Court Opinion

ID: 9482771
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:59:51.899326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:11.600152
License: Public Domain

JOHN P. MOORE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent from that part of the court’s opinion sustaining the conviction of Mr. Hill. I cannot agree there was sufficient evidence to support it. The issue is close; however, I believe the court relies upon inferences rejected by the jury to reach its conclusion. As a result, I cannot agree.
To focus upon the issue, we must first examine the indictment. The charged offenses are both specific and intertwined. Count 1 charges a conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to manufacture, and distribute marijuana. The means of the conspiracy alleged are, in general terms: 1) obtaining and maintaining the place, funds, tools, and seeds to plant, cultivate, and harvest marijuana; 2) arranging for the security of the places where marijuana was grown and “strategically locating firearms against an eventuality or circumstances in which such firearms were intended to or would be used ” (emphasis added); 3) taking steps to avoid detection by law enforcement officers; 4) other specific acts relating to the growing of marijuana.
Count 2 charges the three defendants conspired to use or carry firearms “during and in relation to” the commission of: 1) manufacturing marijuana; 2) possessing marijuana with intent to distribute; 3) distributing marijuana; 4) conspiring to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute, and distributing, marijuana. The means of the conspiracy charged under count 2 were that: 1) “certain of the defendants” traveled from Oklahoma to Texas to “attempt to manufacture, and/or possess with intent to distribute marijuana;” 2) the defendants later did the same things in the state of Oklahoma; 3) “[i]n an attempt to secure the clandestine marijuana manufacturing operation ... the defendants assembled, possessed, and/or maintained” firearms and ammunition “in and near various buildings at or near the laboratory site.”
Although stated in separate counts, the conspiracies charged embrace essentially the same events. The theory of prosecution was that the defendants conspired to conduct a marijuana business and that they conspired to use or carry firearms in connection with that business and in connection with the conspiracy to conduct the marijuana business. (A conspiracy within a conspiracy). Thus, the conspiracy charged in count 2 consisted of an agreement coupled with two distinct elements of criminal conduct: 1) the overt acts relating to carrying on the marijuana business; 2) agreeing with others to carry on the marijuana business. To convict on the count 2 conspiracy, the government had to prove at least one of the two elements and the agreement.
By acquitting Mr. Hill of all other counts, the jury found the evidence insufficient to prove he distributed, manufactured, or intended distribution of marijuana. Thus, there is insufficient evidence on the first element of distinct conduct contained in count 2. The jury also found the evidence insufficient to prove Mr. Hill agreed with others to engage in the marijuana business; therefore, it determined the evidence insufficient to prove the second distinct element of conduct. It is therefore impossible for Mr. Hill to have been found guilty of conspiring to use or carry firearms in connection with conduct that was not proved.
The very interrelation of the charges will not permit such an inconsistent result. Because the criminal transactions were made interdependent, it is a logical inconsistency to suggest that the evidence on count 2 *1514could be found sufficient when the same evidence was wanting in count 1.
I have a further basis for disagreement, however. The court seems to take the position that 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) defines a firearms offense which can be established without proof of the commission of an independent substantive offense. If that is the court’s conclusion, I cannot agree.
First, the statutory language will not permit such an interpretation. The section provides:
Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime ... uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the crime, be sentenced to imprisonment....
The offense is, as noted by the court, a “firearms offense,” but it is not an offense which can be committed simply by carrying or controlling a firearm. An essential element of the § 924(c) offense is the connection with a “crime of violence or drug trafficking crime.” Any other conclusion is contrary to the express language of the statute. Indeed, “[bjecause all elements of the crime created by section 924(c)(1) must be proved for conviction under that section, a defendant charged with violating section 924(c)(1) must be proven to have committed the underlying crime.” United States v. Hunter, 887 F.2d 1001, 1003 (9th Cir.1989). We have already neared this conclusion in United States v. Henning, 906 F.2d 1392, 1399 (10th Cir.1990), when we observed, “[sjection 924(c) is an enhancement statute enacted to punish those drug traffickers who choose to carry on their trade with the assistance of a firearm.”
In this case, the government failed to prove the underlying crimes. No amount of reconsideration of the inferences that would have allowed the jury to convict on those offenses can resurrect them. Without proof that the underlying substantive offenses were committed, a conviction on § 924(c)(1) cannot stand.1
Having reached this conclusion, I do not consider whether the district court properly applied the guidelines in arriving at Mr. Hill’s sentence. I do not, therefore, join in the court’s opinion on that issue except to suggest the court’s difficulty in resolving the problem it presents is the result of the inconsistency in the verdicts. I would reverse Mr. Hill’s conviction.

. I say this with full knowledge of United States v. Powell, 469 U.S. 57, 105 S.Ct. 471, 83 L.Ed.2d 461 (1984). The court relies upon Powells admonition that a review of the sufficiency of the evidence should be conducted independent of the jury’s determination of the sufficiency of the evidence on another count. The Court also said, however, “[t]he government must convince the jury with its proof, and must also satisfy the courts that given this proof the jury could rationally have reached a verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Powell, 469 U.S. at 67, 105 S.Ct. at 478. The interdependence of the charges in the indictment lead me to conclude in this instance the jury could not have rationally acquitted on one count and convicted on the other.