Opinion ID: 154535
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Leos-Quijada asserts that the government offered insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly or intentionally possessed marijuana with the intent to distribute. The trial court acknowledged that the evidence was “somewhat weak . . . connecting -15- this defendant to those individuals in the desert.” R. Vol. IV at 184. Nonetheless, the court denied the defense motion for judgment of acquittal. “We review a district court’s denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal viewing all the evidence and drawing all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the prosecution.” United States v. DeLuna, 10 F.3d 1529, 1553 (10th Cir. 1993) (quoting United States v. Young, 954 F.2d 614, 616 (10th Cir. 1992)). The motion must be denied if any rational trier of fact could have found each essential element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. Although the jury may draw reasonable inferences from direct and circumstantial evidence, such inferences must be more than speculation and conjecture in order to be reasonable, and the conviction must not be obtained by piling inference upon inference. United States v. Jones, 49 F.3d 628, 633 (10th Cir. 1995); United States v. Jones, 44 F.3d 860, 865 (10th Cir. 1995). Moreover, the evidence supporting conviction must be substantial and must do more than raise a mere suspicion of the defendant’s guilt. United States v. Torres, 53 F.3d 1129, 1133-34 (10th Cir.) (citing United States v. Sanders, 928 F.2d 940, 944 (10th Cir. 1991)), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 2599, and, 116 S. Ct. 220 (1995). The prosecution’s theory of the case, as demonstrated by the prosecutor’s opening statement and closing argument, was that the seven people arrested at or near Taylor Mill had actual or constructive possession6 of the marijuana which they had carried or “backpacked” to that location as part of a criminal venture in which Leos-Quijada participated by driving the load 6 The district court instructed the jury that “[a] person, who although not in actual possession, knowingly has both the power and the intention at a given time to exercise dominion or control over a thing either directly or through another person or persons is then in constructive possession of it.” R. Vol. IV at 201. -16- vehicle to Taylor Mill to pick up the drugs. Accordingly, the prosecution argued, Leos-Quijada aided and abetted in the possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. “Whoever . . . aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures [the] commission [of a crime] is punishable as a principal.” 18 U.S.C. § 2(a). To be guilty of aiding and abetting the commission of a crime, the defendant must willfully associate himself with the criminal venture and seek to make the venture succeed through some action of his own. United States v. McKneely, 69 F.3d 1067, 1072 (10th Cir. 1995); DeLuna, 10 F.3d at 1533-34. Participation in the criminal venture may be established by circumstantial evidence and the level of participation may be of “relatively slight moment.” McKneely, 69 F.3d at 1072 (quotations omitted); United States v. Esparsen, 930 F.2d 1461, 1470 (10th Cir. 1991). The issue we face is whether the government presented sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Leos-Quijada drove to Taylor Mill to pick up the drugs. We conclude that the government did not present sufficient evidence. The government relies on the following evidence to prove that Leos-Quijada went to Taylor Mill to pick up the drugs. Leos-Quijada was parked in the Jeep Cherokee at Taylor Mill at 6:50 in the morning, got out of the vehicle and stood near it, and then left at a high rate of speed shortly after the confidential informant approached in her vehicle. An hour or so later officers returned to Taylor Mill in a sports utility vehicle of a similar color to the Jeep Cherokee. Deputy Umphries testified that he believed this decoy might work because in his experience the drug mules often only “know the vehicle” which is supposed to meet them. R. Vol. IV at 142. Consistent with the signals which in their experience had been used by the occupants of load vehicles to alert drug mules, the officers honked and whistled. Soon thereafter a man emerged -17- from the desert and ran towards them, but apparently realizing that the officers were not the people he was supposed to meet, he altered his direction as if to avoid them. After the officers arrested the man, Agent Villa backtracked his footprints to the other six individuals in the desert and then backtracked their footprints to the marijuana. All of this occurred in the early hours of the morning in an isolated desert area known as a trail for drug smuggling. This case requires the fact finder to pile inference upon inference in order to conclude that Leos-Quijada participated in a criminal venture to possess and distribute drugs. First, the fact finder must infer that Leos-Quijada went to Taylor Mill to alert the drug mules in the desert to bring the drugs to the vehicle. However, there was no evidence that Leos-Quijada or HaroBanuelo honked, whistled, or otherwise attempted to communicate with the persons hiding in the desert. Second, the fact finder must infer that the man in the desert knew the type of vehicle he was supposed to meet and that he approached the officers because they were driving a vehicle similar enough to be confused with the Jeep Cherokee. Besides Deputy Umphries’ testimony that the mules often “know the vehicle” they are supposed to meet, there was no evidence that these mules were supposed to meet a certain vehicle or the characteristics of the vehicle. While one backpacker admitted that they were supposed to carry the drugs to the windmill, he did not indicate who they were supposed to meet or how they were to identify the person or persons. Further, while the jury certainly could have concluded that sport utility vehicles of different makes but of like color are very similar, there is no evidence that the man in the desert was responding to the vehicle. Agent Villa testified that the man “was recognizing, or, you know, he displayed that in his face that you might be, you know recognizing us,” but