Opinion ID: 703235
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Continuing Criminal Enterprise

Text: 55 Finally, Mr. McDermott challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his continuing criminal enterprise conviction. 56 We review de novo whether sufficient evidence exists in the record to support a conviction. United States v. Pike, 36 F.3d 1011, 1012 (10th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1170, 130 L.Ed.2d 1124 (1995). The standard is whether any rational factfinder, viewing the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom as a whole in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could find the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Pike, 36 F.3d at 1012 (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). 57 To be guilty of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise under 21 U.S.C. Sec. 848, a defendant must have acted in concert with five or more persons with respect to whom the defendant occupied a position of organizer, supervisor, or any other position of management. 21 U.S.C. Sec. 848(c)(2)(A). The government does not have to show that a defendant organized, supervised, or managed the five people simultaneously, as long as the defendant did so during the life of the criminal enterprise. United States v. Cestnik, 36 F.3d 904, 911 (10th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1156, 130 L.Ed.2d 1113 (1995). 58 Mr. McDermott contends that he was not an organizer, supervisor or manager of five other people, that the government showed no more than buyer-seller relationships at most. He is correct that proof of a buyer-seller relationship alone is not enough to establish a managerial role, id. at 912, but additional evidence of formal or informal authority or responsibility respecting a purchaser's conduct may suffice. Id. 59 Even if we set aside any evidence concerning Mr. McDermott's sales of marijuana to various dealers, we find ample evidence of Mr. McDermott's organizing, supervisory, and/or managerial role just in his hiring of various people to perform tasks in furtherance of his drug operation. 60 The evidence showed that he paid Robert Nelson, Christy Fielding, Mike Grogg, Billy Miller, Bobby Collinson, Joel Bean and Stacy Lacy to transport marijuana from Texas to Oklahoma and/or to allow use of their or their relatives' homes for storage and repackaging of drug shipments. Mr. Nelson also delivered drugs to Mr. McDermott's buyers; Ms. Fielding collected payments for him; Mr. Grogg helped Mr. McDermott carry $18,000 to Texas to pay a supplier. Mr. McDermott planned and went along on most, if not all, of the Texas trips, and helped to break up and repackage the marijuana into smaller packages at the storage houses. The evidence is more than sufficient.