Opinion ID: 790011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Refusal to Instruct on the Lesser-Included Offense

Text: 28 Puckett argues that the trial judge erred when he refused to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of simple possession. Puckett requested that the court give the jury an alternate instruction stating that: If you find the defendant not guilty of the crime of possession of 63 grams of cocaine with intent to distribute charged in the indictment (or if you cannot unanimously agree that the defendant is guilty of that crime), then you must proceed to determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of the lesser offense of simple possession of 63 grams of cocaine. See Federal Criminal Jury Instructions of the Seventh Circuit 7.02 (1999). To be entitled to an instruction regarding a lesser-included offense, a defendant must establish that (1) the offense on which he seeks an instruction is a lesser-included offense of the one charged, and (2) a rational jury could find him guilty of the lesser offense but not guilty of the greater offense. United States v. McCullough, 348 F.3d 620, 624 (7th Cir.2003). We review the first prong of that test de novo and the second prong for an abuse of discretion. Id. 29 As the government concedes, and our case law makes clear, simple possession is indeed a lesser included offense of possession with intent to distribute. United States v. Hill, 196 F.3d 806, 808 (7th Cir.1999). However, that fact alone does not mean that Puckett was entitled to a lesser-included-offense instruction `as a matter of course'. United States v. Hernandez, 330 F.3d 964, 972 (7th Cir.2003) (quoting United States v. Wright, 131 F.3d 1111, 1112 (4th Cir.1997)). Instead, in order to satisfy the second prong of the inquiry into whether he was entitled to an instruction on the lesser-included offense of simple possession, Puckett needed to produce sufficient evidence at trial so that a jury could rationally find him [guilty] of the lesser offense yet acquit him of the greater. Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 716 n. 8, 109 S.Ct. 1443, 103 L.Ed.2d 734 (1989). 30 Puckett offers only his self-serving assertion that the drugs were intended for personal use only. Indeed, Puckett failed to present any direct evidence whatsoever at trial that he was a cocaine user or possessed the drug because he had any intention of consuming it himself, and also failed to offer any explanation as to how such a large amount of cocaine (63 grams) could rationally be considered consistent with personal use. 12 Instead, Puckett's defense to the govern ment's charge that he possessed the drugs solely for distribution was based upon negative inferences only. He argues that because no trappings of the drug trade — such as cutting agents, beepers, cell phones, or scales — were found on his person at the time of his arrest or during a later search of his grandmother's residence, and because the officers who arrested him also found him in possession of a user quantity of marijuana (.7 grams), the jury could have rationally inferred that he possessed the drugs solely for personal use. These circumstantial details of his arrest fall far short of constituting convincing evidence supporting Puckett's claim of simple possession, and fail to create a question for the jury on the issue of whether he possessed such a large quantity of drugs strictly for personal use. The absence of any drug dealer's paraphernalia is inconclusive of personal use. See Wright, 131 F.3d at 1113. It may be that Puckett had a separate venue which he used to process the cocaine for distribution or that he was a mid-level drug runner, either scenario is irrelevant for each would constitute possession with intent to deliver. Furthermore, we attach no significance to Puckett's self-serving assertion that the relatively small amount of marijuana he possessed demonstrated that he was a user rather than a dealer of that drug, when the narcotic at issue here is cocaine, and not marijuana. Even if Puckett was a recreational marijuana user, that fact alone falls far short of establishing that he was not also a big time cocaine dealer. It would be antithetical to conclude that simply because an individual uses drugs, they are not also involved in the drug trade in a distribution capacity as well. 31 Conversely, the government introduced overwhelming evidence establishing that the quantity of drugs Puckett possessed could only be intended for distribution. The government's evidence included testimony from its expert witness Sgt. Johnson and evidence of the defendant's prior conviction for possession of 51 rocks of crack cocaine with intent to deliver, to establish conclusively that Puckett intended to distribute the cocaine for profit rather than retain it for personal use. The amount of cocaine Puckett admitted to possessing, 63 grams, is in excess of what one would possess for personal use, and is in and of itself sufficient evidence to compel an inference that he intended to distribute the drug. See United States v. Breland, 356 F.3d 787, 792 (7th Cir.2004) (intent to distribute can be inferred from the possession of a quantity of drugs larger than needed for personal use) (quoting United States v. Maholias, 985 F.2d 869, 879 (7th Cir.1993)); United States v. Turner, 93 F.3d 276, 288 (7th Cir.1996) (same); Wright, 131 F.3d at 1113; but cf. Hill, 196 F.3d at 807. Puckett's near-certain status as a dealer rather than a user was further confirmed by the expert testimony of Sgt. Johnson, a twenty-six-year veteran of the police force, who described the precise quantity of powdered cocaine Puckett possessed — two-anda-lick in street vernacular — as a distribution amount commonly purchased by street-level dealers to reformulate into crack or resell in powder form in much smaller quantities. Sgt. Johnson further stated that, based upon his knowledge and experience with narcotic interdiction in the Rockford area, he had never come across any cocaine user who possessed more than three-and-a-half grams of cocaine for personal use — Puckett was in possession of 18 times this much cocaine at the time of his arrest, i.e., for even a severely addicted user it would take approximately 18 days to exhaust a 63 gram supply. In addition, the government also introduced the evidence of Puckett's conviction for drug trafficking just six years earlier when he was found with another, similar large stash of cocaine, which, as discussed above, was highly probative (and admissible) evidence of his intent to distribute the cocaine he possessed. 32 Because there is no evidence in the record to support Puckett's theory that the 63 grams of cocaine found in his possession in 2002 were for personal use, see Hernandez, 330 F.3d at 972, the district court also did not abuse its discretion in refusing to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense.