Opinion ID: 174539
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: The evidence at trial established the following: In 2001, upon graduating from high school, Lawrence Vigil and two friends, one of whom was Dominique (Dom) Saucedo, began selling marijuana, and later cocaine, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. From the outset, Vigil was the acknowledged leader of the operation. Vigil obtained drugs primarily from Manual Garcia, who lived in Denver. As the business grew, Vigil recruited a number of other friends and family members to help sell the drugs. One of the people to join Vigil's drug-trafficking operation was his mother, Alvina White Bull, also known as Sister. Appellant Lyle Wilson was White Bull's boyfriend; he lived with her in her home. White Bull and Wilson introduced Vigil to Carlos Torres-Ortiz, who became another drug supplier for Vigil's conspiracy. Vigil's organization sold drugs at several places on the Reservation, including the homes of White Bull and Saucedo, and out of Vigil's vehicles, which included a maroon Mitsubishi Gallant. Vigil would run his drug-trafficking operation from wherever he was living at the time, including out of his mother's (and Wilson's) home. In 2008, the United States indicted eight defendants, including Vigil, Dom Saucedo, White Bull and Wilson, on charges stemming from the Vigil organization's drug-trafficking activities. At Wilson's trial, his defense was that, while he lived for several years at White Bull's home, where significant drug-trafficking activity was occurring, he himself never joined the conspiracy. The Government's evidence, however, established instead that Wilson actively participated in Vigil's drug-trafficking operation. There was testimony, for example, that Wilson watched the door or was the door man at White Bull's home (Tr. v. II at 301-02), which meant he answered the door, asked customers what drugs they needed and either directed them to someone in the back of the house from whom the customer could purchase the drugs, or Wilson himself would go get the drugs from the back of the house and bring them to the customer waiting near the front door. Wilson also packaged drugs for the conspiracy and sold them out of White Bull's house. In addition, Wilson made several drug runs for Vigil to Denver and Nebraska to pick up more drugs for Vigil's operation. Based upon the significant evidence linking Wilson to Vigil's drug-trafficking activities, the jury convicted Wilson of all three offenses charged against him: 1) conspiracy to distribute five kilograms of cocaine, and 2) conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 846; and 3) possession of cocaine on June 9, 2007, with the intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841. [2] The district court sentenced Wilson to 240 months in prison on each of the three counts, the three sentences to run concurrently. On appeal, Wilson challenges all three convictions.