Court Opinion

ID: 9439940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 07:00:58.231974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:49.459758
License: Public Domain

MeAULIFFE, District Judge
(dissenting in part).
Lugo’s cold-blooded murder of Officer Me-jias was as horrible a crime as can be committed. On that point all can agree. If the horrible nature of the murder added some weight to the record evidence supporting the aiding and abetting charge against Cirilo, then I would gladly join my colleagues in affirming his conviction. But it does not.
If appellate review of the sufficiency of trial evidence to support a criminal conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, as a matter of law, means anything, then in my view we cannot affirm Cirilo’s aiding and abetting conviction. The record evidence does not support that charge by a preponderance; it does not clearly and convincingly support that charge; and it is certainly not sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cirilo aided and abetted Lugo’s murder of a police officer.
The majority’s analysis of Cirilo’s sufficiency claim is quite thorough, and I have no doubt whatsoever that my colleagues are as sincerely convinced that they are right as I am convinced they are wrong. Nevertheless, because the majority opinion, in my view, tells a tale that the record does not support, and a tale not plausible in light of the facts as I read them, I am compelled, respectfully, to register my dissent to that part of the opinion affirming Cirilo’s conviction. In every other respect, I join in the majority opinion.
Like his codefendants, Cirilo was charged with carjacking, use of a firearm in the commission of carjacking, and aiding and abetting the murder of an on-duty police officer while committing a drug offense. Unlike his codefendants, Cirilo was convicted only of the aiding and abetting charge. The fundamental problem with'Cirilo’s conviction seems plain to me. The prosecutor charged Cirilo with aiding and abetting, which she could not prove, and failed to charge him with the crime she probably did prove, accessory after the fact.
Under similar circumstances, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit properly cautioned that “[t]he sufficiency of the evidence warrants particular scrutiny when the evidence strongly indicates that a defendant is guilty of a crime other than that for which he was convicted, but for which he was not charged.” United States v. Salamanca, 990 F.2d 629, 688 (D.C.Cir.1993). The risk, our sister circuit recognized, is that the jury will convict the defendant of a charged crime, despite insufficient evidence, to avoid letting a defendant they believe to be guilty of a different, uncharged, offense escape punishment. Id. That is precisely what happened here in my judgment.
In my view, this court should not try to save the government’s ease against Cirilo by reading speculative assumptions into the record and knitting theories about Cirilo’s pre-murder participation from those speculative threads.30 We should be particularly cau*50tious here, where the government’s case is completely contradicted by its chief cooperating witness, Lugo, the acknowledged murderer, who testified unequivocally that Cirilo had no advance knowledge about his plan to murder Mejias and did , not assist him in committing the murder in any way.31
Appellate review of the legal sufficiency of evidence to support a guilty verdict involves two steps: first, the court must properly credit and interpret the record evidence; second, the court must decide whether, as a matter of law, the evidence, properly assessed and taken as a whole, would permit a rational jury to find each element of the charged crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); United States v. Fulmer, 108 F.3d 1486, 1490 (1st Cir.1997); United States v. O’Brien, 14 F.3d 703, 706 (1st Cir.1994). At the first step, the court considers both the direct and circumstantial evidence in the record, viewing all the evidence and resolving all reasonable inferences and credibility issues in favor of the government’s theory of guilt. See United States v. Olbres, 61 F.3d 967, 970 (1st Cir.1995).
At the second step, we must determine whether, as a matter of law, a rational jury could have found, beyond a reasonable doubt, all of the elements of the aiding and abetting charge. That is, whether Cirilo knew in advance that Lugo planned to kill Officer Mejias, and associated himself with and participated in Lugo’s murder plan “as something he wished to bring about, and sought by his actions to make ... succeed.” United States v. Montilla-Rivera, 115 F.3d 1060, 1064 (1st Cir.1997).
Lugo shot and murdered Officer Mejias. There is no dispute about that. As frequently happens under the Sentencing Guidelines, the murderer cut a favorable deal (twenty years) and became the government’s chief cooperating witness at the trial of those he implicated. But Lugo testified repeatedly and without contradiction that Cirilo knew nothing about his plan to kill Officer Mejias before he carried it out.32 No one else testified differently, and no direct evidence supported the notion that Cirilo knew, beforehand, about Lugo’s intent to murder, and decided, in advance, to assist, and then actually assisted Lugo.
The government’s case against Cirilo, such as it was, necessarily relied entirely on inferences to be extracted from circumstantial evidence. While a verdict may properly be based on circumstantial evidence, and all theories of innocence need not be ruled out, United States v. Batista-Polanco, 927 F.2d 14, 17 (1st Cir.1991), inferences that are unreasonable, unsupportable, or speculative cannot be considered in assessing evidentiary sufficiency, United States v. Spinney, 65 F.3d 231, 234 (1st Cir.1995).
The majority suggests that the jury could easily have inferred that Cirilo must have known that Lugo was going to kill Officer Mejias, and that Cirilo followed in the Oldsmobile with Ramirez (when Mejias was ab*51ducted and driven away in the Suzuki) in order to assist Lugo — by providing a getaway ear for use after Lugo murdered the officer. The record does not, in my view, support any of those inferences, and I do not agree that the inferences coaxed from the record by the majority to establish the elements of aiding and abetting are even plausible. But, if one does accept the majority’s inferential analysis, the same inferences more persuasively, or at least equally persuasively, support Cirilo’s innocence, as I discuss later.

