Court Opinion

ID: 9472643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:06:14.054366+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:03.132875
License: Public Domain

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I am compelled to dissent because I am convinced that the majority has directed the acquittal of a drug smuggler who, I submit, is obviously guilty.
Our standard of review is time-honored, yet worthy of repeating. We must view the evidence in a criminal case in the light most favorable to the government, with all reasonable inferences from the evidence drawn in favor of the jury’s verdict. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); United States v. Thomas, 676 F.2d 531, 535 (11th Cir.1982). Its verdict must be sustained if any reasonable construction of the evidence allowed it to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Bell, 678 F.2d 547, 549 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982), aff'd, 462 U.S. 356, 103 S.Ct. 2398, 76 L.Ed.2d 638 (1983). With this firmly in mind, I suggest that the evidence presented to the jurors authorized them to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Miss Tia left Florida with a captain and two crew members, sailed to Colombia to pick up 220 bales of marijuana, each weighing approximately forty-five pounds, and returned to the United States. Miss Tia was a 68-foot shrimp trawler. The fishing gear was obviously unusable, the booms, winches and tackle being rusted and bent. The hatch covers to the marijuana compartments were neither locked nor latched; they could be lifted easily by hand. The name “Miss Tia” was crudely affixed to the vessel’s stern on a piece of plywood. The voyage back to the United States required ten days.
Ariza-Fuentes joined the crew of the Miss Tia in Colombia, allegedly after the marijuana was loaded aboard. (ArizaFuentes told the Immigration Inspector who interviewed him after his arrest that he had worked as a city taxi driver before joining the Miss Tia and had no previous experience with boats, but the jury was entitled to disbelieve this self-serving statement.) From all of this evidence, the jurors were entitled to draw the following inferences, which, I submit, were dictated by “reason and common sense.” 1
First, Ariza-Fuentes knew the purpose and destination of Miss Tia’s voyage when he joined the crew; this is something any crewman would determine before signing on for a long voyage. He learned that the other crewmen were from the United States and that the vessel’s destination was the United States. Ariza-Fuentes plainly saw that the Miss Tia lacked rigging for shrimping and knew that the purpose of the voyage was not fishing. United States v. Ceballos, 706 F.2d 1198, 1202 (11th Cir.1983); United States v. Bustos-Guzman, 685 F.2d 1278, 1281 (11th Cir.1982). In sum, the jurors could reasonably have found that Ariza-Fuentes knew, before the voyage began, that the Miss Tia was tak*1555ing a load of marijuana to the United States.
Second, Ariza-Fuentes, having never previously crewed on the Miss Tia, determined her seaworthiness before leaving port on the ten-day ocean voyage. His investigation into Miss Tia’s condition was especially thorough because of the vessel’s relatively small size (68 feet), general state of disrepair, and the fact that she was riding somewhat lower in the water on account of her five-ton cargo of marijuana. The covers to the hatches leading to the ship’s hold were unlatched and the hold was readily accessible. During his examination of the boat, Ariza-Fuentes must have looked into the hold and discovered that it was stuffed with marijuana bales. Although the evidence does not indicate the extent of the odor the load of marijuana emitted, the jury, drawing on common sense, could conclude that it must have been overwhelming, just as it could conclude that the odor of a five-ton cargo of fresh tobacco would be pungent. In fact, the large quantity of marijuana alone authorized the inference that Ariza-Fuentes knew what the boat was carrying. United States v. Mazyak, 650 F.2d 788, 791 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 922, 102 S.Ct. 1281, 71 L.Ed.2d 464 (1982).
Finally, Ariza-Fuentes was congenial with the other crew members and had joined in their enterprise. The three-man crew of a 68-foot boat loaded with marijuana would not have taken on an additional member for their ten-day trip to the Florida Keys without some assurance that he could be trusted. If he was not trustworthy, the three men ran the risk that he would cooperate with the authorities if they got arrested. Furthermore, logic tells us that the new sailor had to be loyal to the illicit venture. Had he not been loyal, the three men who brought the boat from Florida could just as easily have made the return trip without extra help. The jury could infer the close relationship between members of the crew merely from the length of the voyage and the size of the vessel. Ce-ballos, 706 F.2d at 1202; United States v. Munoz, 692 F.2d 116, 119 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1221, 103 S.Ct. 1229, 75 L.Ed.2d 463 (1983).
We have said,
the probable length of the voyage, the large quantity of marijuana on board, and the necessarily close relationship between the captain and his crew [are] factors from which the jury could reasonably find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
United States v. DeWeese, 632 F.2d 1267, 1272 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 878, 102 S.Ct. 358, 70 L.Ed.2d 188 (1981). Certainly, these factors were present here.
Our job, in this case, is limited. We are only to determine whether twelve fair-minded jurors had enough evidence to convict; we are not to substitute our judgment for theirs. The majority have done just that, and I must dissent.

. In this case, as in most criminal cases, the jurors are entitled
to draw such reasonable inferences from the testimony and exhibits as [they] feel are justified in light of common experience. In other words, [they] may make deductions and reach conclusions which reason and common sense lead [them] to draw from the facts which have been established by the testimony and evidence in the case.
Fifth Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions § 5 (1978).
While the district court did not give this specific instruction to the jury here, its charge, taken as a whole, communicated the essence thereof.