Opinion ID: 667507
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Gerald Wee Wee Crawford

Text: 159
160 Crawford maintains that the evidence was insufficient to establish his membership in the conspiracy. The government points to the following evidence in response: 161 (1) Eastern testified to a number of transactions with Crawford involving either cash or cocaine. On one of these occasions, Sims delivered the cocaine directly to Crawford. See Tr. 143-44, 146-48, 149. 162 (2) Linda Williams, who was one of the Federal Express recipients of cocaine, testified that she typically gave the cocaine either to Frank Arms or Wee Wee. Tr. 309-13. She had been introduced to Wee Wee by Jim McGee. Tr. 310. 163 (3) Rita Brown said she had once seen Crawford down the block from Williams' home. Tr. 360. More importantly, he and McGee had once come to Brown's house to count cash that Crawford brought with him. Tr. 358-59. 164 (4) Adrienne Ross had never met Crawford, but had heard Sims mention him in the context of conversations with the people out in Milwaukee. Tr. 647. 165 (5) Beginning in October 1987 and continuing through January 1989, there were numerous calls between Los Angeles phones and beepers belonging to Sims, Tony Love, and Adrienne Ross on the one hand, and Milwaukee phones in the name of Crawford's girlfriend, Tracy Izard, on the other. Tr. 1027-1043. 166 We agree that the foregoing evidence, particularly the testimony of Eastern and Williams as to their first-hand dealings with Crawford, is sufficient to establish Crawford's membership in the conspiracy. Crawford was clearly involved with the workings of the conspiracy on more than an isolated or sporadic basis, and given his involvement with both the supply and income sides of the conspiracy, the jury acted well within reason when it concluded that Crawford had knowingly joined and aided the conspiracy. We therefore affirm Crawford's conviction on Count One of the third superseding indictment. 167 2. Sufficiency of the Evidence--Attempted Possession of Six Kilograms of Cocaine on July 7, 1988 (Count Two) 168 This charge is based on the failed attempt to make a controlled delivery of one of the intercepted Federal Express packages to Linda Williams. Williams, as we noted earlier, testified that she typically gave the cocaine that she received in this manner to Arms and/or Crawford. Tr. 309-13. The government contends that this fact, coupled with phone records suggesting that Crawford and the Sims people in Los Angeles were in contact during this time period (Tr. 1027-43) is enough to show that this shipment was destined for Crawford and that he may therefore be held liable for attempted possession. 169 We find it necessary to reverse Crawford's conviction on this count for the same reasons that we reversed Arms' conviction. The evidence simply does not support a reasonable inference that Crawford and Arms took a substantial step toward possession of this ill-fated shipment. Moreover, although the government elicited from Williams unequivocal testimony that Arms retrieved from her a portion of every cocaine shipment (Arms/Holloway Trial Tr. 326), it did not do the same with respect to Crawford (see id. at 324-28; Sims/Ochoa/Crawford Trial Tr. 309-12); thus, it is not clear that Crawford necessarily would have come into possession of this particular shipment had Sims not instructed Williams to refuse the packages. Accordingly, we reverse Crawford's conviction on Count Two of the third superseding indictment and remand for resentencing. 170 3. Admission of Crawford's 2 Encounters with Police in late 1988 and early 1990 171 The district court permitted the government to introduce evidence concerning the following two incidents involving Crawford: 172 (1) On November 26, 1988, a Milwaukee police officer stopped Crawford's car, and during the ensuing encounter, both Crawford and his passenger attempted to flee. Both were caught and found to be in possession of resale quantities of cocaine. Tr. 420-49. The government notes that on the following day, a phone call was placed from the residence of Milton and Corey Sims to the home of Crawford's girlfriend. Tr. 1043. 173 (2) On February 20, 1990, police stopped a car in which Crawford was a passenger. $2,775 in cash was scattered between the front and back seats. The circumstances suggest that Crawford was frantically trying to throw the money to another passenger in the back seat of the car. Crawford was also in possession of a loaded and cocked handgun. Tr. 460-64, 749-55. 174 The government contends that the first incident, which took place in the midst of Crawford's participation in the conspiracy, is substantial evidence of his participation. Although the government concedes that there is no evidence tying Crawford to the conspiracy on the date of the second incident, it points out that there is no evidence of his withdrawal and argues that this second encounter is evidence that he was, in fact, still in the business. Gov.Br. 95. 175 The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of either incident. Crawford's possession of cocaine in November of 1988 was consistent with his purported role in the conspiracy and was proper as substantial evidence of his participation in it. The relevance of the second incident may be less readily apparent, given the lack of evidence that Crawford was still involved in the conspiracy. However, the circumstances of that incident certainly suggest that Crawford remained active in the narcotics business, and in the absence of evidence that Crawford had withdrawn from the Sims conspiracy, it is reasonable to assume that Crawford was still involved in this particular distribution network. Accordingly, evidence of the incident in 1990 was properly admitted as substantive evidence of the charged conspiracy.