Court Opinion

ID: 9489376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:14:20.434303+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:29.946565
License: Public Domain

COWEN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Today the majority holds that, when the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, no rational jury could possibly conclude that a man in his underwear sitting on a sofa that is surrounded by cocaine, assorted drug paraphernalia and firearms can be guilty of a possessory offense under the constructive possession doctrine. I believe that this record contains sufficient evidence for a rational jury to conclude that appellant Sean Jenkins constructively pos*822sessed cocaine with the intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), based upon what the police saw when they entered Sam Stallings’ apartment in pursuit of an armed felon. Because the majority reaches a contrary result, I respectfully dissent.
I.
The facts of this case are not in dispute. In its June 6, 1995 order denying Jenkins’ post-trial motion for a judgment of acquittal, the district court described the circumstances under which the police entered the apartment in question and what they saw when they arrived:
Michael Kopecki, a Philadelphia police officer, testified that on February 10, 1994, at 1:30 a.m., he and his partner responded to a call that gunshots were being fired outside the West Walnut Lane Apartments. Kopecki testified that he parked his patrol car and moved toward the courtyard between two of the buildings, where he saw Larry Harrison with a gun and Kevin Jones with him. Kopecki yelled “police.” Harrison and Jones ran toward the building. Kopecki followed Harrison into the building through a fire escape door and down a short hallway into apartment C-107. When he entered the apartment, defendants Jenkins and Stallings were seated on the couch in the living room; they were wearing boxer shorts and T-shirts. On the coffee table in front of them were two triple-beam scales, two .38-caliber revolvers, three bags of white powder, small colored ziplock-style bags, clear plastic vials, and numerous red caps. Defendants stipulated that the powder totaled 55.3 grams of cocaine and 42 grams of non-cocaine powder. A Winchester 12-gauge shotgun with a sawed-off barrel was on the floor to the side of the couch. All of the guns were loaded.
United States v. Jenkins, No. 94-385-02, slip op. at 1-2 (E.D. Pa. June 6, 1995).
II.
“Constructive possession is a legal fiction created by courts to find possession where it does not exist in fact.” Michael S. Deal, Note, United States v. Walker: Constructive Possession of Controlled Substances: Pushing the Limits of Exclusive Control, 2 J. Pharmacy & L. 401, 401 (1994). “The judicially created doctrine of constructive possession enables law enforcement officials to prosecute individuals in situations where the inference of possession is strong, yet actual possession at the time of arrest cannot be shown.” Mark I. Rabinowitz, Note, Criminal Law Constructive Possession: Must the Commonwealth Still Prove Intent?-Commonwealth v. Mudrick, 60 Temple L.Q. 445, 449-50 (1987). Our case law holds that a finding of guilt based upon constructive possession “requires both ‘dominion and control’ over an object and knowledge of that object’s existence.” United States v. Brown, 3 F.3d 673, 680 (3d Cir.) (quoting United States v. Iafelice, 978 F.2d 92, 96 (3d Cir.1992)), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1017, 114 S.Ct. 615, 126 L.Ed.2d 579 (1993). We have further held that the terms “dominion and control” are to be interpreted “as the ability to reduce an object to actual possession.... ” United States v. Martorano, 709 F.2d 863, 869 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 993, 104 S.Ct. 486, 78 L.Ed.2d 682 (1983). See Black’s Law Dictionary 314 (6th ed. 1990) (Constructive possession “[ejxists when one does not have physical custody or possession, but is in a position to exercise dominion and control over a thing.”); see also George H. Singer, Note, Constructive Possession of Controlled Substances: A North Dakota Look At a Nationwide Problem, 68 N.D.L.Rev. 981, 1002 (1992) (hereinafter Constructive Possession) (In those courts that have defined constructive possession “to include a right, a capacity, or an ability to reduce the substance to one’s control[,] ... an accused need not be presently exercising his or her right to control the contraband at the time of arrest; it is enough that he or she could have done so.”).
