Court Opinion

ID: 9493229
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:01:41.940896+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:43.258320
License: Public Domain

KEEP, District Judge,
Dissenting:
I dissent. The issue is whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact *1069could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). I conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The lynchpin of the majority’s holding is a secondary hearsay statement by Jose Ibarra, who did not testify, to an unnamed agent, who also did not testify. Rather, Agent John Scarlett testified. Agent Scarlett was with the unnamed agent when the statement was allegedly made by Ibar-ra. The testifying officer, Agent Scarlett, had no independent recollection of the statement or even of the interview of Ibar-ra, and defense counsel for co-defendant Carlos Ramirez used the report of the unnamed agent to bring out Ibarra’s statement. However, no foundation was laid that Agent Scarlett had reviewed this report at a time when the events were fresh in his mind and that he found the account of events accurate. Under the circumstances, how can we say that the statements of Ibarra to the unnamed agent regarding Ibarra’s account that “the residents of the house at 1628 Newport would regularly be observed going into the trailer and the garage” and that “the residence of 1628 Newport had control over the garage located on the property as well as the small trailer,” R.T., Yol. Ill, at 407, raised a reasonable doubt about Estrada’s dominion and control of the small trailer? Mandating the jury’s reliance on Ibarra’s account is even more problematic because the hearsay statement is not specific as to the dates the residents of the house were seen regularly entering the small trailer, nor does it exclude the fact that Estrada was with them or in the trailer during those visits. Also, the statements do not indicate whom Ibarra believes the residents of the house at 1628 Newport to be, indeed one of whom could be Estrada himself. The basis of Ibarra’s knowledge is unknown, and the accuracy was untested by cross-examination before the jury.
Without that flimsy double hearsay statement, there is evidence that:
(1) Estrada was found with conspirators Antonio Garcia and co-defendant Carlos Ramirez within two hours after each had received a delivery of boxes of pseu-doephedrine pills, in two separate locations;
(2) The trailer in which Estrada lived was small (20 feet long) and was parked within three feet of the shed and garage in which methamphetamine appears to have been manufactured;
(3) Estrada initially lied about living in the small trailer, but later testified that he “lived in a trailer that was behind 1628 Newport address, and that he lived there for three months and that he had access to the house," R.T., Vol. II, at 225, the very house which also contained methamphetamine manufacturing equipment;
(4) According to forensic chemist, Roger Ely, the whole trailer had a pungent smell of the methamphetamine precursor chemicals located in the trailer, and at one point, there may have been a possible methamphetamine laboratory in the trailer. R.T., Vol. II, at 325-26.
(5) Seized from the trailer were several items: (1) under the bed, two plastic pails, one of which contained red powder residue, and the other which contained a large plastic bag with red phosphorous powder, (2) a black lid with white powder residue of nicotinamide, a cutting agent to increase the salable amount of methamphetamine, (3) inside a cabinet over the stove, a plastic pill bottle labeled “ephedrine hydrochloride,” (4) inside a cabinet by the bed, some rags containing and smelling of methamphetamine residue, and (5) in the sink, a torn piece of cardboard paper with writing in red ink, containing the calculation on it of “1140 X 5” to equal “5700,” corresponding to the price of the five boxes of pseudoephedrine delivered to “1630 Newport, # 2” and signed for by “Antonio Gar-.”
*1070Viewing this evidence in light most favorable to the prosecution, which we must do, this is sufficient to uphold the finding of the jury.