there was no evidence -18- whether the display of recognition was directed at the silver or gray colored sports utility vehicle, at the physical characteristics of the officers, at the honking and whistling of the officers, or merely the location of the officers near the windmills. Third, the fact finder must infer that the man in the desert responded to the officers for the purpose of making a drug exchange. While this inference is certainly reasonable, it is an inference tacked on to a string of inferences such that the jury’s final determination that LeosQuijada aided and abetted the possession of drugs with intent to distribute is too speculative. The government also relied on a number of factors which did not specifically link LeosQuijada to the drugs in the desert, but which, according to the officers, indicated that he fit the profile of the driver of a load vehicle. Leos-Quijada and Haro-Banuelo were suspicious because Haro-Banuelo was nervous, they told inconsistent stories about their travel plans, they had no clothing or lunches appropriate for the work they claimed to seek, and Leos-Quijada had little identification while Haro-Banuelo had no identification. The Jeep Cherokee was suspicious because of the presence of a strong air freshener scent and the bottle of air freshener, it was registered to a third party in Arizona, it was exceedingly clean, it was a sport utility model capable of carrying a large cargo, and it had tinted windows. While most of these factors are consistent with innocent behavior, they are relevant, especially in aggregate, of drug activity. Nonetheless, they are not enough to transform the government’s weak evidence connecting LeosQuijada to the particular drug venture near Taylor Mill into proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In a similar case, we found the evidence of a defendant’s proximity to illegal activity and other suspicious factors insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. -19- McMahon, 562 F.2d 1192 (10th Cir. 1977), involved an appeal by a defendant who was convicted by a jury of aiding and abetting the transportation of illegal aliens. The evidence was that a directional sensor device near the border registered the passage of two vehicles in a short time span on a road known as a route to avoid the checkpoint. The border patrol agents went to the area and saw a car with a CB antenna but did not see a second vehicle follow. The agents returned to the checkpoint and later the sensor again registered two vehicles. The agents went to the area and saw the same car with a CB antenna but did not see a second vehicle. This time the agents concluded that a second vehicle did not follow because the car was warning the vehicle via CB that the agents were in the area. The agents quickly headed toward a high spot where they could see a truck heading away from the sensor and upon stopping the truck they discovered it contained eleven illegal aliens. The agents then proceeded back in the direction of the car and found that the car had turned around and stopped on the side of the road. The defendant was driving the car and the agents learned that he and a passenger in the truck were brothers-in-law. The officers also located CB radios in both vehicles. The government’s theory in McMahon was that the defendant aided and abetted the criminal venture by driving a “scout car” to warn the truck of the location of the border agents, that the vehicles communicated by CB radios, that both times when the border patrol agents arrived at the area and saw the scout car, the truck did not follow because the car had warned the truck via CB radio that the agents were in the area, and that when the agents were able to stop the truck by quickly driving to a high spot, the defendant’s car had turned around to check what had happened to the truck. We determined that the government’s circumstantial case of aiding and abetting was insufficient to support the conviction. After considering all the circumstantial -20- evidence, we noted that “there was no proof of any incriminating contacts by defendant with the load car occupants.” Id. at 1196. We concluded that “the observation of the [car] in the general vicinity and its movement do not reasonably support an inference that the defendant was aiding the movement of the aliens with the requisite knowledge to establish criminal intent. Mere presence in such circumstances may create suspicion, but it does not establish participation or guilt.” Id. Likewise, in the present case we have circumstances which create a strong suspicion that Leos-Quijada was in the Taylor Mill area for the purpose of picking up drugs. However, such circumstances are not enough to establish Leos-Quijada’s participation beyond a reasonable doubt. Just as the McMahon car was seen in the vicinity of the truck carrying illegal aliens, Leos-Quijada’s vehicle was seen at Taylor Mill one half mile to a mile from where the drugs were found an hour or so later. The McMahon car was also observed acting suspiciously in that it twice turned around and headed the opposite direction and even stopped after the truck was stopped. Likewise, Leos-Quijada’s vehicle was observed leaving the Taylor Mill area at a high rate of speed after the confidential informant arrived at the area. Finally, in the McMahon case there were circumstances linking the alleged lead car and load car: both had CB radios, the car seemed to turn around when the truck did, the truck turned around after speaking in the CB, and there was a brother-in-law relationship between the driver of the car and a passenger in the truck. In the present case, the only circumstances linking the backpackers in the desert with LeosQuijada were his presence in the general vicinity and the fact that when law enforcement officers arrived at Taylor Mill in a sports utility vehicle of a similar color to the vehicle driven by LeosQuijada, the man in the desert responded to the honking and whistling. -21- After carefully reviewing the record in this case, we conclude that a reasonable jury could not find Leos-Quijada guilty of aiding and abetting the possession of marijuana with intent to distribute beyond a reasonable doubt. Because of this disposition, we do not reach the issue of prosecutorial misconduct.