Opinion ID: 45401
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: mr. garza

Text: As to Mr. Garza, we also find the evidence sufficient on both counts of conviction. First, the jury could reasonably have found that Byron Knight met Mr. Garza at the hotel and discussed with him how the marijuana would be unloaded, that Mr. Garza was one of the two Hispanic males driven by Byron Knight to the truck stop to meet Mssrs. Alvarez and Hernandez Taurino, and that Mr. Garza then traveled in the tractor trailer to Mr. Green’s lot. This evidence, by itself, shows Mr. Garza’s knowledge and is sufficient to sustain the conspiracy conviction. See, e.g., Hernandez, 896 F.2d at 518-19 (upholding conspiracy conviction of defendant who checked her phone to see if cocaine deal would go through and who offered to conduct transaction at her house if it could not be completed as planned). Second, at 17 the time of Mr. Garza’s arrest, the whole front of his clothing was wet (as was the front of Mr. Perez’s clothing). The jury could reasonably have found that Mr. Garza had been inside the trailer, whose walls were dripping with water because the refrigeration unit had been turned off, and that he had been inside the trailer to help unload the marijuana. Third, when asked by the officers what he was doing at Mr. Green’s lot after midnight – having no other known connection to the tractor trailer or the lot – Mr. Garza said he was hanging out. This evidence, taken together with the earlier discussion Byron Knight had with Mr. Garza, supports the distribution conviction.