Our cases have held that “dominion and control” of narcotics “need not be exclusive but may be shared with others.” United States v. Davis, 461 F.2d 1026, 1035 (3d Cir.1972). A finding of dominion and control, however, may not be premised only upon “mere proximity to the drug, or mere presence on the property where it is located or mere association with the person who does *823control the drug or the property....” Brown, 3 F.3d at 680 (quoting Davis, 461 F.2d at 1036).
“Our standard of review in sufficiency of the evidence claims is deferential.... ‘[T]he relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light Most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Schoolcraft, 879 F.2d 64, 69-70 (3d Cir.) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 995, 110 S.Ct. 546, 107 L.Ed.2d 543 (1989). This deferential test “places a very heavy burden on the appellant.” United States v. Coyle, 63 F.3d 1239, 1243 (3d Cir.1995).
III.
A.
There is sufficient evidence in this record to affirm Jenkins’ conviction on criminal possession charges under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The reasoning and analysis of the district court on the constructive possession issue were sound and should not have been disturbed on appeal. The district court rejected the same insufficiency argument, citing the following considerations:
First, Jenkins was not merely in the same apartment where the cocaine and guns were found. Nor was he merely in the same room where the items happened to be hidden or stored. Rather, he was sitting immediately behind a coffee table piled with drugs, paraphernalia, and loaded weapons.... Second, while there was no evidence that Jenkins was a resident of the apartment, the jury could have reasonably inferred that he was not merely stopping by Stallings’ apartment on February 10 and happened to find Stallings involved in drug activity. Jenkins, on a winter night at 1:30 a.m., was wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt, which could imply that he was staying over in the apartment or had been there long enough to get comfortable. Moreover, the building manager testified that Jenkins was in and out of the apartment with Stallings and Harrison on different occasions. It would have been reasonable for a jury to conclude that defendant was a frequent visitor in the apartment and a participant in the activities inside. Third, there were two triple-beam balances on the coffee table and two people seated behind the table. From these facts the jury could have inferred that Jenkins and Stallings each was using a scale....
Jenkins, No. 94-385-02, slip op. at 6-7. The district court further held that there was
sufficient evidence from which the jury could conclude that the drugs were possessed with the intent to distribute them. In addition to the cocaine on the table, there were two scales, a powdered cutting agent, plastic baggies, vials, and caps. An expert testified that these materials are used in preparing, weighing, and packaging drugs for street sale.... Even if the police did not happen to catch the defendants in the act of placing cocaine in baggies or vials ... the tools of the distribution trade were in evidence and readily available. Thus I find that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that Jenkins possessed the cocaine with the intent to distribute it.
Id. at 7-8. While I agree with the district court’s disposition of the constructive possession issue, I will now elaborate upon a number of additional points that provide further support for the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence in the record to affirm Jenkins’ conviction.
1.
The question whether a defendant constructively possessed narcotics requires a careful examination of the facts. See Constructive Possession, supra, at 1008 (“The analysis under the constructive possession doctrine is necessarily fact-driven. As no one evidentiary factor standing alone is conclusively demonstrative, it must be inferred from the totality of circumstances of a particular case.”). In this case, the situation in which the police found Jenkins, by all appearances, provided devastating indicia of his guilt. When the police entered the apartment, they found Jenkins in the center of a drug distribution enterprise. Jenkins had comfortably ensconced himself within an arm’s reach of firearms, narcotics, drug para*824phernalia and other tools of the narcotics trade. From this vantage point, Jenkins had easy access to all the contraband that surrounded him and appeared to have the complete trust of the tenants of the apartment in which this unlawful enterprise was carried on. Under these uncontested facts, and viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational jury could have concluded that Jenkins had “the ability to reduce [the cocaine] to actual possession. ...” Martorano, 709 F.2d at 869.
2.
The majority’s analysis seems to treat all forms of proximity as having the same probative value and offers no opinion as to whether Jenkins’ position within grabbing range of all the contraband in the apartment is to be given any weight at all in our analysis. Although I recognize that proximity, standing alone and without any other incriminating circumstances, is insufficient as a matter of law to convict a defendant on criminal possession charges, Brown, 3 F.3d at 680, this does not mean that the degree of proximity is irrelevant. On the contrary, considered along with other attendant circumstances, proximity can support a judgment of conviction for criminal possession.
