Court Opinion

ID: 9478317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:46:19.780668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:22.091378
License: Public Domain

COFFEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority’s opinion in all respects, except two: I do not agree with the finding that the evidence regarding Torres and “the kid” was insufficient for the jury to conclude that defendant Hol-guin “organized or managed” their activities within the meaning of the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute (CCE), 21 U.S. C. § 848; and further, I do not agree with the conclusion that Holguin’s CCE conviction must be vacated.
Under the CCE statute the government must prove five elements against Holguin:
“(1) A predicate offense violating a specified drug law (2) as part of a ‘continuing series’ of drug violations (3) that occurred while the defendant was acting in concert with five or more other people (4) to whom the defendant occupied the position of an organizer or manager and from which series the defendant (5) attained substantial income or resources.”
United States v. Markowski, 772 F.2d 358, 360-61 (7th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1018, 106 S.Ct. 1202, 89 L.Ed.2d 316 (1986). Since the jury found Holguin guilty of the charges brought under this statute, his burden in overturning the verdict on appeal is a heavy one. See United States v. Nesbitt, 852 F.2d 1502, 1508 (7th Cir.1988). The burden can be summarized in the following fashion: “As we have previously stated, and again reiterate, when reviewing the sufficiency of evidence ... we will affirm the trial court unless the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the Government, could not have persuaded an [sic] rational trier of fact of defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Nesbitt, at 1508 (quoting United States v. Mayo, 721 F.2d 1084, 1087 (7th Cir.1983)). It is well settled in this circuit that a “[d]efen-dant’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence must be rejected if we find, ‘after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, [that] any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Zanin, 831 F.2d 740, 743 (7th Cir.1987) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). Furthermore, “[o]nce a defendant has been found guilty of the crime charged, the factfinder’s role as weigher of the evidence is preserved through a legal conclusion that upon judicial review all of the evidence is to be considered in the light most favorable to the prosecution.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. at 2789 (emphasis in original).
My first point of departure with the majority opinion is the finding that the government failed to present sufficient evidence for the jury to conclude that Torres and “the kid” were “organized or managed” by Holguin. Although the government used circumstantial evidence to prove their case with regard to both Torres and “the kid,” the important role that circumstantial evidence plays in drug *832conspiracy cases cannot be minimized. As we stated in Nesbitt, “not only is the use of circumstantial evidence permissible, but ‘circumstantial evidence “may be the sole support for a conviction.” ’ ” At 1510 (quoting United States v. Williams, 798 F.2d 1024, 1042 (7th Cir.1986) (dissenting opinion), which quoted, in turn, United States v. McCrady, 774 F.2d 868, 874 (8th Cir.1985)) (emphasis in Nesbitt).
In Nesbitt we went on to observe:
“We recognize that in reviewing a guilty verdict based on circumstantial evidence, we must ensure that the verdict does ‘not rest “solely on the piling of inference upon inference”; but neither should we view every bit of evidence in isolation.’ United States v. Guzzino, 810 F.2d 687, 696-97 (7th Cir.1987), petition for cert. filed (March 27, 1987) (citing United States v. Redwine, 715 F.2d 315, 319 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1216, 104 S.Ct. 2661, 81 L.Ed.2d 367 (1984)). But ‘[t]he view that the prosecution’s case must answer all questions and remove all doubts ... of course, is not the law because that would be impossible; the proof need only satisfy reasonable doubt.’ Borum v. United States, 380 F.2d 595, 599 (D.C.Cir.1967) (former Chief Justice Burger dissenting)).”
At 1511 (emphasis in original). As we further noted in Nesbitt: “If the government proves its case by circumstantial evidence, ‘it need not exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence so long as the total evidence permits a conclusion of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ... The trier of fact is free to choose among various reasonable constructions of the evidence.” Id. at 1510 (quoting United States v. Radtke, 799 F.2d 298, 302 (7th Cir.1986)). This statement is based upon our recognition that “[i]n every criminal trial, each party asks the trier of fact to believe its witnesses, to weigh its evidence more heavily than the opposition’s evidence, and to draw certain inferences from the basic facts and evidence in order to accept its hypothesis regarding the events in dispute.” United States v. Allen, 797 F.2d 1395, 1399 (7th Cir.1986) (quoting United States v. Moya, 721 F.2d 606 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1037, 104 S.Ct. 1312, 79 L.Ed.2d 709 (1984)).
Review of a verdict based upon circumstantial evidence also requires special deference to a jury’s common sense. As we stated in Nesbitt, at 1511:
“Juries are allowed to draw upon their own experience in life as well as their common sense in reaching their verdict. See [United States v. Radtke, 799 F.2d 298, 302 (7th Cir.1986)]. While ‘[c]om-mon sense is no substitute for evidence, ... common sense should be used to evaluate what reasonably may be inferred from circumstantial evidence.’ Id. Likewise, a reviewing court must ‘ “use its experience with people and events [in determining] that the evidence correctly points to guilt [to guard] against the possibility” ’ of affirming a guilty verdict based solely on an ‘ “innocent or ambiguous inference.” ’ [United States v. Redwine, 715 F.2d 315, 319 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1216, 104 S.Ct. 2661, 81 L.Ed.2d 367 (1984)] (quoting United States v. Kwitek, 467 F.2d 1222, 1226 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1079, 93 S.Ct. 702, 34 L.Ed.2d 668 (1972)).”
