Opinion ID: 2781474
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Predicate Drug-trafficking Crime

Text: Lara-Ruiz next asserts that the government did not prove he had committed a prior drug-trafficking crime or link that prior crime to his use of the gun as it must to sustain the conviction under § 924(c). As the government points out, however, Lara-Ruiz could have raised this argument in his first appeal, and because he did not, it is waived in this third appeal. See United States v. Castellanos, 608 F.3d 1010, 1019 (8th Cir. 2010). Alternatively, our previous ruling upholding Lara-Ruiz’s conviction for use of a firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking crime is “law of the case” and cannot be challenged now in this appeal. See United States v. Bloate, 655 F.3d 750, 755 (8th Cir. 2011). But procedural hurdles aside, this argument lacks merit. Lara-Ruiz’s trial attorney informed the jury in her opening statement that Lara-Ruiz “pled guilty to distribution of methamphetamine because he was guilty of that offense” and later remarked that Lara-Ruiz is “a meth dealer. There is no question about that.” During the trial, Lara-Ruiz did not dispute that he had engaged in methamphetamine possession and distribution. See Lara-Ruiz I, 681 F.3d at 924. The jury, having heard that opening statement and the testimony at trial, found the necessary predicate offense and found Lara-Ruiz guilty of using a firearm “during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.” In Lara-Ruiz’s first appeal, we upheld that conviction. Id. at 921. We also noted that any objection Lara-Ruiz had to his attorney’s statements belonged in a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Id. at 924. Lara-Ruiz makes much of the verdict’s wording that he used the firearm during a drug-trafficking crime and suggests the jury should have named the specific crime during which he used the firearm. But the jury did not need to find that Lara-Ruiz had used a gun “at the time of a specific transaction” to support the conviction under § 924(c). See United States v. Knox, 950 F.2d 516, 518 (8th Cir. 1991). The jury needed to find only “a sufficient nexus between the gun and the drug trafficking -6- offense.” Id. at 518–19 (quotation omitted). As we noted in Lara-Ruiz’s previous appeals, there was plenty of evidence, including the statement by Lara-Ruiz’s attorney, that Lara-Ruiz had committed previous drug crimes.