The Record Evidence of Aiding and Abetting

“Criminal intent is an important element of aiding and abetting,” and “[pjroof of this element demands a showing that the defendant consciously shared the principal’s knowledge of the underlying criminal act, and intended to help the principal.” United States v. Taylor, 54 F.3d 967, 975 (1st Cir.1995) (emphasis added). The state of mind required by the specific intent element of aiding and abetting is the same as that required to prove the principal offense. United States v. Loder, 23 F.3d 586, 591 (1st Cir.1994). The underlying offense charged in this case was a violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 848(e)(1)(B), which imposes penalties on one who during the commission of a drug offense “intentionally kills” a law enforcement officer while on duty. Timing is also critical. To be guilty of aiding and abetting, a defendant must know, in advance, that the crime will take place, and must choose, ahead of time, to assist in its commission (since a defendant cannot be found guilty of aiding and abetting a crime that has already occurred). Salamanca, 990 F.2d at 638-39.
The majority finds proof of Cirilo’s advance knowledge of, and specific intent to assist in Lugo’s plan to kill Mejias from the following combination of circumstances: 1) Cirilo and Lugo both owed debts to a drug dealer named Chispo,33 and Chispo ordered Lugo to kill Officer Mejias; 2) Cirilo, a drug user, regularly associated with Mangual and Lugo, also drug users, at El Ideal; 3) Cirilo appeared at El Ideal on November 1 only ten or fifteen minutes after Ramirez arrived; 4) although Ramirez drove the Oldsmobile to El Ideal, he was not a competent driver; and 5) Cirilo drove Ramirez’s car when he and Ramirez followed Officer Mejias’s car. Given those circumstances, the majority recognizes a “network” that leads to “the inference that Cirilo was there [at El Ideal] to drive the Ramirez automobile” and that he knew of the murder plan. (Emphasis added.)
No such “network” is apparent to me. Instead, the majority’s inferences seem to be based on little more than an unsupported assumption that a detailed preexisting plan to kill Officer Mejias must have existed among these drug-using teenagers, just because Lugo killed him and Cirilo was hanging around. The undisputed evidence actually shows that well before the day Lugo shot and killed Mejias, he had been under orders from his drug supplier, “Chispo,” to kill the officer. Nevertheless, Lugo arrived at El Ideal on November 1 with no weapon and no apparent plan to immediately carry out Chispo’s order. No record evidence suggests that Lugo had been in contact with Cirilo that morning, or at any other time, with regard to any plan to kill Mejias.
After Officer Mejias arrived, and after Lugo saw the officer in his car checking the cylinder of his pistol, and after the officer became embroiled in an argument with another member of the El Ideal drug crowd, and after the whole group hurried over to watch that confrontation, then Lugo called Ramirez and told him to bring “the gun” so he could kill the officer. Lugo, who was using cocaine heavily, moved with others in his group to a house across the street from the “drug point,” and Mejias joined them there. When Ramirez arrived, Lugo made no immediate effort to get the gun from the car. Instead, trying to instigate a fight, Lugo argued with Mejias about his suspicion that Mejias was an undercover agent.
Shortly after the argument with Mejias, Lugo retrieved the pistol from Ramirez’s car, but kept it hidden in his pants, covered by *52his shirt. Lugo then tried unsuccessfully to incite a group hanging around El Ideal, including Mangual and Cirilo, to beat up the officer. Lugo did not show his gun to the group, even though they declined his exhortation to beat up Mejias. Lugo returned to the house and forced Mejias at gun point to give Mangual the keys to his car, so the car could be searched and Mejias’s weapon removed.34 Lugo testified that Cirilo was in El Ideal when he made these arrangements with Mangual and that Cirilo did not know what was going on, except for Lugo’s earlier suggestion that they beat up the officer.
While Mangual and others searched the car for Mejias’s gun, Cirilo came out of El Ideal and stood close by, touching the car, but did not participate in the search. Lugo watched the car and the search activity from the house across the street, holding Officer Mejias captive at gun point. Lugo decided the group had found and removed Mejias’s gun because they moved away from the car. Lugo testified, “I waited and then I saw when they approached the — the—white Suzuki, and I waited for them to get away from it. When they — when they — I saw that they had gotten away from it a bit, I — realized that they had found the weapon, the firearm. [Q. Okay.] I told Officer Ivan Mejias to get up and to walk slowly in front of me, to remember that I was armed and not to try to do anything.”
Lugo then escorted Mejias back to the car, with the gun still hidden, and told him to get into the car (the driver’s seat); the keys were given to him, and Lugo told him “not to come around anymore.” Mejias turned on the ignition.
