Court Opinion

ID: 9486012
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:35:51.155485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:29.408587
License: Public Domain

DeMOSS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I am unable to concur with the conclusion reached by my colleagues in Part II, A 2 of the majority opinion, and I write to express my contrary view that the evidence in this case as to Montoya-Ortiz was not sufficient to support a jury finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I have agonized long and hard over the circumstances of this case, and I have come to the conclusion that the evidence against Montoya-Ortiz is not sufficient because the presumption of innocence and the requirement that the government prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt compel such a conclusion in a case such as this where the evidence is entirely circumstantial and the inferences to be drawn therefrom are not necessarily the result of the circumstantial facts.
My assessment of the sufficiency of the evidence in this ease against Montoya-Ortiz has undoubtedly been colored by the following considerations which continually popped up in my mind as I analyzed the record in this case and thought through the implications of the evidence and testimony presented:
a. Montoya-Ortiz has received a sentence of life imprisonment. While I recognize that such a sentence is not as final as a death sentence, it is the next thing to it in that it results in the deprivation of this defendant’s *1183liberty for the rest of his natural life on earth.
b. I am bothered by the disparity between the sentences which Montoya-Ortiz received and the sentence of 97 months received by the government’s star witness, Moreno. Moreno was the person who drove the truck from which the 220 kilograms of cocaine were seized on October 17, 1990. Furthermore, Moreno admitted in his testimony that he drove another truck earlier in September carrying another load of cocaine. Using only the quantity of cocaine seized by the government on October 17, and assuming that Moreno had no criminal history points of any kind, his base offense level would have started at 38, which calls for a sentencing range of 235 to 293 months. Furthermore, as indicated by footnote 1 of the majority opinion, a motion for reduction of Moreno’s sentence was pending at the time of Montoya-Ortiz’s trial.
e. I am bothered by the sequence of the indictments in this case. The events for which Montoya-Ortiz has been sentenced to life in prison allegedly occurred on October 17, 1990. Montoya-Ortiz, Ramos Calderon, and Moreno were indicted in October 1990, and Moreno pleaded guilty to the charges of that indictment in December 1990. Thereafter, the original indictment was dismissed without prejudice as to Ramos Calderon and Montoya-Ortiz. Finally, in December 1991, Montoya-Ortiz and Ramos Calderon were re-indicted along with Montoya-Lujan. Given the requirements of the Speedy Trial Act, I have to conclude that the government dismissed its original indictment as to Montoya-Ortiz because they did not have sufficient evidence to bring those charges to trial within 70 days after the original indictment.
d. Finally, I am bothered by the veritable flood of Rule 404(b) testimony, admitted in this case, not only from Moreno but from three other convicted criminals turned government witnesses. All of this testimony, however, related to prior bad acts of Montoya-Lujan, not Montoya-Ortiz; and nowhere in any of this testimony does any witness even mention Montoya-Ortiz. Given that those whom the government has joined together in a conspiracy indictment have virtually no opportunity of getting a severance for separate trials, the possibility that the jury decided that Montoya-Ortiz was guilty because there was so much testimony of bad conduct on the part of Montoya-Lujan is a very real and ever-present danger in this case.
With the foregoing in mind, and recognizing that Montoya-Ortiz meticulously preserved for appellate review his contention that the evidence in this case was insufficient, I examined the record in this case with a sense of heightened scrutiny, making sure that that evidence and testimony that the trial court ruled inadmissible was omitted from consideration and that all of the Rule 404(b) testimony was not considered for the purpose of testing the sufficiency of evidence against Montoya-Ortiz. That the evidence against Montoya-Ortiz is circumstantial and thin, is beyond question. Though they do not expressly say so, my colleagues in the majority opinion implicitly recognize that the evidence against Montoya-Ortiz is thin; they take one-sixth of the space in their opinion to discuss the evidence against Montoya-Ortiz compared with the space in which they discuss the sufficiency of evidence against Montoya-Lujan. Ultimately, my disagreement •with the majority turns on the inferences to be drawn from the thin quantity of circumstantial evidence that relates to Montoya-Ortiz’s involvement. Essentially the majority sustains the jury verdict against Montoya-Ortiz on the basis of inferences drawn from the following circumstances:
1. The instruction given by Ramos Calderon to Moreno to “wait about 25 minutes and then leave.”
2. The explanation which Montoya-Ortiz gave as to going to Presidio to purchase hay.
3. The conduct of Montoya-Ortiz when Moreno was brought into the checkpoint trailer, south of Marfa; and
4. The nervousness which Montoya-Ortiz exhibited and his failure to say good-bye to the deputy sheriff that stopped him near Balmorhea.
