Opinion ID: 223533
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Guzman

Text: Guzman argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction on Count 1, the RICO conspiracy. To resolve this challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and defer to the credibility determinations made by the jury. We will overturn a verdict “only when the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Huddleston, 593 F.3d 596, 601 (7th Cir. 2010). Guzman’s argument is based on a mistake as to what the government needed to show in order to prove his guilt for the RICO conspiracy. Guzman contends that the government had to prove that he participated in the conspiracy by committing at least two predicate acts of racketeering. In furtherance of this argument, he concedes that the Lazcano murder would be sufficient to establish one of those acts, but argues that because he was acquitted of Count 5 (assault with a dangerous weapon), that predicate act cannot support his conspiracy conviction. But, it was not necessary for the government to prove that Guzman himself committed two or more racketeering acts. As we explain in the discussion of jury instructions in the published opinion, to prove Guzman guilty of conspiracy, the government needed to prove that Guzman knowingly conspired to participate in the conduct of a racketeering enterprise (here, the Insane Deuces), and that he agreed that someone in the enterprise would commit at least two predicate acts of racketeering. See 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1), (5) (defining “pattern of racketeering activity); 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), (d) (criminalizing a conspiracy of a pattern of racketeering activity); Salinas v. United States, 522 U.S. 52, 65 (1997) (“The interplay between subsections (c) and (d) does not permit us to excuse from the reach of the conspiracy provision an actor who does not himself commit or agree to commit the two or more predicate acts requisite to the underlying offense.”). Nos. 09-1190, 09-1224, 09-1225, 09-1226, 09-1227, 09-1251 Page 20 The government presented sufficient evidence from which the jury could find Guzman guilty. Several cooperating gang members testified to Guzman’s involvement in the gang as a Shorty. The jury heard a recording of an Insane Deuces meeting on July 5, 2002 at which the members in attendance discussed Guzman’s leadership potential (describing him as “ready to go”). Eyewitnesses identified Guzman as the shooter in an attempt to murder a Latin King on July 18, 2002. The jury also heard three eyewitnesses testify dramatically that, on August 11, 2002, Guzman walked up to the passenger side of a car and murdered Lazcano by shooting him three times in the head. The jury heard Rivera testify that he met with Guzman on the day of the Lazcano murder and that Guzman admitted to being the shooter.