As Officer Mejias was about to drive away, another young man (“Papilin”) “came over” or “came out” to tell Lugo, in essence, that he had to kill the officer rather than let him go. At that point, Lugo’s plan seemed to change again. Lugo “signalled,” “using his hands in a cupped fashion as is used to say ‘come’ ” and “called” to Mangual, who was on the other side of the car, to come over. The officer was now forced out of the driver’s seat and into the back seat with Lugo, while Mangual replaced him behind the wheel. Lugo testified that as they left, “Tony [Ramirez] and Nesty [Cirilo] were at the El Ideal Cafetín — or Cafetín Ideal.” The car pulled into the street and shortly after leaving El Ideal (the elapsed time was probably just a few minutes, but the record is unclear), Lugo deliberately shot the officer twice. Mangual asked Lugo, “What did you do?” and Lugo answered, “Keep driving or you’re next.” The noise and shock from the shots inside the car caused Mangual to lose control and drive the car off the road, suggesting that he had not expected the shooting. After they were again underway, one of Chispo’s men from the drug point drove by on a motorcycle and asked what had happened (no doubt attempting to determine whether Lugo had carried out Chispo’s standing order). Lugo signalled that he lolled the officer.
Even if Cirilo and Ramirez followed immediately behind in Ramirez’s car (which is only suggested by FBI Agent Pages’ summary of Mangual’s pretrial statement to him, which in turn is directly contradicted by Lugo’s testimony35), there is simply no evi-*53denee supporting the inference that Lugo planned ahead of time to have a getaway ear follow them. Lugo, the shooter, testified that there was no such plan. Furthermore, Lugo’s obvious last minute change of mind (to kill rather than scare Mejias away) shows how implausible it is to draw an inference that Lugo planned to have a getaway car driven by Cirilo follow him for use after the murder. The majority seems to agree that Lugo was sending the officer away unharmed until Papilin intervened. Cirilo and Ramirez, then, had to have decided to follow the Meji-as ear on the spur of the moment. If any plausible inference is to be drawn from the fact that Ramirez and Cirilo followed the Mejias ear, whenever they left (again, the record is confusing), it would be that Cirilo and Ramirez wanted to watch the action. But the evidence does not support an inference that Cirilo knew about and joined with and assisted Lugo’s plan to murder Mejias. Absent evidence of a prearranged plan, there is simply no evidence, direct or circumstantial, that Cirilo intended to assist Lugo in murdering Mejias. Following along, like mere presence, is simply not enough in my view. Thus, evidence of specific intent, an essential element of the charged offense, is completely lacking.
To the extent that the “network” depends in part on an inference that Chispo might have ordered Cirilo, as well as Lugo, to kill the officer, as the majority seems to suggest, I find such an inference completely implausible and entirely unsupported by anything but speculation. In addition, even if Cirilo did have independent orders to kill from Chispo, there is nothing in the record to suggest that Cirilo knew of Lugo’s orders and plans, or that he intended to assist Lugo.
I also find no plausible inference of joint action or plan in the fact that Cirilo appeared at El Ideal ten or fifteen minutes after Ramirez arrived, since no evidence in the record purports to link their arrival times, and it is undisputed that Cirilo spent many hours at El Ideal every day, along with the usual cast of drug characters. No evidence of record suggests that Cirilo’s arrival time was any different than usual on November 1, when the officer was shot. '
We all agree that “mere presence” at the scene of criminal activity, even in conjunction with knowledge of the activity, is legally insufficient to prove a defendant guilty of aiding and abetting a crime. See United States v. Guerrero, 114 F.3d 332, 342 (1st Cir.), cert. denied sub nom., Pilco v. United States, — U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 184, 139 L.Ed.2d 124 and Rivas v. United States, — U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 320, 139 L.Ed.2d 248 (1997). Nevertheless, to support their inferential theory of guilt, the majority points to the familiar adage that criminals do not ordinarily welcome innocents as witnesses to their criminal activities. See, e.g., Montilla-Rivera, 115 F.3d at 1064. My colleagues invoke the adage to show that Cirilo must have known that Lugo was planning to murder Officer Mejias, or his mere presence would not have been tolerated.
In my view that adage is not particularly helpful in understanding this case. Cirilo was not present when Lugo shot and killed Officer Mejias; Lugo told Ramirez to get the pistol from Ramirez’s car when Cirilo was not present; and Lugo made arrangements with Mangual to get the pistol from Mejias’s car, when Cirilo was not present.36 According to Lugo, Cirilo was also not present when *54he and Mangual abducted Mejias and drove off in the Suzuki. (In fact, Cirilo was acquitted of the carjacking charges against him.) Contrary to the majority’s conclusion, the record does not show that Lugo “allowed” Cirilo to observe or participate during any of the critical events preceding the officer’s murder. All the record shows is that Cirilo was simply hanging around the El Ideal drug point, as usual, and like the usual suspects.