Close proximity to narcotics is an evidential, inculpatory factor that can support a finding of guilt on criminal possession charges to a greater or lesser degree. See, e.g., Brown, 3 F.3d at 683 (distinguishing our decision in United States v. Davis, supra, where a constructive possession conviction was upheld on the ground that the defendant in Davis “was present with her co-defendant in the room and next to the table where the drugs and drug paraphernalia were found”); United States v. Evers, 448 F.2d 863, 866 (3d Cir.1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 928, 92 S.Ct. 979, 30 L.Ed.2d 801 (1972). In the instant case, the defendant voluntarily situated himself in a position where narcotics, firearms, drug packaging materials and various other tools of the drug-dealing trade were “within his immediate reach.” United States v. Bonham, 477 F.2d 1137, 1138 (3d Cir.1973). This is a significant and highly probative eviden-tiary fact. See Parker v. United States, 601 A.2d 45, 51 n. 18 (D.C.App.1991) (rejecting a legal sufficiency challenge, the court observed that the case was “a diminished version of many constructive possession cases, in that the contraband was within the actual immediate reach of both defendants”); United States v. DiNovo, 523 F.2d 197, 201 (7th Cir.) (distinguishing our decision in United States v. Davis, supra, on the ground that defendant “was not discovered in the immediate area of unconcealed narcotics”), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1016, 96 S.Ct. 449, 46 L.Ed.2d 387 (1975). This factor is particularly telling in a case such as this where Jenkins comfortably settled himself in the center of a drug distribution network.
In concluding that Jenkins was “merely present” in the apartment, the majority stresses what it found to be the fortuity of Jenkins’ presence in such a compromising position. The majority goes on to conclude that “[wjhether or not [Jenkins] possessed the drugs, he could have been found sitting on the couch, standing next to it, in the bathroom, or in some other room in the apartment.” Majority at 820. This statement is puzzling. The possibility that Jenkins could conceivably have been found in any one of these places had the police entered the apartment at a different time is irrelevant. Indeed, if the police had shown up either earlier or later, Jenkins might not even have been in the apartment at all! It is axiomatic that a criminal is not entitled to go free merely because the constable showed up at an inconvenient time. This type of “bad luck” does not warrant granting Jenkins the windfall of a blanket acquittal.
3.
The majority further concludes that Jenkins’ “acquaintance” with Stallings and Harrison cannot give rise to an inference of constructive possession. The majority is correct to the extent that mere association, standing alone, will not support a conviction premised upon the constructive possession doctrine. Brown, 3 F.3d at 680. This does not mean, however, that all types of associations with criminals are innocent and cannot support a finding of constructive possession. In the present case, Jenkins was, at a minimum, on excellent terms with narcotics traffickers who were openly plying their trade. *825This uncontested fact raises for our consideration a principle recognized by our sister circuits, which acknowledge that in this type of environment, “[t]he jury ... could have reasonably determined that only trusted members of the operation would be permitted entry into the apartment, because allowing outsiders to have access to an apartment with large quantities of narcotics in plain view could compromise the security of the operation.” United States v. Soto, 959 F.2d 1181, 1185 (2d Cir.1992).
Similarly, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has observed that “presence, proximity or association may establish a pri-ma facie case of drug-possession when colored by evidence linking the accused to an ongoing criminal operation of which that possession is a part.” United States v. Staten, 581 F.2d 878, 885 (D.C.Cir.1978). The Staten court also made the common-sense pronouncement, equally applicable here, that the defendant’s presence in an “apartment reeking with the tell-tale indicia of an ongoing drug-distributing enterprise could rationally have been viewed as a privilege reserved exclusively for participants.” Id. In such a situation, “[i]t would seem that the voluntary presence of the accused in an area obviously devoted to preparation of drugs for distribution is a circumstance potently indicative of his involvement in the operation.” Id. n. 67 (emphasis added). See United States v. Harrison, 931 F.2d 65, 72 (D.C.Cir.) (noting that presence is “especially significant” in this context), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 953, 112 S.Ct. 408, 116 L.Ed.2d 356 (1991); see also State v. Brown, 80 N.J. 587, 404 A.2d 1111, 1114 (1979) (rejecting argument that defendant was “merely present” as “[tjhere were other evidential circumstances lending distinctive color to the character of defendant’s presence at the scene”).
