Opinion ID: 201760
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of a conspiracy with Hueck and Sarruco

Text: 74 Gómez next argues that he could not be convicted of the charged conspiracy because there was insufficient evidence to connect him to either Sarruco, the drug courier, or Hueck, the drug supplier. With regard to Sarruco, Gómez contends that the government is estopped from claiming that the two were co-conspirators because, in granting a judgment of acquittal in the first trial, the district court found that the only evidence in this case about the relationship between Gómez and Sarruco is that there was no relationship. With regard to Hueck, Gómez simply asserts that there was no evidence of a relationship between the two, and therefore no possible criminal agreement. We consider these claims in turn. 75
76 Under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit. Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 443, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970). Gómez asserts that the district court determined during his first trial that he had no relationship with Sarruco, and therefore that the government could not attempt to show during the second trial that he and Sarruco were co-conspirators. The district court, however, made no such finding during the first trial. It concluded only that there was no personal relationship between Gómez and Sarruco sufficient to support a charge that Gómez aided and abetted Sarruco's drug possession. 15 The court did not determine that the lack of a personal relationship would preclude the two from being co-conspirators. To the contrary, the court suggested that the facts likely would support the existence of a conspiracy. 16 The court's finding in the first trial that Sarruco and Gómez did not know each other therefore did not preclude the government from arguing in the second trial that the two were co-conspirators. See, e.g., United States v. Soto-Beníquez, 356 F.3d 1, 19 (1st Cir.2004) (The government need not show that each conspirator knew of or had contact with all other members.), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 1074, 124 S.Ct. 2432, 158 L.Ed.2d 985 (2004). 77 There is ample circumstantial evidence that Sarruco and Gómez were part of a conspiracy to possess heroin with intent to distribute it. Sarruco told Hueck that he was waiting in Room 209 of the Hotel Iberia. Within hours, Gómez arrived at the hotel in a van containing a gun and knocked on the door of Room 209. After being shown four heroin pellets, Gómez asked Agent Carmona, posing as Sarruco, how many he had swallowed and offered to get him a laxative. Based on this evidence, a reasonable jury could have concluded that Gómez's presence at the hotel was not merely coincidental, as he claimed. Rather, the jury could have concluded, he visited Room 209 based on his participation in a conspiracy with Sarruco and others. See United States v. Gómez-Pabon, 911 F.2d 847, 853 (1st Cir.1990) ([P]roof [of membership in a conspiracy] may consist of circumstantial evidence, including inferences from surrounding circumstances, such as acts committed by the defendant that furthered the conspiracy's purposes.). 78
79 Emphasizing that there is no direct evidence in the record linking him to Hueck, Gómez asserts that the two could not have been co-conspirators. As we have already discussed, however, Gómez's appearance at Room 209 of the Hotel Iberia shortly after Sarruco talked to Hueck, together with his interaction with Agent Carmona, were adequate to link Gómez to a conspiracy that included Hueck.