In addition, the - evidence shows that the only criminal activity Cirilo normally observed and participated in with Lugo, Man-gual, and the rest of the El Ideal group was drug use and dealing, not murder. The record includes no evidence that Lugo, Mangual, or any of the El Ideal group had previously been involved in murders, or that murder or organized and joint violence was ever part of their routine drug activity. Apparently, neither Lugo nor any of the others were armed when they “worked” at the drug point. Lugo had to phone Ramirez to get a gun, and no one else was armed during any of the events preceding the murder. It strikes me as implausible to infer, based on this record, that because Cirilo willingly and regularly participated in illicit drug activity at El Ideal with the usual characters, he necessarily joined Lugo in murdering Mejias. Thus, while Ciri-lo’s presence at El Ideal was hardly “innocent,” since it involved continuing illegal drug dealing and use, his presence alone cannot serve to establish that he knowingly associated with Lugo on November 1 for the purpose of, and actually assisted Lugo in murdering Mejias. Certainly Cirilo’s presence after the murder, and his participation in dumping the car and hiding evidence of the crime does not show, and cannot be relied on to establish his foreknowledge and intent to participate before the murder. See, e.g., Andrews, 75 F.3d at 556 n. 5.
The majority asserts that the jury could have found that Cirilo acquired sufficient knowledge of Lugo’s plan to kill during the “riveting” events just before Lugo and Man-gual abducted and drove away with Mejias. But Lugo’s testimony provides the only actual evidence of Cirilo’s whereabouts during the critical moment when Papilin “came over” and told Lugo to kill the officer rather than let him go unharmed. Lugo said he called Mangual (not Cirilo) to come over to drive Mejias’s car. Lugo also said that at that point Cirilo was away from Mejias’s car — in the area of and then inside El Ideal.
The majority focuses on Lugo’s testimony that Cirilo was standing right next to Meji-as’s ear during the earlier search for Meji-as’s weapon — inferring that Cirilo must have heard Papilin’s directive and thus knew Lugo was about to murder Mejias. Overlooking Lugo’s testimony that the group moved away from the car after the successful search and before Lugo brought Mejias back to his car, and that Cirilo had moved to the area of El Ideal and then into El Ideal before Lugo departed with Mejias, the majority speculates that Cirilo, unlike the others, did not move away. Indeed, the majority postulates that Cirilo stayed right next to Mejias’s car and heard and understood the significance of Papilin’s instructions to Lugo, which caused an abrupt change in Lugo’s plan to let Mejias drive away. -
The record does not support that view at all. Even Mangual, who was on the other side of the car, and who responded to Lugo’s signal and calling of his name, apparently did not see or hear Papilin’s instructions.37 And, notwithstanding the statement in the majority opinion, I cannot find anything in the record that supports the notion that Lugo “announced” his intention to kill Mejias at that time, or at any time. Lugo just shot Mejias, surprising even Mangual, the driver. The majority’s inference that Cirilo was close enough to hear Papilin’s instruction and *55therefore knew of Lugo’s plan to kill the officer is just speculation, and speculation that is contradicted rather than supported by the record evidence. But even if all of the majority’s speculation is accepted, there is no evidence that Cirilo then joined in and helped Lugo to carry out his abruptly formed murder plan, rather than just followed along to see what would happen.
I also cannot accept as plausible the majority’s inference that Lugo must have planned to have Ramirez follow in the Oldsmobile in order to have a getaway car after the murder, and that Cirilo must have been the previously arranged getaway driver, given Ramirez’s lack of driving experience. As the record evidence abundantly shows, Lugo did not have a cohesive plan regarding whether, when, or how he would murder Officer Meji-as. Lugo also did not plan, ahead of time, where he would shoot Mejias, or how he would dispose of the body. Lugo’s uncontra-dicted testimony shows that he thought up the plan to dump the car and body into the quarry as he and Mangual drove along, after he shot Mejias. Thus, the evidence does not support the notion that Lugo actually anticipated his need for a getaway ear, much less that Cirilo agreed in advance to provide it in an effort to facilitate a murder. As noted earlier, Lugo testified, again without contradiction, that he did not ask for Cirilo’s help.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