These inculpatory factors, considered together, provide a sufficient evidentiary foundation for a rational jury to conclude that Jenkins violated 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). I will now turn to my disagreement with the majority regarding the degree of deference our standard of review requires us to accord the jury’s factual conclusions as to Jenkins’ guilt.
B.
An analysis of the majority’s opinion reveals that the court most certainly does not view the record evidence “in the light most favorable to the prosecution.” Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. at 2789. Quite to the contrary, the majority has elected not only to reject the inferences that the jury made as to what Jenkins was doing in the apartment, but has gone so far as to view the record evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant. This misapplication of the burden of proof undermines the majority’s entire analysis of the insufficiency issue.
For example, the majority concludes that Jenkins’ “prior acquaintance with Stallings answers why he was in the apartment....” Majority at 818. Continuing along these lines, the majority opines that “we can only conclude that it was sheer happenstance that Jenkins was seated on the couch next to the cocaine when the police entered the apartment.” Id. at 820. A rational jury, however, would be free to, and did, reject the majority’s suggested inferences. Indeed, the majority’s second-guessing runs entirely counter to the burden that Jenkins must satisfy to prevail on his motion for acquittal. It would appear that the majority has embarked upon an unauthorized exercise of post hoc appellate fact-finding to explain, to its own satisfaction at least, the “real” reasons for Jenkins’ presence in the apartment. In so doing, it has literally reversed the established rule as to which party has the burden of proof. We are not in the business of overriding a jury’s conclusions, based upon a highly selective interpretation of the facts viewed in a light most favorable to the defendant.
Similarly, the majority concludes that the presence of two scales in front of Jenkins does not link him to the drugs because they were not being used at the time of police entry and “it was more likely that the two scales belonged to and would be used by the two residents of the apartment.” Id. at 818. As Jenkins did not actually live in the apartment, the majority appears to believe that the fact he was found seated directly in front of the type of scale commonly used to weigh narcotics (that was in the immediate vicinity of narcotics) need not concern us here. The majority also appears to believe that since *826the police came upon two triple-beam scales, a rational jury could infer only that the drug activity that occurred in the apartment was carried on by two people who lived in the apartment. Since Jenkins was a mere guest, so the argument goes, a rational jury could not conclude that he was one of the two participants involved in drug distribution, even though Jenkins was one of the two people in the room when the police entered the apartment.
The presence of two scales obviously does not lead to an a fortiori conclusion that only two people could have been involved in the narcotics distribution enterprise that was conducted out of Stallings’ apartment. It is not as though the police saw two tea cups and two bowls of porridge sitting on a table with two place settings. A rational jury could conclude that the drug-dealing operation conducted out of Stallings’ apartment was not a “two-man show.” As courts have recognized, a narcotics distribution scheme “necessarily involves multiple individuals.” Parker, 601 A.2d at 52. Moreover, the two scales were not the only drug-related items in the apartment. The apartment also contained three firearms and many items of drug-dealing paraphernalia, all within Jenkins’ sight and reach. Furthermore, the majority’s narrow interpretation of the permissible inferences that a rational jury could draw from the presence of two triple-beam scales in the apartment on the table in front of Jenkins fails to evaluate the record evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution.
C.
The majority contends that our decision in United States v. Brown, 3 F.3d at 673, is controlling and requires that we overturn Jenkins’ criminal possession conviction. I disagree. Brown is clearly distinguishable from this case. Ama Baltimore, the defendant in Brown whose conviction was overturned on legal insufficiency grounds, was arrested as she was about to enter the front door of a house in which the police were executing a search warrant. Baltimore lived in the house. The police seized large amounts of narcotics in the house, but none in any areas of the house in which personal items belonging to Baltimore were found.
