United States v. Cook

13 F. App'x 331
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided July 2, 2001·No. Nos. 99-6283, 99-6285, 99-6354·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

[333] OPINION

COLE, Circuit Judge.

Before this Court are the consolidated appeals of three defendants that were indicted and convicted of various federal narcotics violations for their participation in a multi-member drug conspiracy in eastern Tennessee. Defendant-Appellant Dawn Cook appeals from the sentence imposed following her guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Defendant-Appellant Stokes Cook (“Stokes Cook” or “Cook”) appeals from his jury convictions and sentences for one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and two counts of aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine hydrochloride. Defendant-Appellant Terry Bridge-man appeals from his jury convictions and sentences for one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine hydrochloride and one count of distribution of cocaine hydrochloride.

Dawn Cook assigns error to the district court’s determination, for purposes of sentencing, that she was responsible for distributing at least 3.5 but less than 5 kilograms of cocaine, instead of the 1.8 kilograms of cocaine that she argues was supported by the evidence. Because the district court failed to make sufficiently individualized findings concerning the extent to which Dawn Cook facilitated other drug transactions, we VACATE her sentence and REMAND for resentencing.

Stokes Cook raises challenges of: (1) the sufficiency of the evidence presented in support of the jury’s guilty finding on each count of conviction; (2) the district court’s admission into evidence of his co-eonspirators’ hearsay statements; (3) the district court’s clearly erroneous determination of the drug quantity attributable to him over the course of the conspiracy; (4) the district court’s plainly erroneous application of a four-level aggravating role enhancement; (5) the district court’s adoption of the probation officer’s incorrect determination of his criminal history; and (6) the district court’s sentence of him in excess of the maximum statutory penalty, in violation of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). We AFFIRM the district court on all issues.

Terry Bridgeman assigns error to the district court’s admission into evidence, over his objection, of an out-of-court statement by co-conspirator Dawn Cook that he had previously sold cocaine to another co-conspirator. Because the district court properly admitted Dawn Cook’s statement pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(e) as a statement of a co-conspirator during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy, we AFFIRM the district court on this point.

I. BACKGROUND

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“TBI”) began an investigation in August 1997 of the cocaine-distribution activities of Acie Mullins. Evidence presented at trial revealed that from June 1996 until July 22, 1998, Mullins collected money from investors, traveled to New York and Florida to purchase cocaine, and returned to the Eastern District of Tennessee to distribute it. One investor, Stokes Cook, purchased cocaine from Mullins during this period and then, with the assistance of his wife, Carol Cook, and his daughter, Dawn Cook, sold it to interested buyers. Mullins and Stokes Cook bought cocaine from each other on several occasions until their arrests in 1998. Also involved in this scheme were Terry Bridgeman and a number of other co-conspirators, many of whom were, like Stokes Cook, members of the Ghost Riders Motorcycle Club.

[334] On August 5, 1998, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee named Dawn Cook, Stokes Cook, Terry Bridge-man, and three other individuals in a thirteen-count indictment charging various violations of federal narcotics laws, including conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine hydrochloride, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and distribution of cocaine hydrochloride, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Dawn Cook entered a plea of guilty to Count One of the indictment (conspiracy to distribute cocaine) on February 22, 1999. Stokes Cook and Terry Bridgeman proceeded to trial on March 4, 1999. A jury convicted them on March 9,1999.

Stokes Cook, Dawn Cook, and Terry Bridgeman each filed objections to their respective presentenee investigation reports (“PSI”), which were resolved by the district court in an August 23, 1999, order. The district court sentenced Dawn Cook to eighty-seven months’ imprisonment, but, on the motion of the Government, subsequently reduced her term of imprisonment to forty-four months. The district court sentenced Stokes Cook to 324 months’ imprisonment and Terry Bridgeman to twenty-seven months’ imprisonment. Their timely appeals followed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

1. Standard of Review

We review a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to determine “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.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). A defendant making such a claim bears “a very heavy burden,” United States v. Vannerson, 786 F.2d 221, 225 (6th Cir.1986), as “all evidence must be construed in a manner most favorable to the government,” United States v. Green, 548 F.2d 1261, 1266 (6th Cir.1977). This is particularly so since “once a conspiracy has been proven, only slight evidence is necessary to implicate a defendant as a participant in that conspiracy if the evidence shows the connection beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Braggs, 23 F.3d 1047, 1051 (6th Cir.1994).

2. Analysis

Stokes Cook challenges the sufficiency of the evidence underlying his convictions. He argues that because the Government established at trial only that he shares a familial relationship with his daughter Dawn Cook and that he had a buyer-seller relationship with Mullins, the jury’s guilty verdict as to the conspiracy count cannot stand. He further argues that the jury’s guilty verdict as to the aiding-and-abetting count also lacks sufficient support, because the Government failed to show both that Stokes Cook knew that the other co-conspirators possessed cocaine with the intent to distribute it and that any drug sales by Stokes Cook to Mullins, Mosier, or Dawn Cook — all of whom are known drug users — -were not intended for their personal use. Neither argument has merit.

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United States v. Cook, 13 F. App'x 331 (6th Cir. 2001).

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