To support a guilty verdict, the record evidence, properly assessed, must permit a rational juiy to find each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., United States v. Houlihan, 92 F.3d 1271, 1295 (1st Cir.1996), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 963, 136 L.Ed.2d 849 (1997); Spinney, 65 F.3d at 235. Association with criminals, involvement in unrelated criminal activity, presence at the scene, and assistance after the fact, simply do not provide the necessary proof of the elements of aiding and abetting. See, e.g., Andrews, 75 F.3d at 556 (defendant’s “mere accompaniment,” agreement to “get” the victim, and presence during the shooting insufficient to show his intent to aid and abet in the shooting); de la Cruz-Paulino, 61 F.3d at 998-1002 (defendant’s presence and assistance in drug sale was in menial role rather than as “knowing participant” and comment to undercover agent to “watch out” for the police in the area at best demonstrates last minute knowledge insufficient for criminal intent); Salamanca, 990 F.2d at 640 (watching brother bludgeon officer and then helping him escape insufficient to establish intent for aiding and abetting).
In my view, the majority strives mightily but constructs only a thin chain of implausible inferences. But even if the majority’s inferences were plausible, the inferential chain would still have to be strong enough to establish each element of aiding and abetting murder beyond a reasonable doubt in order to support Cirilo’s conviction, and it is not. See United States v. Luciano-Mosquera, 63 F.3d 1142, 1152 (1st Cir.1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1234, 116 S.Ct. 1879, 135 L.Ed.2d 174 (1996). “Some evidence” or a “mere modicum” of evidence is not sufficient to satisfy the reasonable doubt standard. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 320, 99 S.Ct. at 2789-90. A weak inferential chain that is contrary to uncontradicted testimony cannot, as a matter of law, support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See Houlihan, 92 F.3d at 1295. It must also be remembered that a jury verdict supported by some evidence does not automatically meet the constitutional requirement that the proof be sufficient, as a legal matter, to establish every element of the charged crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Compare United States v. Feinberg, 140 F.2d 592 (2d Cir.1944) (Hand, J.) with Curley v. United States, 160 F.2d 229 (D.C.Cir.1947). See also United States v. Taylor, 464 F.2d 240 (2d Cir.1972). The reviewing court is constitutionally obligated to assess the evidence, notwithstanding a jury’s guilty verdict, to determine whether the evidence can, legally, establish every element beyond a reasonable doubt. That “some” evidence pertinent to establishing each essential element of the charged crime can be gleaned from the record, and a particular jury returned a guilty verdict, does not necessarily establish the legal sufficiency of the evidence.
