Opinion ID: 621480
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Burgos-Valdez

Text: Burgos-Valdez was convicted at trial of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. On appeal, he argues that the evidence presented against him was legally insufficient to support his conviction in light of the incredible testimony [of the Government's] witnesses and [the] lack of physical evidence tying [him] to the conspiracy. Burgos-Valdez was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over by police for a routine traffic stop. Police found three kilograms of methamphetamine in the center console of the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle, Jorge Salgado, pled guilty to the charges against him, cooperated with the government, and testified at trial. Salgado testified that Burgos-Valdez had been involved in acquiring methamphetamine in Phoenix for Dario Verdugo-Galaviz and that Burgos-Valdez had packed the methamphetamine into the vehicle in which they were caught. If credited by the jury, Salgado's testimony alone was sufficient to sustain Burgos-Valdez's conviction. See Bowie, 618 F.3d at 814 (holding that even the wholly uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice is sufficient to sustain a conviction absent facial incredibility or insubstantiality). Because a jury's determinations of witness credibility are virtually unreviewable on appeal, Boyce, 564 F.3d at 916, and because we must construe the evidence presented in the light most favorable to the government, resolving conflicts in the government's favor, and accepting all reasonable inferences that support the verdict, Yarrington, 634 F.3d at 449, Burgos-Valdez's insufficiency claim fails, and we affirm his conviction.
The district court sentenced Burgos-Valdez to 240 months' imprisonment. Burgos-Valdez argues that his below-guidelines-range sentence was substantively unreasonable because of disparities between his sentence and that of Jorge Salgado, who Burgos-Valdez claims was a similarly situated defendant. The district court specified proper reasons for its disparate treatment of Burgos-Valdez and Salgado, including the fact that Salgado pled guilty and its finding that Salgado was a minor participant while Burgos-Valdez was not. See Bowie, 618 F.3d at 819; U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2. Burgos-Valdez also asserts that the district court did not properly explain his sentence, as required by 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c). While Burgos-Valdez is correct that the court did not engage in an expansive recitation of the § 3553(a) factors, it was not required to do so. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461 (8th Cir.2009) (en banc). In this case, the record is sufficient to allow for meaningful review, see Gall, 552 U.S. at 50, 128 S.Ct. 586, and it shows that the § 3553(a) factors were considered properly, see United States v. Brown, 627 F.3d 1068, 1073-74 (8th Cir.2010), cert. denied, 562 U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 274, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2011). Therefore, we do not find an abuse of discretion in the district court's sentencing of Burgos-Valdez, and we affirm his sentence.