For discussion purposes, I treat the last three of these circumstances together, because they were all events testified to by law *1184enforcement officers and occurred on October 17, 1990, the day of the criminal activity alleged in the indictments. First of all, the statement of going to Presidio to get hay was not in-and-of-itself incorrect. As the majority indicates, there was in fact a farm near Presidio which grew alfalfa hay and that was the type of hay on Montoya-Ortiz’s trailer. Clearly, none of the law enforcement officers thought on October 17 that this explanation was sufficiently implausible to justify arresting Montoya-Ortiz, because on two occasions they released him to proceed on his way after giving this explanation. At trial the government elicited testimony about the availability of hay in New Mexico as an ex post facto assertion of implausibility. And even the general testimony about availability of hay in New Mexico does not undercut the credibility of Montoya-Ortiz’s statement. If Montoya-Ortiz had said, “the nearest place I can get alfalfa hay is in Presidio,” then testimony that alfalfa hay was available in New Mexico, which was much closer, would make that statement implausible. Likewise, if the government had offered testimony from the owner and operator of the hay farm near Presidio that Montoya-Ortiz never bought any hay from him; or if the government had offered testimony that Montoya-Ortiz did not own any animals which would eat hay, then the jury could logically infer that Montoya-Ortiz was trying to use his trip to Presidio as a cover for some other activity. But the government did not offer any such proof, and no inference of “possession or knowledge” can reasonably be inferred from Montoya-Ortiz’s statement about going to Presidio for hay.
Similarly, whatever conduct Montoya-Ortiz exhibited which the officers at the checkpoint south of Marfa described as “deliberately ignoring” Moreno, cannot sustain any inference of guilt. Moreno clearly testified that he “did not know” Montoya-Ortiz, but only had “seen” him. There is no testimony whatsoever in the record that Moreno ever talked to Montoya-Ortiz or even that Moreno was ever in Montoya-Ortiz’s immediate presence. Whatever happened in terms of recognition, or not, among these defendants, it was not perceived on that day by the law enforcement officers as being indicative of any guilt on the part of Montoya-Ortiz because they allowed Montoya-Ortiz and Ramos Calderon to proceed on their way after Moreno was brought in. Likewise, the much testified about “lead truck/load truck” theory did not ring any bells with the law enforcement officers at the checkpoint south of Marfa. They had both trucks at the secondary inspection point; they had all three occupants of these vehicles in the trailer; the dog alerted to the second truck during the canine sniff inspection; and Ramos Calderon was allegedly “a known narcotics dealer.” In spite of the concurrence of all of these circumstances, the officers at the check point obviously concluded that they did not have probable cause to hold Montoya-Ortiz and Ramos Calderon and they let them go. In my book, if the trained officers did not draw the inferences of wrong doing from the circumstances, then those circumstances are insufficient to sustain a jury verdict 14-months later.
The last set of circumstances that occurred on October 17 in the presence of government officers were the events that took place near Balmorhea when the deputy sheriff stopped Montoya-Ortiz’s truck pursuant to instructions which he had received from the DEA officers, because the DEA had discovered that the truck which Moreno was driving belonged to Ramos Calderon. The government and the majority opinion make much of the fact that this deputy sheriff was a distant relative of Montoya-Ortiz and that this distant relative testified that Montoya-Ortiz was “extremely nervous” and took off without even saying good-bye, when the officers ultimately released Montoya-Ortiz. The testimony by the deputy sheriff, regarding nervousness was brief and conclusionary. I am continually bothered by the extent to which our Court has recognized “nervousness” as a mantra which police officers can recite to justify further inquiry and search. However, in the rare cases such as this one, where further inquiry and search fails to turn up any objective evidence of wrong doing, then I submit nervousness loses its value as evidence of guilt. I would suggest that “nervousness” is not an atypical reaction when the average citizen is stopped by a police officer. It is the unexpected and the unantic*1185ipated confrontation with police officers that gives one the jitters. If we assume that the government’s theory of this case is correct, and that Montoya-Ortiz was the leader of the conspiracy that was attempting to smuggle the cocaine in the second truck driven by Moreno, then once Montoya-Ortiz and Ramos Calderon were released from the checkpoint south of Marfa, they would proceed with the knowledge that (i) the second truck had been stopped at the checkpoint, (ii) Moreno had been brought inside for questioning, and (iii) more than likely the canine sniffer which inspected their own vehicle had inspected the second truck. Whether they knew the dog had alerted to the second truck is not clear from the record, but certainly that would be a known and expectable event. Given this knowledge, what course would guilty minds then follow? First they would wait a sufficient period of time somewhere along the route to see whether or not Moreno and his truck were released. The longer they waited, the more likely it became that the second truck had been searched and the cocaine found. When sufficient time elapsed to reach the conclusion that the second truck and its cargo had been compromised, they would have two alternatives. First, to escape, ditch their own trailer, change course, and attempt to avoid apprehension; or proceed along their original course towards home, but being prepared to face the possibility that they would be stopped when the DEA agents checked the registration plates on the second truck and learned that it was registered to Ramos Calderon. When ultimately stopped, the truck and trailer were still on the highway headed most directly back to Montoya-Ortiz’s home in Andrews. So under the government’s theory, the conspirators did not elect to try to escape; but they would, however, be proceeding with the awareness that at any time they could be stopped, and they had ample time to prepare themselves for that eventuality.
