Opinion ID: 790329
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: McKinzie's Brief

Text: 112 McKinzie was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, two counts of possession with intent to distribute specific amounts of cocaine, and two counts of using a telephone to facilitate the drug conspiracy. After the district court severed the two possession with intent to distribute cocaine counts from the trial, McKinzie went to trial on the conspiracy and facilitation counts. McKinzie advanced a buyer-seller defense at trial, and the jury found him not guilty on the conspiracy count and guilty on the two telephone facilitation counts. Thereafter, McKinzie pleaded guilty to the possession with intent to distribute counts. 113 McKinzie now challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the telephone facilitation convictions. Because the government must prove the commission of the underlying offense to obtain a conviction on a charge of telephone facilitation, United States v. Iennaco, 893 F.2d 394, 396-97 (D.C.Cir.1990) (Ginsburg, J.), and because he was acquitted on the underlying conspiracy charge, McKinzie argues that we must vacate his conviction on the telephone facilitation counts. McKinzie also maintains that the government offered no evidence that the April 11, 1998, telephone call resulted in a drug transaction and little evidence that the June 7, 1998, conversation led to a drug deal. United States v. Townsend, 924 F.2d 1385, 1414 (7th Cir.1991). 114 To the extent that McKinzie rests his sufficiency challenge on the fact that the jury acquitted him of the underlying conspiracy charge and convicted him of the compound offense (use of a telephone to facilitate the conspiracy), his position is foreclosed by the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Powell, 469 U.S. 57, 105 S.Ct. 471, 83 L.Ed.2d 461 (1984). In Powell, a case that also involved a conviction on a telephone facilitation count and an acquittal on an underlying conspiracy count, the Court held that an acquittal on one count, even if inconsistent with conviction on another count, does not invalidate the conviction. Id. at 64-65, 105 S.Ct. 471. The Court explained that an inconsistent verdict presents a situation where error has occurred, but that it is unclear whose ox has been gored. Id. at 65, 105 S.Ct. 471. In such situations, the defendant should not receive a reversal as a matter of course, especially considering that the acquittal may have been the result of juror mistake, compromise, or lenity. Id. The Court also stressed that its holding did not leave criminal defendants like Powell without a remedy: 115 [A] criminal defendant already is afforded protection against jury irrationality or error by the independent review of the sufficiency of the evidence undertaken by the trial and appellate courts. This review should not be confused with the problems caused by inconsistent verdicts.... This review should be independent of the jury's determination that evidence on another count was insufficient. 116 Id. at 67, 105 S.Ct. 471. Thus, under Powell, we review the sufficiency of the evidence on McKinzie's telephone facilitation conviction independent of the jury's acquittal on the conspiracy count. On a sufficiency challenge, the evidence and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from it must be viewed in the light most favorable to the government. United States v. Gardner, 238 F.3d 878, 879 (7th Cir.2001) (citation omitted). The test is whether, after viewing the evidence, ` any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.' United States v. Jackson, 300 F.3d 740, 747 (7th Cir.2002) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)) (emphasis in original). 117 Section 843(b) prohibits the knowing or intentional use of a telephone in committing or in causing or facilitating the commission of any act or acts constituting a felony [under subchapter I or II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act]. 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). McKinzie's sufficiency challenge centers on whether his phone conversations with Allen on April 11, 1998, and June 7, 1998, facilitated the commission of the conspiracy, the charged underlying offense. We give the term facilitate its ordinary meaning: to make easier. United States v. Binkley, 903 F.2d 1130, 1134-36 (7th Cir.1990). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, we believe that the jury was entitled to conclude that both phone conversations facilitated drug transactions and the drug conspiracy. 3 During the April 11 conversation, McKinzie told Allen, I need to get, uh, two and a quarter, which Allen understood to mean two and one-quarter ounces of cocaine. Tr. 1003. Although the usual price for that quantity of drugs was $1200, Allen agreed to lower the price to $950 to keep McKinzie as a customer. Tr. 1003-06. Allen told McKinzie, All right .... You gonna be standing on the block.... I'm fitting to ride through there. Tr. 1003. McKinzie responded, [o]kay, I'll be right there. Tr. 1004. Allen understood that he would drive to Normal Avenue to meet McKinzie and consummate the drug deal. Id. A rational jury could infer that this phone conversation, during which Allen and McKinzie discussed drug type, quantity, price, and the location of the deal, facilitated a drug transaction. The June 7, 1998, telephone conversation was similar. Allen asked McKinzie, For the dollar, or you trying to go to 125th? McKinzie replied, Yeah, for the dollar, which Allen understood as a request for two and one-quarter ounces of crack cocaine for $1,000. Tr. 1008. McKinzie and Allen set a location for the transaction, and Allen called Tillman to ask him to take care of the deal. Tr.1927-28. Allen later testified that a drug transaction followed the June 7 conversation with McKinzie. Tr. 1009. Given the recorded phone conversation and Allen's interpretation of it, a rational trier of fact could have found that the June 7 conversation facilitated a drug transaction and the drug conspiracy. Accordingly, we reject McKinzie's sufficiency of the evidence challenge with respect to the telephone facilitation convictions.