Opinion ID: 2994827
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Wafford

Text: Wafford was charged with committing attempted battery with a dangerous weapon for the attempted shooting of David Carrell. Wafford concedes that he shot at Carrell and does not deny that he was involved in Dawg Life’s crack house operations. However, he argues that theevidence did not prove that the purpose of the shooting was to gain entrance to, maintain, or increase his position in Dawg Life. One of the gang members who testified stated that he and Wafford were the shooters and that the Carrell shooting was a spur of the moment decision having nothing to do with Dawg Life. He also testified that he believed Carrell had shot at Wafford sometime in the past but was unable to elaborate. There was also testimony from one of the police officers who regularly patrolled the southeast side and was familiar with gang activity. The officer explained that he had been very aggressive in making cocaine arrests in the Dawg Life territory and taking people to jail. This officer stated he was stopped by Wafford while on patrol in August of 1998, several weeks before the shooting. He said that Wafford introduced himself and told the officer that Wafford knew who he (the officer) was. The officer stated that Wafford told him he (Wafford) was an O.G., and he wanted the officer to lighten up on the Little Locs in the neighborhood. (As a high-ranking O.G., Wafford would not usually sell the drugs himself, but would supervise the sales carried out by the lower-ranking members, normally the Little Locs.) There was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that Wafford believed that Carrell’s mother was snitching to the police about the crack house, which, testimony showed, was controlled by Dawg Life members, and from which place Wafford supervised crack sales. The jury could reasonably have found that Wafford, as an O.G., was acting to protect and further the Dawg Life enterprise, carrying out his responsibilities as required by his position within the gang. Basically, all three defendants are asking this court to reweigh the evidence, which we may not do. United States v. Mojica, 984 F.2d 1426, 1435 (7th Cir. 1993) (It is not the task of this appellate court to reconsider the evidence or assess the credibility of the witnesses.). As the defendants’ sufficiency of the evidence arguments rely on the weight the jury gave to the witnesses’ testimony, we find there was sufficient evidence to convict each one of committing a violent crime in order to maintain his position within the criminal enterprise.