Opinion ID: 765907
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 15 Mr. McGee appeals the denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the ground that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support a conviction. In challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, Mr. McGee faces a nearly insurmountable hurdle . . . [in that] we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, defer to the credibility determination of the jury, and 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. Szarwark, 168 F.3d 993, 995 (7th Cir. 1999) (quoting United States v. Moore, 115 F.3d 1348, 1363 (7th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)). 16 Mr. McGee's principal argument is that the testimony of Mr. Williams, Mrs. Williams, and Ms. Womack implicating him in the robbery of North Shore Bank is unworthy of belief; eliminating consideration of their testimony, he submits, leaves only his statement to Detective Buschmann, which he contends is insufficient to support the conviction because it completely denied involvement in the robbery. Mr. McGee argues that, because the jury acquitted him of Count 2, it necessarily must have rejected the credibility of Ms. Womack and Mrs. Williams, who testified to his guilt on that count as well as Count 1. Therefore, he submits, the testimony of Ms. Womack and Mrs. Williams is not supporting evidence of his guilt as to Count 1. Appellant's Br. at 16. He further argues that Mr. Williams' testimony is unbelievable because he was a drug user, a bank robber, an adulterer, and an ex- convict who had a motive to lie in order to receive a more lenient sentence himself. 17 We cannot accept Mr. McGee's arguments. As we have made clear, it is not our role, when reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, to second-guess a jury's credibility determinations. See United States v. Griffin, 84 F.3d 912, 927 (7th Cir.) (It is for the jury--not the court of appeals--to judge the credibility of witnesses, and attacks on witness credibility are insufficient to sustain a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 999 (1996); United States v. Campbell, 985 F.2d 341, 344 (7th Cir. 1993) (stating that, in reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, [w]e will not reweigh the evidence or judge the credibility of witnesses. That is the role of the jury, not an appellate court. (citation omitted)). 18 We cannot accept Mr. McGee's contention that Ms. Womack's and Mrs. Williams' testimony is entitled to no weight just because the jury acquitted Mr. McGee of Count 2. We cannot know, nor is it our place to speculate, whether the jury decided to acquit Mr. McGee of Count 2 because it found the witnesses incredible or for some other reason. The jury may have concluded, for example, that the testimony was credible but did not establish all the necessary elements of the charge in Count 2; or the jury may have credited only certain portions of Ms. Womack's and Mrs. Williams' testimony, choosing to believe what they said about Mr. McGee's involvement in Count 1, but not what they said about his involvement in Count 2. Moreover, even if the jury discredited the entire testimony of Ms. Womack and Mrs. Williams, it may have credited the testimony of Mr. Williams, who testified as to Count 1, but not Count 2. It is simply not for us to say what or whom the jury should have believed. The testimony of Ms. Womack, Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Williams, along with Mr. McGee's statement to Detective Buschmann, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, was sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to conclude that Mr. McGee was an active and knowing participant in the robbery of the North Shore Bank on July 5, 1997.