Opinion ID: 772793
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pecuniary gain motive

Text: 19 Judge Scheindlin also assessed the evidence supporting the pecuniary gain motive. On this issue, the government presented Luis Soto's testimony that gang leader Guzman gave Ferguson a wad of bills one to two weeks after the Mercado shooting and in front of Power Rules gang members. Gang members and Ferguson shot Mercado, thinking he was Ayala. Even though the district court credited the Soto testimony, it found the evidence insufficient and incompetent to sustain Ferguson's conviction because Soto did not know the amount of the payment or its purpose and [n]o evidence was offered as to any discussions - preceding, contemporaneously, or after the payment - as to what the money was for. Ferguson, 49 F. Supp.2d at 329. The government contends that the circumstances of the payment support the inference that the money was a payment for attempting to shoot Ayala. The government also argues that because Guzman paid other shooters, a jury could infer that the payment to Ferguson was for a shooting. However, the circumstances of the payment to Ferguson are equally consistent with an innocent purpose or even a criminal purpose unrelated to Ayala. In addition, the other instances in which Guzman paid shooters involved successful hits. 20 The district court did not abuse its discretion when it weighed the evidence of pecuniary motive and found the evidence unsatisfactory or insufficient to support the jury's finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The district court properly relied on United States v. Muyet, where we affirmed the Section 1959 conviction of freelancer Antonio Feliciano because there was evidence that he received a payment and that a witness overheard discussions connecting the payment to a violent crime. See Muyet, 994 F. Supp. at 519. That sort of connecting evidence is absolutely absent here and supports Judge Scheindlin's conclusion that blind deference to the jury verdict is unwarranted.