Applying these standards to this case, there is little question that a rational jury could and did determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Torres and “the kid” were “organized or managed” by Holguin. With respect to Torres, the government established that Torres’ drug-related activities were under the control of Castrellon. The government also established that Holguin directed or organized some of Castrellon’s activities, although Castrellon was “a big drug dealer in his own right.” The government presented telephone conversations as evidence of the Holguin-Castrellon-Torres connection and according to Holguin’s own brief, “[t]hat evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the prosecution show[s] that the speakers alleged to be Holguin and Castrellon agreed that something had to get done and [that] Castrellon statfed] that he would have his friend ... do it.” Brief of Appellant Holguin at 96. The majority finds that under these circumstances “a *833rational jury could not have concluded that Mr. Holguin organized, supervised or in any other way managed the activities of Ms. Torres.”
On the contrary, as we noted in United States v. Zanin, “[conversations regarding drug transactions are rarely clear. A factfinder must always draw inferences from veiled allusions and code words.” 831 F.2d 740, 744 (7th Cir.1987). In the present case, a reasonable jury could have drawn the inference that through Castrellon, Hol-guin directed or organized some of Torres’ activities. The government was not required to prove personal contact between Holguin and Torres, nor that Holguin was the dominant supervisor of Torres (rather than Castrellon). The CCE statute requires only that Holguin occupy some managerial position with respect to Torres. See United States v. Apodaca, 843 F.2d 421, 426 (10th Cir.1988); United States v. Becton, 751 F.2d 250, 254-55 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1018, 105 S.Ct. 3480, 87 L.Ed.2d 615 (1984).
With respect to “the kid,” the government referenced a conversation between Castrellon and Rudy in which Castrellon stated that “he (apparently Holguin) was going to send the kid ... for what [Rudy] ... [w]as missing.” While the majority recognizes that the statute does not make proof of specific identity mandatory, it speculates that “the kid” could be one of the other persons argued by the government to be under Holguin’s control. Again referring to Zanin, juries are often required to draw inferences from conversations that are purposefully vague. 831 F.2d at 744. It is clear from Zanin that a possible innocent explanation of the conversation does not affect the validity of the jury’s contrary conclusion:
“Phyllis Zanin argues that all conversations in which she participated are susceptible to an innocent explanation. This may or may not be true — but it is irrelevant. The existence of an innocent explanation does not foreclose a jury from finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury was entitled to draw reasonable inferences from the conversations.”
Id. at 745. Similarly, given the choice between the various inferences in this case the “jury exercising well-reasoned judgment could very well conclude that the inculpatory inferences outweigh the exculpatory inferences that could be drawn from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.” Nesbitt, at 1511. In this case a reasonable jury could and did logically determine from Castrellon’s conversation with Rudy that “the kid” was, in fact, the seventh person under Holguin’s control. Had the majority been the trier of fact, it may very well have found that this conversation was insufficient to show the existence of a seventh person, but such was not the case here. As we emphasized in United States v. Giangrosso, 779 F.2d 376, 382 (7th Cir.1985): “This court is not the trier of fact and we are required to uphold the jury’s verdict where ‘any rational trier of fact’ could have found the defendant guilty of the crime.” (emphasis added). We are required to “give deference to the trial jury’s weighing of the evidence and its drawing of reasonable inferences.” United States v. Whaley, 830 F.2d 1469, 1472 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1738, 100 L.Ed.2d 202 (1987); United States v. Pritchard, 745 F.2d 1112, 1122 (7th Cir.1984); United States v. Niemiec, 611 F.2d 1207, 1211 (7th Cir.1980). “Only where the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the [trier of fact] could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, may an appellate court overturn the verdict.” Nesbitt, at 1509 (quoting Whaley, 830 F.2d at 1472, which quoted, in turn, United States v. Moore, 764 F.2d 476, 478 (7th Cir.1985)).
My second point of departure is the majority’s conclusion that Holguin’s CCE conviction must be vacated. Under the reasoning of the discussion regarding Torres and “the kid,” a reasonable jury could have concluded that Holguin had seven people under his control. Accordingly, the government proved the element under the CCE statute that Holguin “organized or managed” at least five people.
Even assuming for the moment that the majority is correct in its finding on the evidence regarding Torres and “the kid,” *834there remain five individuals that the majority finds a reasonable jury could have concluded were under Holguin’s control. The CCE statute requires only five. Viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a reasonable jury could have found Holguin guilty under the statute based on these five people alone. Under this limited standard of review, I must, therefore, respectfully dissent.