Opinion ID: 196494
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 30 A convicted defendant who presses a claim of evidentiary insufficiency faces an uphill climb. If the evidence presented, taken in the light most agreeable to the government, is adequate to permit a rational jury to find each essential element of the offense of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, then the defendant's claim fails. See United States v. Olbres, 61 F.3d 967, 970 (1st Cir.1995); United States v. Gifford, 17 F.3d 462, 467 (1st Cir.1994). Phrased another way, as long as the aggregate evidence justifies a judgment of conviction, it need not rule out other hypotheses more congenial to a finding of innocence. Gifford, 17 F.3d at 467. 31 When a criminal defendant undertakes a sufficiency challenge, all the evidence, direct and circumstantial, must be viewed from the government's coign of vantage, and the viewer must accept all reasonable inferences from it that are consistent with the verdict. See United States v. Taylor, 54 F.3d 967, 974 (1st Cir.1995); United States v. O'Brien, 14 F.3d 703, 706 (1st Cir.1994). In other words, the trial judge must resolve all evidentiary conflicts and credibility questions in the prosecution's favor; and, moreover, as among competing inferences, two or more of which are plausible, the judge must choose the inference that best fits the prosecution's theory of guilt. Olbres, 61 F.3d at 970. Because the district court's disposition of a motion for judgment of acquittal is subject to de novo review, see id., this court, like the trial court, must scrutinize the evidence in the light most compatible with the verdict, resolve all credibility disputes in the verdict's favor, and then reach a judgment about whether a rational jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Taylor, 54 F.3d at 974. 32 Applying these straightforward rules to this record makes short shrift of the appellant's claim. The elements of the offense of conviction are knowing possession of a controlled substance (here, crack) and intent to distribute that substance. See United States v. Marin, 7 F.3d 679, 688 (7th Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 739, 126 L.Ed.2d 702 (1994). Here, these elements were amply proven. 33 The discovery of sizable quantities of crack at the appellant's place of abode and in his jacket, together with the appellant's admissions to the authorities, form a sturdy platform on which to load a finding of guilt. The opinion evidence that we have recounted furnishes additional support for the finding. It is clear to us that a rational jury, impartially assaying all the evidence, could have found beyond a reasonable doubt--as this jury did--that the prosecution had successfully proved the essential elements of the drug trafficking charge. 7