Opinion ID: 1208474
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficient evidence supported James's conspiracy conviction.

Text: James also argues that insufficient evidence supports his conviction for conspiring to distribute crack cocaine. When reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a verdict, we ask whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Seymour, 519 F.3d 700, 714 (7th Cir.2008). We will overturn the jury's guilty verdict only if `the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed,' from which the jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that James was guilty of conspiring to sell crack cocaine. United States v. James, 540 F.3d 702, 706 (7th Cir.2008) (quoting United States v. Gougis, 432 F.3d 735, 743-44 (7th Cir.2005)). James does not dispute that he was a crack cocaine dealer. Instead, he maintains that he was not a member of a conspiracy to sell crack. The essence of a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to engage in criminal activity. United States v. Zaragoza, 543 F.3d 943, 947 (7th Cir.2008). Simple buy-sell transactions are not enough to constitute the separate criminal object necessary for a conspiracy conviction, so the fact that James sold crack is not enough. See id. In this case, sufficient evidence supports the jury's conclusion that James conspired with Morrow, Harris, and others to distribute crack cocaine. The jury could have concluded that James and the other indicted co-conspirators depended on each other to further their drug-trafficking goals. See James, 540 F.3d at 707. That evidence included that members of the conspiracy obtained their crack cocaine together, from Morrow's sources in Memphis and St. Louis. Morrow also referred customers to Harris when he ran out of crack cocaine. See id. (referring customers to others' houses if supply was low supports conclusion that conspiracy existed). The jury also heard evidence of James's participation in the conspiracy and of how he worked to further the conspiracy. In United States v. Haywood, 324 F.3d 514, 517 (7th Cir.2003), we found sufficient evidence supported a conspiracy conviction where two alleged coconspirators pooled their money and shared rides ... in order to buy inexpensive crack, meaning that each could run a cheaper operation  and earn higher profits  if the other succeeded. That is true here as well. The jury heard that James pooled his money with that of Harris, Morrow, and the other alleged co-conspirators to buy larger amounts of crack cocaine from outside the state for resale. As in Haywood, James and the others pooled their money and shared rides to buy cheaper crack, meaning that each could earn more if the others succeeded. The out of state purchases happened at least biweekly, if not more, for several years, with all involved knowing that the crack cocaine would be resold. Although it is not clear from the record exactly how long James was involved with the other defendants, it is clear that it was far from a onetime occurrence. Notably, he tried to recruit others to join Morrow, Harris, and the others who were pooling their money together. A dealer who had been obtaining his crack from another source testified that James tried to talk him into going in with Morrow, Harris, and James to purchase crack in Memphis, saying he could get it for a better price than the other dealer's current supplier. James referred to his group as the Memphis crew. Although the offer was declined, a few weeks later, James, with Morrow present, again unsuccessfully tried to persuade the same dealer to join his team. Also, from another witness's testimony that Harris's response to a request to buy crack cocaine was that he needed to wait for Morrow and James to return with the drugs, the jury could have concluded that James at least occasionally went along on the drug-purchasing trips. The jury therefore had sufficient evidence to find that James was a member of a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. James emphasizes a statement in one of our previous cases that to find a conspiracy, we are looking for evidence of a prolonged and actively pursued course of sales coupled with the seller's knowledge of and a shared stake in the buyer's illegal venture. United States v. Contreras, 249 F.3d 595, 599 (7th Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In Contreras, we were distinguishing a conspiracy from a mere buyer-seller relationship, the latter meaning a situation where one person merely buys drugs from another, which is insufficient to find a conspiracy. See id. at 598-99. As we discussed, James and his co-conspirators put their money and transportation resources together for an extended period of time, thereby having a stake in each other's success, see Haywood, 324 F.3d at 517, and knowing that the others intended to resell the crack cocaine. James may have had only a buyer-seller relationship with his customers, but the jury could have found he was involved in a conspiracy with Morrow, Harris, and the other indicted coconspirators rather than a simple buyerseller relationship. See United States v. Williams, 298 F.3d 688, 692 (7th Cir.2002). Sufficient evidence supports James's conspiracy conviction.