Opinion ID: 223527
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Rodriguez's Separate Claims

Text: Rodriguez presents three additional issues for our review, challenging both his conviction and his sentence. He first contends that, because the district court erred by denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the narcotics conspiracy charge against him, we must reverse his conviction. Rodriguez then contends that the district court erred in sentencing him by holding him accountable for his coconspirators' actions and by taking his previous conviction for possession of a dangerous weapon into account both in calculating his offense level and in determining his criminal history points.
Rodriguez moved for a directed verdict at the close of the government's evidence, arguing that as to the drug conspiracy count, there ha[d] been no mention to Mr. Rodriguez in any way. (Tr. 11/17/08 at 3836.) Rodriguez renewed his motion after the Defendants rested, filed a motion for a new trial and judgment of acquittal after the trial ended, and then filed a supplemental motion for the same; the district court denied each. Rodriguez now appeals the denial of his motions, arguing that the government presented insufficient evidence to prove that he agreed to join the drug conspiracy. We review the district court's denial of motions for a judgment of acquittal de novo. United States v. Jones, 222 F.3d 349, 351 (7th Cir.2000). In considering whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain a guilty verdict, we review it in the light most favorable to the government. Id. at 352. We will overturn the verdict only when the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Huddleston, 593 F.3d 596, 601 (7th Cir.2010). Rodriguez was convicted of conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846. To sustain the conviction, the evidence must show that Rodriguez either implicitly or explicitly agreed with other Deuces to distribute narcotics or possess them with the intent to distribute them. United States v. Vallar, 635 F.3d 271, 286 (7th Cir.2011). In response to Rodriguez's motions, the government noted that Rodriguez participated in two Insane Deuce meetings where the conspirators discussed the use of the caja for drug fronting and the narcotics free enterprise system. Rodriguez is correct that his awareness of the narcotics conspiracy and his presence during conspiratorial discussions do not suffice for a conspiracy conviction. United States v. Taylor, 600 F.3d 863, 868 (7th Cir.2010). But Rodriguez was a long-term member of the gang (more than a decade of active participation) who eventually reached Senior status before being rolled back to Junior status  and to its active requirements. He was well aware of the functions and funding of the caja, he accepted the gang's rules about drug dealing, and he was recorded advocating the free enterprise system. Rodriguez's arguments that he was not a participant in the trafficking and distribution of narcotics and that he was merely aware of it may have been valid arguments to put before a jury, [but] they are not enough to support a sufficiency of the evidence challenge on appeal. Taylor, 600 F.3d at 869. The government was not required to prove that Rodriguez personally bought, sold, or possessed any narcotics in order to obtain a conviction under 21 U.S.C. § 846, only that he agreed to the activities. See United States v. Bolivar, 532 F.3d 599, 603 (7th Cir.2008); United States v. Johnson, 592 F.3d 749, 754 n. 4 (7th Cir.2010). The totality of the evidence regarding Rodriguez's membership in the gang, his participation in and advocacy of its activities, and his enjoyment of the caja's benefits allowed a jury to conclude that he implicitly agreed to the distribution of narcotics by fellow Insane Deuces for the gang's benefit. Although the decision is close, we find that the district court did not err in denying Rodriguez's motion for a judgment of acquittal. Accordingly, we will affirm his conviction.
Rodriguez challenges his sentence on two grounds. He first contends that the district court erred in determining his offense level by holding him accountable for his coconspirator's violent acts and narcotics distribution activities without making sufficient findings as to the relevance of that conduct to his particular case. He then contends that the district court impermissibly double counted his illegal possession of a firearm by considering it while calculating his offense level and while determining his criminal history category. These procedural errors, he argues, mandate a resentencing. We review the district court's sentencing procedures, including its calculation of the offense level and determination of the defendant's criminal history category, de novo. United States v. Nance, 611 F.3d 409, 412, 415 (7th Cir.2010). We review any factual determination upon which the district court relied in setting the offense level, such as the amount of drugs attributable to a defendant, for clear error. United States v. Winbush, 580 F.3d 503, 512-13 (7th Cir. 2009). In calculating a defendant's offense level, the district court considers not only the offenses of conviction but also any conduct relevant to the offenses. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). Standing alone, Rodriguez's convictions on racketeering conspiracy and narcotics conspiracy counts do not suffice to sentence him for all of his coconspirators' actions. See United States v. Soto-Piedra, 525 F.3d 527, 531 (7th Cir. 2008) (Conspiracy liability, as defined in Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 646-48, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946), is generally much broader than jointly undertaken criminal activity under § 1B1.3.). Rather, those actions must have been both in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity and also reasonably foreseeable to Rodriguez. