Court Opinion

ID: 9491551
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:17:05.351609+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:48.505830
License: Public Domain

*271STAPLETON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The court’s majority opinion provides a fair account of the evidence. Unlike my colleagues, I conclude that this evidence supports the verdict against Mr. Idowu.
The evidence indisputably supports the proposition that Ajao intended to purchase a large quantity of heroin from Khaliq in the parking lot of the Quality Inn. The evidence also indisputably supports the proposition that Idowu committed himself to facilitate the anticipated parking lot transaction. He drove Ajao to the site with the cash, he transported the cash in his own suitcase, he represented to the seller that he had counted the cash himself and it was sufficient to cover the purchase price, and he attempted to confirm that the merchandise being purchased was in Khaliq’s black suitcase. Finally, as the court acknowledges, the evidence indisputably supports the proposition that Idowu must have known that the transaction he committed to facilitate was an illicit one. The only reasonable doubt to which the court can point is the possibility that Idowu committed himself to facilitate a $20,000 illicit transaction either without knowing the unlawful objective to be achieved or having been misled about that objective.
Given the inherent risk, it is an extremely rare occurrence when a person commits himself to facilitating a large illicit transaction without ascertaining the objective to be achieved. Moreover, the evidence with respect to Idowu’s circumstances establishes that he was a trusted confidant of Ajao. Ajao was comfortable negotiating the transaction in Idowu’s presence as well as with Idowu’s having sole custody of the cash in Ajao’s absence. This makes it even more unlikely that Idowu and Ajao failed to discuss why they were going to the Quality Inn parking lot or that Ajao misled Idowu into believing they were paying $20,000 for explosives, diamonds or computer chips. Finally, the evidence establishes that Idowu was at least tacitly assigned the task of checking Khaliq’s black bag to confirm that Ajao was getting what was being paid for, an assignment Ido-wu would not have received if he were unaware of what he was looking for. Based on this common sense approach to the evidence, I conclude that the jury properly could conclude that Idowu was guilty as charged beyond a reasonable doubt.
I would affirm the judgment of the district court.