In the district court Baltimore was, like Jenkins, convicted of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. We reversed. This result was premised upon the fact that Baltimore was nowhere near narcotics when she was arrested, the room in which Baltimore’s possessions were found was drug-free and the attendant circumstances that surrounded her arrest did not adequately support a conclusion that she was an active participant in the criminal activities that occurred within the house.
Although the majority attempts to minimize the emphasis that the Brown court placed upon the potential significance of the proximity factor, see Majority at 818, its efforts are unpersuasive. In support of its decision to overturn the criminal possession charges against Baltimore, the Brown court relied, inter alia, upon the decision of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in United States v. Zeigler, 994 F.2d 845 (D.C.Cir.1993). The Brown court cited as an exculpatory factor in that case the fact that the defendant “was not found in the room where the crack cocaine was found.... ” Brown, 3 F.3d at 682. Moreover, the Brown court distinguished our decision in United States v. Davis, 461 F.2d at 1026, in which a finding of constructive possession was upheld, on the ground that “[t]he defendant in Davis was present with her co-defendant in the room and next to the table where the drugs and drug paraphernalia were found.” Brown, 3 F.3d at 683.
In its analysis of whether there was sufficient evidence in the record to support Baltimore’s conviction, the Brown court looked to where Baltimore was in relation to the contraband that the authorities had seized when she was arrested, and to the areas of the house where she arguably had a legitimate expectation of privacy. See id. (“neither [Baltimore] nor any of her possessions were found in any of the rooms where the drugs were seized”). Baltimore was nowhere near the drugs when she was arrested, nor were any of her personal possessions located in the house’s drug-processing areas. The Brown case, therefore, lacked the present case’s immediate proximity to the contraband, considered along with the other incriminating at*827tendant circumstances that gave rise to a permissible inference that Jenkins committed the crime charged.
It is possible, of course, for a person to live in a house in which narcotics trafficking is taking place without being involved in the operation itself. Brown recognized this, as did the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Vasquez-Chan, 978 F.2d 546 (9th Cir.1992) (Reinhardt, J.), another case upon which the majority relies heavily. Although such living arrangements are foolish, they are not necessarily criminal. Brown recognized that people living in a house or apartment with multiple tenants may have their own separate spheres of activity and personal agendas.
The rationale that underlies Brown, however, does not help Jenkins. The record in this case can reasonably be interpreted to support the conclusion that Jenkins’ personal connection with the area of the apartment that was the hub of a small-scale narcotics distribution enterprise was that of a trusted insider on familiar territory. Therefore, a rational jury could have concluded that Jenkins was a member in good standing of criminal narcotics distribution operation when the police entered Stallings’ apartment on February 10,1994.
IV.
Our decision in United States v. Iafelice, 978 F.2d at 92, which discusses how a rational jury could analyze the circumstantial evidence presented in constructive possession eases, is also instructive here:
It is not unusual that the government will not have direct evidence. Knowledge is often proven by circumstances. A case can be built against the defendant grain-by-grain until the scale finally tips; and considering all the facts and drawing upon rational inferences therefrom, a reasonable jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime for which he is charged.
Id. at 98 (emphasis added). Since the evidence presented here effectively tipped the evidentiary scale, we are precluded from nullifying the jury’s fact finding.
Although “other inferences are possible from the evidence, ... that circumstance does not justify us in rejecting the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Sandini, 888 F.2d 300, 311 (3d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1089, 110 S.Ct. 1831, 108 L.Ed.2d 959 (1990). Accord Iafelice, 978 F.2d at 97 n. 3 (“There is no requirement ... that the inference drawn by the jury be the only inference possible or that the government’s evidence foreclose every possible innocent explanation.”). The majority has interpreted the constructive possession doctrine far more restrictively than our case law warrants and has also failed to heed the Supreme Court’s mandate to view the record evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. I would uphold Jenkins’ conviction on criminal possession charges.