Opinion ID: 1188928
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constructive Possession of the Heroin in 707 Albert's Basement

Text: Upon executing the search warrant at 707 Albert, authorities discovered 23.6 grams of heroin in the basement. Morris argues that the evidence was insufficient to prove the requisite nexus connecting him to these drugs. Such a nexus is typically shown in one of two ways. First, if the government demonstrates that the defendant had exclusive control over the property where the drugs were discovered, one may infer that the defendant constructively possessed the items, including drugs, found on that property. Castillo, 406 F.3d at 812. In this case, however, the government did not rest its arguments at trial on whether Morris possessed such control. Instead, the government focused on the second means of proving a nexus between Morris and the drugs in the basement: substantial connection. In the absence of exclusive control, evidence that a defendant had a substantial connection to the location where contraband was seized is sufficient to establish the nexus between that person and the drugs. See Richardson, 208 F.3d at 632; see also United States v. Brown, 328 F.3d 352, 355 (7th Cir.2003). As we will discuss, we have found a substantial connection in a variety of circumstances, and we conclude that such a connection existed here. In Richardson, 208 F.3d 626, for example, we found the defendant to be substantially connected to a residence when he kept clothes and medicine at the house, received mail there, and admitted that he was the caretaker and landlord of the address. Id. at 632. Similarly, in Kitchen, 57 F.3d 516, we held that the jury was right to find constructive possession when the defendant had received calls at the home where weapons were found, had stated that he lived at that address, and had been seen at the address on numerous occasions. Id. at 520. In addition, investigators located the defendant's clothing, jewelry, and mail at the residence. Id. Finally, the defendant had spent substantial amounts of money repairing the house. Id. The facts of the instant case are not as straightforward as those in Richardson and Kitchen. During the search of 707 Albert, the police did not recover any tangible items linking Morris to the premises. They found no clothing, no personal items, and no mail sent to Morris at that address. Morris claims that the government's case was founded on mere proximity alone and that the absence of tangible evidence linking him to 707 Albert is determinative. In support, Morris relies principally on two cases, Windom, 19 F.3d 1190, and United States v. Herrera, 757 F.2d 144 (7th Cir.1985). In Windom, the government produced no evidence linking the defendant to drugs found in a backpack that was recovered from a house belonging to the defendant's niece. 19 F.3d at 1201. The defendant was in the house when the backpack was discovered, but the court held that his presence alone was not enough to support the jury's conviction. Id. at 1200-01. We reached the same conclusion in Herrera. There, the defendant was arrested after he left a house carrying a brown bag that contained heroin. 757 F.2d at 147. A search of the house he was leaving revealed a locked footlocker containing numerous packages of heroin, a gun, money, a scale, and plastic bags. Id. The district court convicted the defendant of possessing the heroin found in the footlocker. Id. at 148. On appeal, we overturned the conviction related to these drugs, concluding that the government had not shown that the defendant had the ability to exercise dominion and control over them. Id. at 150. The footlocker was locked, the defendant had no key, and the purity of the heroin seized on the defendant's person did not match the purity of the heroin found inside the locker. Id. The only evidence of the defendant's possession of the drugs in the footlocker was his presence on the property where it was located, and that was insufficient. Id. We agree with Morris that his case bears some semblance to Windom and Herrera. There is a dearth of tangible evidence linking Morris to 707 Albert, and we recognize that much of the government's case at trial rested on Morris's proximity to the drugs in the basement. As we mentioned, however, the government may use circumstantial evidence to demonstrate the substantial connection sufficient to prove constructive possession. Kelly, 519 F.3d at 361. And, although proximity alone is not enough to establish constructive possession, the requisite additional evidence, circumstantial though it may be, need not take the form of physical, tangible items that link an individual to a given location. The D.C. Circuit, in words that we find persuasive, has said that proximity coupled with evidence of some other factorincluding connection with [an impermissible item], proof of motive, a gesture implying control, evasive conduct, or a statement indicating involvement in an enterprise is enough to sustain a guilty verdict. United States v. Richardson, 161 F.3d 728, 732 (D.C.Cir.1998) (quotations omitted); see also United States v. Gibbs, 904 F.2d 52, 57 (D.C.Cir.1990). We find that there was ample evidence of these other factors. We begin with Morris's flight from the basement. We have previously identified a defendant's flight as the something more sufficient to overcome the mere presence doctrine. See United States v. Starks, 309 F.3d 1017, 1025 (7th Cir.2002). In Starks, police raided a house and discovered the two defendants in a room with a table full of drugs. Id. at 1019. The men fled, hiding in a closet. Id. at 1020. The house itself was largely devoid of possessions, resulting in no tangible evidence to link the defendants to the house. Id. The defense argued on appeal that mere presence was insufficient to support a finding of possession by one of the defendants. Id. at 1022. In upholding the conviction, we identified the defendant's flight as one factor supporting the jury's verdict. Id. at 1025 (From the very infancy of criminal litigation, juries have been permitted to consider flight as evidence of consciousness of guilt and thus of guilt itself. (quotations omitted)). In the present case, the inference of guilt drawn from Morris's flight is only strengthened when the area from where he was fleeing contained nothing of any substance but the drugs and accompanying paraphernalia. [1] Morris's flight was not the only circumstantial evidence of his substantial connection to 707 Albert. His own words provided more. Morris made two statements indicating a connection with the house. First, following his arrest, Morris told Detective Gambini: This case is dropped. You had no probable cause to get in my house  (emphasis added). Next, according to a written statement provided by Donte Webb, one of Morris's cousins, Morris told Webb that the police had raided one of [Morris's] houses. Such statements certainly give rise to the inference that Morris was substantially connected to 707 Albert. See Starks, 309 F.3d at 1024 (discussing that a link distinguishing mere presence from participation could include the giving of incriminating statements); cf. Richardson, 208 F.3d at 632 (denying a sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge in part because the defendant admitted to being the landlord of the property); Richardson, 161 F.3d at 732 (indicating that a statement intimating involvement would be enough to support a conviction); Kitchen, 57 F.3d at 520 (denying a sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge in part because the defendant admitted to living at the address). Other evidence supporting the jury's finding of the requisite connection between Morris and 707 Albert included the frequency of Morris's presence at the house during previous weeks, see Kitchen, 57 F.3d at 520 (noting that the defendant had been seen at the house on numerous occasions), and the Lincoln Town Car parked in the house's garage, which contained a document addressed to Morris and whose key Morris possessed during the traffic stop four days after the search. In addition, police recovered his fingerprint on the money bag that was found in the Town Car. Also, in a search of 707 Albert's garbage, police discovered mail to Morris, albeit not sent to that address. In sum, although the evidence might not have been as persuasive as Morris's name on the lease, his clothes in the closet, or his letters in the mailbox, it provided sufficient circumstantial support for the jury's finding that Morris had a substantial connection to 707 Albert. This connection gave rise to the permissible inference that Morris constructively possessed the drugs contained in its basement. See Starks, 309 F.3d at 1021-22 ([T]he trier of fact is entitled to employ common sense in making reasonable inferences from circumstantial evidence.). Thus, we reject Morris's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence related to the 23.6 grams of heroin found in 707 Albert, and we turn to the sufficiency of the evidence pertaining to the drugs and firearm found in the Chrysler Cirrus parked in the driveway.