*56Assessed by another measure, if the inferential evidence, taken as a whole, would be equally consistent with theories of both guilt and innocence, as it is here, a rational jury must have a reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt. See United States v. Flores-Rivera, 56 F.3d 319, 323 (1st Cir.1995); accord Guerrero, 114 F.3d at 344. In my view, even if the majority’s inferences were plausible (and they are not), the best that could be said is that the inferential evidence is equally consistent with theories of guilt and innocence: (1) Cirilo knew ahead of time that Lugo planned to kill Officer Mejias and followed with Ramirez in the Oldsmobile intending to assist in the murder plan by providing the getaway ear after the murder; and (2) Cirilo knew ahead of time that Lugo planned to kill Officer Mejias and followed with Ramirez in the Oldsmobile not as a joint venturer but only to see what would happen, as the El Ideal group had eagerly watched Mejias’s earlier confrontation with one of the group (Navarro). Because the majority’s inferential picture is merely equally consistent with theories of guilt and innocence, their evidentiary “network” is legally insufficient to permit a rational jury to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Cirilo intended to help Lugo kill Officer Mejias, and actually associated with Lugo to accomplish that purpose, before Lugo shot Mejias.
To my mind, under any meaningful legal concept of reasonable doubt, the record evidence in this case is insufficient to show that Cirilo knew about Lugo’s intent to murder in advance of the killing, and intentionally assisted in carrying out that murder. Failure of proof should make this an easy legal decision, though setting' Cirilo free, given the failure to properly charge him, is as difficult for a judge as it no doubt was for the jury. See Jon O. Newman, Beyond “Reasonable Doubt”, 68 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 979, 989 (1993); see also Salamanca, 990- F.2d at 640. In dissenting, however, I am reminded of Judge Easterbrook’s comment on the propriety of reversing convictions based on insufficient evidence:
Nothing we do as judges in criminal cases is more important than assuring that the innocent go free. Few innocent persons reach us: prosecutor, grand jury, trial judge, and petit jury have sifted the pool of suspects. Some of the defendants who come here are innocent, but usually we can’t tell which. False accusations of ■crime must be caught by prosecutor and petit jury; we cannot reverse a conviction just because the main witnesses may have been confused or, worse, liars. Now and again, however, a case arrives in which something transparently has gone wrong, and we must act. Every time we reverse a conviction on account of insufficient evidence, we avert many more; the standard of review in this court establishes the benchmark that guides conduct elsewhere.
United States v. de Ortiz, 883 F.2d 515, 524 (7th Cir.1989) (Easterbrook, J. concurring); rehearing granted; judgment vacated, 897 F.2d 220 (7th Cir.1990); decision after rehearing 907 F.2d 629 (7th Cir.1990) (Easterbrook, J.). Something transparently has gone wrong in this case in my view. Although Cirilo is no moral innocent, the evidence in this record is no more legally sufficient to prove aiding and abetting murder than it was to prove aiding and abetting carjacking.
I would reverse Cirilo’s aiding and abetting conviction because I believe the law requires that result.

