Court Opinion

ID: 9462918
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:53:20.357463+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:50.800467
License: Public Domain

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I dissent.
In my opinion, the admissible evidence, though circumstantial, is sufficient to up*1067hold the verdict of guilty. The standard in this Circuit on sufficiency of evidence is that a guilty verdict “must be sustained if there is substantial evidence, taking the view most favorable to the government, to support the findings of guilt.” United States v. Sherman (4th Cir. 1970) 421 F.2d 198, 199, cert. denied 398 U.S. 914, 90 S.Ct. 1717, 26 L.Ed.2d 78 (1970); United States v. Taylor (4th Cir. 1973) 482 F.2d 1376,1376-7. The majority opinion, though professing adherence to this standard, appears to me to have abandoned it in this case.
Setting aside for the moment the question of admissibility of Wright’s statements to the agents, the evidence is sufficient, I submit, to sustain the verdict. It is undisputed that Wright, when approached by two undercover agents seeking to buy amphetamines, telephoned a party from whom he indicated he could secure amphetamines since the latter had been his source in the past. This person was addressed as “Wayne” on the telephone. As repeated by Wright, “Wayne” demanded payment before delivery. The agents told Wright they would secure the purchase money and return later. After the agents had returned with the money for the purchase, Wright again placed a call to the same person to whom he had earlier talked, addressing him again as “Wayne.” Following his conversation with “Wayne,” Wright said he would take the agents to “his man’s house” to get the drugs. Traveling with the agents in their car, he directed them to the trailer which admittedly belonged to and was occupied by Wayne Stroupe. Wright took the money which the agents had given him, went into the trailer, and emerged in less than five minutes in the company of the defendant Wayne Stroupe and a young lady. As Wright drove off with the agents, Stroupe waived to them. As soon as he got back into the car, Wright gave the agents a bag containing amphetamines. It is conceded that there was a telephone in the defendant Stroupe’s trailer, and that Wright had visited Stroupe there a number of times. It, also, seems clear that Wright was a well known dealer in drugs.
The majority opinion dismisses all of these facts with the comment that there is no proof that Wright did not use Stroupe “as an unwitting dupe” and that the visit with Stroupe could have been a “subterfuge.” It is difficult, if not impossible, to see the point of this observation. Why would Wright want “an unwitting dupe”? It could not have been to conceal his own connection with the transaction. That was admitted. He was a distributor who purchased and sold to others. He was making the sale. And what would have been the purpose of any “subterfuge”?
The majority adds that the government’s case is “untenable” since the agents did not search Wright before he entered the trailer, and did not trace any of the money to Stroupe. This position implicitly accepts the holding in Panci v. United States (5th Cir. 1958) 256 F.2d 308, which was forcefully argued by Stroupe’s counsel. Panci reversed a conviction due to the fact that certain hearsay statements were found to be the only evidence of a conspiracy. In that case, agents had observed Panci pass a bag to a convicted narcotics violator, but there was no proof that the bag contained narcotics. The Court felt, as did the majority here, that the conviction could have been sustained if the government had given the informer marked bills, made sure that he could have obtained narcotics from no other source, and then found the marked bills on defendant after the arrest. Panci, however, was dismissed as an authority in United States v. Manfredi (2d Cir. 1960) 275 F.2d 588, 592, cert. denied 363 U.S. 828, 80 S.Ct. 1599, 4 L.Ed.2d 1523 (1960), with the comment, “we do not wholly approve of Panci.” I find this comment appropriate.
There is no reason to conjecture that Wright dealt with another occupant of the trailer as does the majority opinion. It was Stroupe’s home, and both he and his fiancee left with Wright. There was no indication that anyone else was present in the trailer. Stroupe’s parting wave is indicative of his contact with Wright. As the majority suggests, other inferences may be drawn from *1068his conduct, but, as Chappell1 directs, a guilty verdict does not require their exclusion. After all, “ ‘[I]t is not necessary that the trial court or this court be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the defendant. The question is whether there is substantial evidence upon which a jury might justifiably find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ’’2
It is thus unnecessary to consider Wright’s statement to the agents made after the deal, though I am by no means certain that the statement was not so closely related to the entire transaction as to be admissible under the res gestae exception to the hearsay rule. This exception “permits the reception of spontaneous declarations made under the stress of excitement produced by a startling event and made before the declarant has had sufficient time to reflect on the effect of the statement.” United States v. Mountain State Fabricating Co. (4th Cir. 1960) 282 F.2d 263, 266. Certainly, the statement “that is my man [pointing to Stroupe] I got the stuff from” which was uttered seconds after an illegal narcotics transaction would fall into this exception. See, United States v. Bell (6th Cir. 1965) 351 F.2d 868, 872, 873, cert. denied 383 U.S. 947, 86 S.Ct. 1200, 16 L.Ed.2d 210 (1966). Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, this statement would meet the test of a “present sense impression” or “excited utterance,” and thus not be hearsay at all. Fed.R.Evid. 803(1) and (2).
Therefore, the record as a whole (with or without the statement) contains substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict of guilt.

. United States v. Chappell (4th Cir. 1965) 353 F.2d 83, 84 (quoting White v. United States, 279 F.2d 740 at 748 — emphasis in opinion).

. White v. United States (4th Cir. 1960) 279 F.2d 740, 748, cert. denied 364 U.S. 850, 81 S.Ct. 96, 5 L.Ed.2d 74 (1960).