Opinion ID: 770533
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hernandez Issues

Text: 24 Hernandez first argues that the district court erred in denying his Rule 29 motion for acquittal for insufficient evidence. We generally review sufficiency-of-the-evidence claims by determining whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could find the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See United States v. Abdullah, 162 F.3d 897, 903 (6th Cir. 1998) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979)). As the government notes, however, in this case Hernandez moved for acquittal only at the close of the government's case, and did not renew the motion at the close of all evidence. Under such circumstances, our review is generally limited to determining whether there was a manifest miscarriage of justice. See Abdullah, 162 F.3d at 903. A 'miscarriage of justice' exists only if the record is 'devoid of evidence pointing to guilt.' Id. (quoting United States v. Price, 134 F.3d 340, 350 (6th Cir. 1998)). 25 In this case, the record contains ample evidence pointing to Hernandez's guilt. There was no miscarriage of justice requiring reversal. 26 The government presented the testimony of Sam Walden, who testified as to Hernandez's role in the marijuana distribution scheme; testimony from various law enforcement officials verifying Walden's statements regarding his coconspirators; telephone records showing Hernandez's calls made to Walden in Saginaw and to the Reyna/Garrett residence; and the post-indictment letters that Hernandez either wrote or dictated that purported to exculpate himself from the conspiracy. The jury could have drawn inferences from this evidence that Hernandez agreed with his coconspirators to assist in the possession and distribution of the marijuana seized in Saginaw. On appeal, Hernandez attacks Walden's credibility, noting Walden's participation in authoring the exculpatory letters and his alleged expectation of immunity from suit in Missouri in exchange for his testimony here. Although the government's case relies in large part on Walden's testimony, counsel for the codefendants presented these arguments at trial and the jury chose to believe the government's version of events. Sufficiency-of-the-evidence appeals are 'no place . . . for arguments regarding a government witness's lack of credibility.' United States v. Talley, 164 F.3d 989, 996 (6th Cir.) (quoting United States v. Adamo, 742 F.2d 927, 934-35 (6th Cir. 1984)), cert. denied,526 U.S. 1137 (1999). 27 Hernandez also argues that this court should make a separate determination of the factual insufficiency, as opposed to the legal insufficiency, of the evidence against him. He claims that such review, which he asserts would result in a decision that his guilty verdict was against the great weight of the evidence presented at trial so as to be clearly wrong and unjust, is necessary in this case to provide meaningful appellate review. In essence, Hernandez invites us to reweigh the evidence. Hernandez's failure to so move in the district court bars our consideration of the issue on appeal. Cf. Dixon v. Montgomery Ward, 783 F.2d 55, 55 (6th Cir. 1986). Even had he done so, our role on appeal would be to examine the evidence to determine whether the district court's ruling was a clear and manifest abuse of discretion. See United States v. Lutz, 154 F.3d 581, 589 (6th Cir. 1998). Plainly, it was not. Regardless, we will not review a judgment where the trial court had no chance to make such a determination.
28 Hernandez also appeals the district court's denial of his motion to correct the record pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(e). When a district court settles a dispute about what occurred in proceedings before it, the court's determination is conclusive unless intentionally false or plainly unreasonable, see United States v. Zichettello, 208 F.3d 72, 93 (2nd Cir. 2000); United States v. Garcia, 997 F.2d 1273, 1278 (9th Cir. 1993); United States v. Serrano, 870 F.2d 1, 12 (1st Cir. 1989); United States v. Mori, 444 F.2d 240, 246 (5th Cir. 1971), this because [u]ltimately the [District] Court has direct knowledge of what the parties [stated in the] case and of what the Court's own general procedures are. United States v. Barrow, 118 F.3d 482, 487-488 (6th Cir. 1997). In denying Hernandez's Rule 10(e) motion, the district court agreed with the arguments put forth by the government in its response to the motion. The government asserted that the alleged offensive comment did not appear in the trial transcript; that counsel for Hernandez failed to support any contention that the statement might have been left out of the transcript with citation to the appropriate transcript section where the comment might have occurred; that Hernandez's appellate counsel's affidavit as to what his trial counsel said that the government attorney said was hearsay and thus incompetent evidence of prosecutorial misconduct; and that, since the alleged comment was not recorded in the trial transcript, if it occurred it may have happened outside the jury's earshot, and so did not serve to prejudice Hernandez. For these reasons and, because the same judge both presided over the trial and denied the Rule 10(e) motion, we conclude that the decision to deny the motion was not so plainly unreasonable as to require reversal. 5