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B); United States v. Salem, 597 F.3d 877, 884-85 (7th Cir. 2010). This determination requires the district court to make a preliminary determination of the scope of the criminal activity the defendant agreed to jointly undertake. Salem, 597 F.3d at 886. Rodriguez challenges the sufficiency of the district court's findings regarding the scope of his jointly undertaken activities and the foreseeability of his co-conspirators' criminal activities. In reaching the offense level for his racketeering conspiracy conviction, the district court held Rodriguez liable for all of the violent acts perpetrated by and narcotics amounts distributed or possessed by his co-conspirators. It did not, however, explicitly state the basis for its finding that the scope of Rodriguez's undertaken activities was coextensive with that of the Insane Deuce enterprise or the overall narcotics conspiracy. Nor did it explicitly state that all of the violent acts and drug quantities involved in the Defendants' case were foreseeable to Rodriguez. During sentencing, Rodriguez never argued that his coconspirators' acts were unforeseeable to him or outside the scope of his jointly undertaken criminal activity. He did object to being held liable for his co-conspirators' violence, but his arguments  both in his written objection and at the sentencing hearing  had nothing to do with his argument on appeal. His three arguments below pertained only to: (1) whether he could be held liable for his co-conspirators acts when the jury did not specifically find he was personally involved in any of them  a question well settled by the Sentencing Guidelines, see U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3, and case law, e.g., Salem, 597 F.3d at 884-85; (2) whether he could be held responsible for acts perpetrated while he was in prison or in senior status  questions answered by the district court's findings that he had not withdrawn during those periods; and (3) an abandoned argument about the reliability of the evidence upon which conspiratorial liability may be found. Accordingly, we deem Rodriguez's arguments based on scope and foreseeability forfeited and review his arguments only for plain error. See United States v. Bell, 624 F.3d 803, 808 (7th Cir. 2010). We will reverse only if there was an obvious error that seriously affected both [Rodriguez's] substantial rights and the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Long, 639 F.3d 293, 299 (7th Cir.2011). The district court considered and overruled Rodriguez's objections to the presentence report (PSR), and the transcript of the sentencing hearing clearly indicates that the district court relied upon the PSR in determining Rodriguez's offense level and criminal history category. After the sentencing hearing, the district court adopted the PSR in its Statement of Reasons form attached to its judgment. The PSR succinctly established that the scope of Rodriguez's jointly undertaken criminal activity was coincidental with that of the Insane Deuce enterprise overall. (Rodriguez PSR at 13.) It also made clear that each and every overt act of violence in connection with the RICO conspiracy, although perhaps not specifically agreed to by each and every defendant on every specific occasion, was nonetheless reasonably foreseeable to each and every defendant given the nature of their joint RICO enterprise. Id. Rodriguez did not challenge either of these factors he now argues were insufficiently addressed by the district court, and we find that the district court did not plainly err by considering his co-conspirators' acts in calculating Rodriguez's racketeering conspiracy offense level. See Long, 639 F.3d at 300 (Deficient findings of fact can be cured, at least for purposes of plain error review, when the district court adopts the PSR in its Statement of Reasons, the PSR provides the necessary factual support for the sentence, and the defendant had an opportunity to object to the PSR's findings.). Rodriguez's arguments regarding his sentence for the narcotics conspiracy are similar to those informing his objection in the district court, but we need not determine whether plain or clear error review is appropriate because the outcome is the same under either standard. The district court found that the evidence presented at trial easily proved that the narcotics conspiracy involved a quantity of drugs corresponding to an offense level of 38. But the district court made no finding that the scope of Rodriguez's agreement was coextensive with the entire narcotics conspiracy. Nor did the PSR contain such a statement, as it did with the racketeering conspiracy count. See Salem, 597 F.3d at 888 ([E]ven if the court had adopted the findings in the PSRs in this case at the time of sentencing, the court's factual findings would still be deficient on a key element of the relevant conduct analysis: the scope of the jointly undertaken criminal activity.). We find that the district court erred when it found that the quantity of drugs involved in Rodriguez's narcotics conspiracy offense included all of the drugs possessed or distributed by his co-conspirators without having made the necessary findings. See U.S.S.G. §§ 2D1.1(a) & cmt. 12, 1B1.3(a)(2). Nevertheless, this error is harmless. As calculated by the PSR, the adjusted offense level for Rodriguez's racketeering conspiracy conviction (41) exceeded the adjusted offense level for his narcotics conspiracy (38). (Rodriguez PSR at 27.) His racketeering conspiracy conviction thus controlled his combined offense level. See U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4. As Rodriguez concedes, (Rodriguez Reply Br. at 9), any error in computing the drug quantity thus would not affect his guidelines range. The same consideration renders Rodriguez's final sentencing argument moot. He argues that the district court erroneously double-counted his possession of a firearm in calculating his narcotics conspiracy offense level and in setting his criminal history category. Because his total offense level is based on his racketeering conspiracy offense, no possibility of double counting is presented. Accordingly, we will affirm his sentence.