. I acknowledge that the record may be the greatest challenge in assessing the sufficiency of *50the evidence in this case. The apparent translation difficulties combined with the lack of a consistent, logical presentation of the events involved in the charged crimes pose significant impediments to our analysis. Nevertheless, the record as a whole tells a story that is contrary to the inferences the majority has drawn.

. It should not go unnoticed that the government has never made the evidentiary argument that the majority makes so well. Even though specifically questioned at oral argument about the apparently weak evidence of Cirilo’s guilt of aiding and abetting, and even though given an opportunity to provide supplemental briefing, with specific record citations to support its sufficiency argument, the government did not do so. The majority attributes the government's failure to a lack of diligence. I think the government's silence is better explained as an eloquent concession that the record evidence is indeed insufficient to support Cirilo’s conviction. The government no doubt reviewed the record and decided it had nothing to say that could be helpful.

. I don't disagree with the majority's point that Lugo’s testimony only reflects his (Lugo’s) understanding of what Cirilo knew about his intent to kill Mejias, and not necessarily what Cirilo actually knew from some other source, or from his own observations. However, even if the jury disbelieved Lugo’s testimony about Cirilo’s non-involvement, that disbelief is not evidence that Cirilo was involved, nor would it provide even a basis for an inference that Cirilo did know of Lugo’s murder plan beforehand. Such an inference must be based on some actual evidence, direct or circumstantial, and there is none.

. Lugo testified under oath that his original story that Cirilo owed Chispo money was a lie because actually he, Lugo, not Cirilo, owed the debt. Later, Lugo said that although his first story was partially a lie, Cirilo also owed Chispo a debt.

. Ramirez, "Junilo,” and David Silva were present when Lugo and Mangual took the officer’s keys. According to Lugo, Cirilo was in El Ideal. • When Lugo brought the officer back to his car, after it was searched, apparently with Lugo's pistol still hidden, Lugo told him to walk in front of him and to remember that he was armed. Lugo testified that he was inside Meji-as's car before he pulled out his pistol. Thus, the circumstances support an inference that Mangual, "Junito," and David Silva, as well as Ramirez, all knew that Lugo had a gun. The majority’s opinion might suggest that Cirilo was in the group with Mangual and Lugo when they planned to take Mejias’s keys at gunpoint. Although the record is somewhat confusing on this point, the only fair reading shows that Cirilo was in El Ideal at that time, not in the group with Mejias.

. Lugo testified without contradiction that he had no plan for Cirilo to follow him; that Cirilo was not aware that he was going to kill the officer, even when they left El Ideal; that Cirilo and Ramirez were inside El Ideal when Lugo and Mangual abducted Mejias in Mejias’s car; and, that he had no idea how Cirilo and Ramirez happened to come looking for him in Ramirez’s car. Lugo also testified without contradiction that the first lime he noticed them in the black Oldsmobile, Cirilo and Ramirez were driving toward Lugo and Mangual, after the officer had been shot, and after Mangual had recovered control of Mejias’s car.
*53Agent Pages testified about Mangual’s statement to him. Describing the events as Mangual, Lugo, and Officer Mejias were about to leave El Ideal, Pages testified: “They close the doors. Just about that time — okay. Just — about that time Mangual Corchado stated that others were following them in a black Oldsmobile two-door.” Pages also testified that when the shots were fired, Mangual became disoriented and lost control of the car. According to Pages, Mangual looked back and asked Lugo "What did you do?” Lugo responded, "keep driving or you’re next.” Mangual stopped the car; Lugo moved from the back seat to the front seat where Mangual saw the gun; and then they again started on their way. During that time, there is no mention of Cirilo or Ramirez or the black Oldsmobile. The next time Pages said Mangual saw the black Oldsmobile was much later, when it followed them into the cemetery and stopped behind them.

. The evidence also shows that Lugo kept his own gun hidden when Cirilo might have seen it — the majority’s inference that Cirilo had "a clear view’’ of the gun is not supported by the record.

. Manguafs version of these events, related through the testimony of Agent Pages, did not include Lugo's last minute change of plans instigated by Papilin. Instead, Mangual described Lugo bringing Officer Mejias to the car, immediately putting him into the back seat, and ordering Mangual to drive. Mangual’s version suggests that he, who was indeed close by, on the other side of the car, never saw or heard Papilin approach Lugo to tell him that he had to kill the officer rather than let him go. If Mangual was unaware of the change of plans and Papilin's remarks, as his version of events demonstrates, it is an even more difficult stretch to speculate that Cirilo, who by all the evidence was in the area of or in the El Ideal market, might have heard and understood the exchange.