Opinion ID: 593950
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bradley's Conviction

Text: 13 Bradley also challenges his conviction alleging insufficiency of the evidence, improper jury instructions, and prejudicial remarks by the prosecutor during closing argument. Regarding the sufficiency of the evidence to support Bradley's conviction, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and accept all reasonable inferences supporting the conviction. United States v. Snelling, 862 F.2d 150, 153 (8th Cir.1988). Applying this standard, we must reject Bradley's claim. 14 Bradley was among a group of eight to ten young men who were approached by two undercover law enforcement agents seeking to buy crack cocaine. Bradley and another of the group, Leslie Marion, asked the officers whether they were police or members of a drug task force. When the agents denied such associations, Marion produced a plastic bag containing crack and gave one of the agents three rocks. The agent, in turn, gave Marion forty dollars. The agent then asked Marion if he could get one more rock for his money. Marion refused, but offered to return the agent's money if he was dissatisfied. The agent declined, whereupon Bradley took the three rocks from the agent, examined them, and told the agent that he had gotten a fair deal for his money. While the evidence of Bradley's participation makes his role in the transaction appear minimal compared to Marion's, we cannot say that it is insufficient to support a conviction for aiding and abetting. 15 Bradley also claims that the district court erred in giving the following instruction on witness credibility: 16 In deciding what testimony to believe, consider the witness's intelligence, the opportunity the witness had to have seen or heard the things testified about, the witness's memory, any motives that witness may have for testifying a certain way, the manner of the witness while testifying, whether that witness said something different at an earlier time, the general reasonableness of the testimony, and the extent to which the testimony is consistent with any evidence that you believe. 17 Bradley claims that this instruction may have nullified his credibility in light of his failure to complete high school as compared with the education and training of the law enforcement agents who testified. Bradley's claim necessitates equating intelligence with education, an assumption we do not believe the jury made. Moreover, we believe that the instruction, as a whole, adequately advised the jury of the appropriate factors to consider in assessing witness credibility. See United States v. Stanley, 765 F.2d 1224, 1239 & n. 13 (5th Cir.1985) (finding a similar jury charge adequate as given). The district court did not abuse its discretion in giving this instruction. 18 Bradley finally contends that the prosecutor's reference to him as a drug consultant during closing argument was unsupported by the record and unduly prejudicial. While the reference had but little support in the record and was provocative, we cannot say that it was so prejudicial as to require a reversal. We can only note that name calling adds little to an effective argument.