Opinion ID: 742598
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Sufficiency of the Evidence of Facilitation and Nexus

Text: 150 To establish criminal facilitation of murder as a RICO predicate act, the government is required to prove not only that the defendant committed the acts described in the facilitation statute, discussed above, but also that there was a nexus between the predicate act and the criminal enterprise. See 18 U.S.C. § 1961(5) (1994); United States v. Thai, 29 F.3d at 815; United States v. Simmons, 923 F.2d 934, 951 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 919, 111 S.Ct. 2018, 114 L.Ed.2d 104 (1991). That relationship is satisfied if the offense was related to the enterprise's activities, whether or not it was in furtherance of those activities, or if the defendant was enabled to commit the offense solely by virtue of his position in the enterprise. United States v. Thai, 29 F.3d at 815; see, e.g., United States v. Locascio, 6 F.3d 924, 943 (2d Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1070, 114 S.Ct. 1646, 128 L.Ed.2d 365 (1994); United States v. Simmons, 923 F.2d at 951; United States v. Robilotto, 828 F.2d 940, 947-48 (2d Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1011, 108 S.Ct. 711, 98 L.Ed.2d 662 (1988); United States v. LeRoy, 687 F.2d 610, 617 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1174, 103 S.Ct. 823, 74 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1983). 151 Miller, arguing that he did not know Nichols meant to kill Isaac Bolden and that Nichols already knew where Bolden's mother lived, contends that the government failed to prove that Miller's furnishing the mother's address actually facilitated Isaac Bolden's murder. He also argues that even if the government proved facilitation, it failed to prove that Miller's conduct was related to the business of the Supreme Team, rather than merely a personal favor to Nichols. In challenging the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, a defendant bears a heavy burden. United States v. Matthews, 20 F.3d 538, 548 (2d Cir.1994). In reviewing such a challenge, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, see, e.g., Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); United States v. Gordon, 987 F.2d 902, 906 (2d Cir.1993); United States v. Sumnicht, 823 F.2d 13, 15 (2d Cir.1987), crediting all inferences that could have been drawn in the government's favor, see, e.g., United States v. Gordon, 987 F.2d at 906; United States v. Bagaric, 706 F.2d at 64. Pieces of evidence must be viewed not in isolation but in conjunction, see, e.g., United States v. Matthews, 20 F.3d at 548; United States v. Brown, 776 F.2d 397, 403 (2d Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1141, 106 S.Ct. 1793, 90 L.Ed.2d 339 (1986); and where there are conflicts in the testimony, we must defer to the jury's resolution of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses, see, e.g., United States v. Stratton, 779 F.2d 820, 828 (2d Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1162, 106 S.Ct. 2285, 90 L.Ed.2d 726 (1986); United States v. LeRoy, 687 F.2d at 616. We must affirm the conviction so long as, from the inferences reasonably drawn from the record as a whole, the jury might fairly have concluded that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, see, e.g., United States v. Skowronski, 968 F.2d 242, 247 (2d Cir.1992); United States v. Sumnicht, 823 F.2d at 15. The weight of the evidence is a matter for argument to the jury, not a ground for reversal on appeal. See, e.g., United States v. Roman, 870 F.2d 65, 71 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1109, 109 S.Ct. 3164, 104 L.Ed.2d 1026 (1989). Miller has failed to carry his burden. 152 The evidence at trial included proof that the Nichols organization had been robbed of a substantial sum by the Bolden brothers and that Nichols asked Miller for assistance in locating them. Supreme Team security chief Ernesto Piniella testified that Miller asked him to get addresses for the Boldens and their families; Piniella contacted Ina McGriff and Ronnie Younger, the gang's accomplices in the Parole Division, who obtained the information. Notes in the two women's handwriting were found in an apartment used by the Supreme Team, showing the addresses of, inter alios, Isaac Bolden and his mother. Though there may have been some question at trial as to which of the two women provided which items of information, there was no doubt that all of the information was provided at the behest of Miller. Piniella testified that Miller then passed the information on to Nichols. Thereafter, Isaac Bolden was shot near his mother's house. The matter of whether the information provided by Miller actually assisted the murder if Nichols already knew the mother's address was merely a matter for argument to the jury. Nichols himself was in jail at the time of the murder, and the jury could easily infer that his organization needed and made use of the assistance that was requested and obtained from Miller. 153 Miller's professed lack of belief that Nichols intended to murder Bolden was also a matter for argument to the jury. The evidence at trial included proof that Miller knew of Nichols's view that the Boldens had stolen from Nichols's organization; that the Supreme Team itself had carried out numerous murders for similar transgressions; and that Miller knew from his extensive dealings with Nichols that the Nichols organization was as violent as the Supreme Team. Ina McGriff testified that when, having furnished the Bolden addresses, she saw a newspaper article reporting Isaac Bolden's murder, she asked Miller whether this was the same Bolden that I had given him the information about, and Miller just smirked. (Miller Trial Tr. at 1816.) The jury could easily conclude that Miller had considered it likely that Nichols would order the murder of Isaac Bolden once Miller provided the information as to where Bolden might be located. 154 Finally, Miller's contention that even if he did facilitate the murder, he did so as a personal favor to Nichols, rather than in connection with the Supreme Team enterprise, could also easily be rejected by the jury. There was a business relationship between the Supreme Team and Nichols's organization, which supplied the Supreme Team with cocaine. Clearly the jury was entitled to infer that Miller aided Nichols at least in part to preserve and enhance good will with one of the Supreme Team's suppliers. Moreover, even had there been no business relationship with Nichols to preserve or cultivate on behalf of the Supreme Team, the jury could have inferred that Miller had access to the public employees who could obtain the needed addresses by reason of the facts that those corrupt employees were on the payroll of the Supreme Team and he was the organization's leader. 155 In sum, the evidence was more than sufficient to support the jury's conclusion that Miller criminally facilitated the murder of Isaac Bolden and did so in connection with the Supreme Team criminal enterprise.