Court Opinion

ID: 9634129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:44:05.39828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:54.016410
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The redacted plea agreement of co-conspirator Nguyen, admitted as substantive evidence against Tran, states:
Tam Phu Quy Nguyen, together with Han Quong Tran, picked up approximately 70 pounds of marijuana for redistribution that night, [italics supplied]
Nguyen’s statement is sufficient to establish that Tran was a participant in the conspiracy to distribute marijuana and was himself in possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. The co-conspirator Nguyen declares clearly and unequivocally that together he and Tran picked up the 70 pounds for redistribution.
The majority, faced with this statement, says that it “supports no more than Tran’s presence at the time of conspiratorial conduct carried on by others.” The majority misreads the sentence. The sentence does not say that Tran stood by while Nguyen picked up the drugs. The sentence states that Nguyen and Tran together picked up the drugs for distribution. The verb “picked up” is an active verb. The modifier “together” refers to joint action by the two conspirators. In any court in the land Nguyen’s statement, if believed, would establish Tran’s guilt of the crimes with which he was charged.
In addition to this evidence, sufficient in itself to prove Tran’s guilt, the government *1169offered the following facts confirmatory of the conspiracy and of Tran’s more than slight connection to it:
A well-organized drug ring was smuggling marijuana from Canada and distributing it in the U.S. The gang was operating out of a suburban warehouse where cars showed up to get batches of the drug. Tran was in one of the cars loaded from the warehouse. Nguyen, the driver, 22 at the time, appears to be naive if not stupid. It’s unlikely that the gang would let him have 70 pounds of the drug without having him under control. Tran had plenty of experience in drug smuggling from Canada. No plausible reason was given why he should be sitting in a car to which the drugs are offloaded unless he was part of the conspiracy. Nguyen gave a vague account of how he knew Tran and why he was there, and Nguyen was impeached. A rational juror could infer that, beyond a reasonable doubt, Tran was the conspiracy’s man to shepherd the drugs in the car. This reasonable conclusion chimes with Nguyen’s evidence that he and Tran together picked up the marijuana.
I dissent from the majority’s reversal of Tran’s conviction.