Opinion ID: 552803
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence to convict juan carlos colin

Text: 73 The final issue raised on appeal relates to the sufficiency of the evidence to convict one of the defendants, Juan Carlos Colin, under Counts 1 and 5 of the indictment. We have already discussed our standard when reviewing jury verdicts challenged on the ground of insufficient evidence. Ante at 1315. Applying this standard, we conclude that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding that Juan Carlos Colin was a member of a conspiracy whose aim was the possession and distribution of marijuana, and that Juan Carlos himself possessed marijuana with intent to distribute. 74 The evidence against Juan Carlos Colin was, first, that he had accompanied his father Valdemar to the motel where Valdemar transferred the keys to a marijuana-laden truck to Arturo Garay as part of the transaction charged in Count 4. Juan Carlos's role in the facts underlying Count 5 was that he and Victor Elizondo drove away from the Ohio hotel where Arturo and Elizondo met Valdemar. Arturo testified at trial that Elizondo later told him that Elizondo and Juan Carlos had driven to a storage facility where Valdemar was storing marijuana. Juan Carlos and Elizondo returned two hours after they left, their automobile loaded with marijuana. In Count 6, Juan Carlos visited Valdemar at the Morgan's farm during Valdemar's stay there. After Valdemar left the Morgan farm, in early 1987, Juan Carlos received over $250,000 in cash payments for marijuana from Tom Koss and Alma Garay. After Tom Koss was arrested, Juan Carlos visited him and accused him of leading the police to Alma Garay. 75 The evidence that Juan Carlos Colin was present when Elizondo, with or without Juan Carlos's help, loaded an automobile with marijuana might not, standing alone, suffice as a basis for a conspiracy conviction. Other evidence against Juan Carlos, however, clearly supports his conviction on the conspiracy charge, particularly the testimony of both Tom Koss and Alma Garay that Juan Carlos accepted large sums of cash from them in return for marijuana they had obtained from Valdemar. These two transactions suggest a pattern in which buyers paid Juan Carlos who turned funds over to his father Valdemar, a method of operations suggestive of Juan Carlos's role in a conspiracy. See United States v. Dalzotto, 603 F.2d 642, 646 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 994, 100 S.Ct. 530, 62 L.Ed.2d 425 (1979). And Juan Carlos's accusation of Tom Koss reflects a concern with the fate of members of the conspiracy that also suggests a role in its activities. See United States v. Marks, 816 F.2d 1207, 1212 (7th Cir.1987). 76 Juan Carlos's reliance on United States v. Williams, 798 F.2d 1024 (7th Cir.1986), is misplaced. In Williams, the issue presented was whether the nonhearsay evidence presented concerning the existence of a conspiracy was strong enough to have allowed the trial judge to allow co-conspirator statements to be admitted against her under Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). That issue is not relevant to this case; the independent evidence rule that underlay the decision in Williams has been abandoned in favor of a rule that allows district court judges to use hearsay statements in determining the existence of a conspiracy for the purpose of deciding whether the hearsay exception provided in Rule 801(d)(2)(E) is applicable. See Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 181, 107 S.Ct. 2775, 2782, 97 L.Ed.2d 144, 156 (1987) ([A] Court, in making a preliminary factual determination under Rule 801(d)(2)(E), may examine the hearsay statements sought to be admitted.); United States v. Troop, 890 F.2d 1393, 1403 (7th Cir.1989). In Williams, moreover, the non-hearsay evidence was held insufficient to support a conviction because all it established was Debbie Williams' presence at the scene of drug transactions. Here, as discussed above, the evidence at trial established Juan Carlos's active participation in various facets of the conspiracy. 77 The evidence of Juan Carlos Colin's role in Count 5, the only substantive count under which he was convicted, was based solely in the testimony of Arturo Garay. At trial, Arturo testified that when he met Valdemar at a motel in Ohio in mid-1985, Valdemar had stored marijuana at some warehouse or some type of a storage house near the motel. During the meeting between Arturo and Valdemar, Juan Carlos drove up. Juan Carlos made arrangements with [Elizondo] to go with him, to the place where the marijuana was stored. Transcript at 182. Later, Elizondo told Arturo that he was with Juan Carlos at some [ ] warehouse or garage or something and had loaded the car with marijuana. Transcript at 185. 78 We find this evidence sufficient to sustain a conviction. The evidence shows that Juan Carlos Colin and Elizondo drove in a car to a location where marijuana was stored and returned with the same car, now loaded with marijuana. Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the government, the jury would not be acting irrationally if it were to infer that, at a minimum, Juan Carlos assisted Victor Elizondo's subsequent possession through his services as a lookout. Possession ... may be established by circumstantial or direct evidence. United States v. Staten, 581 F.2d 878, 883 (D.C.Cir.1978); see United States v. Gardea Carrasco, 830 F.2d 41, 45 (5th Cir.1987); United States v. Montes-Cardenas, 746 F.2d 771, 778 (11th Cir.1984). Moreover, possession may be joint, requiring that two or more of defendants share rights of dominion and control over drugs, United States v. Brett, 872 F.2d 1365, 1369 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 322, 107 L.Ed.2d 312 (1989), a situation that a jury could have found to have existed when Elizondo and Juan Carlos drove the marijuana back from storage to the motel where Valdemar and Arturo Garay waited.