the officers, that he was the man in the vehicle into which the officers shined a flashlight, who drove away when they did so, and who was then seen emerging from the vehicle carrying a backpack. But Defendant contends that the jury could not have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the man whom the officers saw fleeing from nearby bushes, and who threw the backpack on the carport roof as one of the officers pursued him on foot. As support for this contention, he notes that forensic testing did not link him to the evidence recovered from the backpack and that the officers lost sight of the man they were pursuing before eventually tackling and arresting Defendant as he approached from another direction. Nevertheless, there was undoubtedly sufficient evidence to sustain the verdict. The officer who had pursued the suspect, testified: “I was right behind him. I’m a hundred percent positive I saw him throw the backpack up onto the top of the carport and continue running.” Aplee. Supp. App. at 180. The officer went on to testify that the man who threw the backpack on top of the carport was “[t]he same person I tackled. A hundred percent positive of that.” Id. We hold that this testimony, especially when considered in light of Defendant’s concessions about what was established by other testimony, provided sufficient -15- evidence for the jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant was the man who threw the backpack on top of the carport.