On the other hand, assume, as the law presumes, that Montoya-Ortiz was not involved in the conspiracy, was not aware of the cocaine in the second truck, and was not aware that the second truck belonged to Ramos Calderon. The stop at the Immigration checkpoint south of Marfa was a routine, and anticipated event, since neither he nor Ramos Calderon were U.S. citizens. After being released at the Immigration checkpoint, they proceeded on their route home; and the stop by the deputy sheriff outside of Balmorhea was an unanticipated event, at least to Montoya-Ortiz. It was the unanticipated circumstance which precipitated his nervousness, rather than guilty knowledge. Once stopped, Montoya-Ortiz had to go through the aggravation of delay until the DEA agents arrived, then the aggravation of having his truck and trailer unloaded and searched and reloaded, and then the upset of having his passenger arrested. That he then left without saying “good-bye” to the deputy sheriff, in my mind does not come even close, to being an indicia of guilt. It is self-evident from the facts of the officers who arrested Ramos Calderon that they did not view the “nervousness” of Montoya-Ortiz as sufficient evidence of probable cause to arrest Montoya-Ortiz too.
Finally, I address the significance of the instruction which Ramos Calderon gave to Moreno at the motel in Presidio. It is important to note that the record clearly establishes that Moreno did not hear what, if anything, Montoya-Ortiz said to Ramos Calderon. The only person that Moreno ever heard say anything was Ramos Calderon. It is also important to note that Ramos Calderon, while named as a defendant in the counts of the indictment, was a fugitive at the time of trial and not present in the courtroom. It is also important to note the content of instruction given by Ramos Calderon. It does not mention Montoya-Ortiz either directly or indirectly. It does not mention anything about lead truck or load truck. It does not mention anything about the cocaine, either expressly or by code name. It does not refer directly or indirectly to the checkpoint south of Marfa. In short, the words used by Ramos Calderon do not raise or suggest any inference whatsoever regarding what, if anything, Montoya-Ortiz may have previously said to Ramos Calderon. In my book, an inference is a conclusion which may be drawn as a matter of logic or as a matter of high probability from other known facts. What Ramos Calderon said to Moreno, cannot be *1186used to infer knowledge of anything on the part of Montoya-Ortiz. It is possible, of course, as the majority concludes, that Montoya-Ortiz told Ramos Calderon to tell Moreno exactly what he did. It is also possible that whatever Montoya-Ortiz said to Ramos Calderon had absolutely nothing to do with what Ramos Calderon said to Moreno. In short, I cannot agree that any inference flows as a matter of logic or high probability from the words stated by Ramos Calderon to Moreno; and I disagree fundamentally with the precedents.relied upon by the majority which use the words “could have found” instead of “would have found” as the criteria by which a reasonable jury would measure the evidence.
For all of the foregoing reasons, I would hold that the evidence was not sufficient to show that there was an agreement on the part of Montoya-Ortiz to enter the conspiracy which Moreno described between himself, Ramos Calderon, and Montoya-Lujan; and since there was no evidence of any kind of any possession by Montoya-Ortiz of the cocaine in question, the conviction of Montoya-Ortiz under counts 1 and 2 should be overturned.