United States v. Gie Preston

659 F. App'x 169
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedAugust 10, 2016
Docket15-30351
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 659 F. App'x 169 (United States v. Gie Preston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Gie Preston, 659 F. App'x 169 (5th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

JERRY SMITH," Circuit Judge: *

The three defendants were convicted for participation in a drug-distribution conspiracy. Gie Preston appeals the denial of a motion to suppress and the sufficiency of the evidence. Sonny Men (“Sonny”) appeals only the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base (“crack”). Burnell Men (“Burnell”) contests the district court’s conflict-of-interest analysis as to his trial counsel. We find reversible error solely as to Preston’s conviction of conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offense. We reverse that *172 conviction and otherwise affirm as to all defendants.

I.

The defendants are members of the same extended family who engaged in a years-long crack-distribution conspiracy from their grandmother’s house in New Orleans. They would lounge on the porch and take turns walking, often with firearms, along the sidewalk to engage in hand-to-hand transactions with customers. Each stored his cash and crack, which they otherwise did not share, in separate but proximate places in the backyard. They sometimes pooled their money to purchase more crack to sell or cocaine powder that they would cook for sale as crack.

The defendants were indicted, along with others, 1 on various charges related to the conspiracy. They proceeded to a joint trial at which the government offered testimony of sixteen witnesses and physical evidence of the conspiracy. Each defendant moved unsuccessfully for acquittal after the prosecution’s case but offered no witnesses. The jury found each guilty of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 280 grams or more of crack in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A) and 846 (Count One). 2

II.

A.

Preston and Sonny take issue with the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their conspiracy convictions. “[W]e review de.novo the district court’s denial of [their Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure] 29 motion for a judgment of acquittal.” United States v. Mitchell, 484 F.3d 762, 768 (5th Cir. 2007). “[W]e view the evidence and the inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the verdict, and we determine whether a rational jury could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. We accord equal weight to direct and circumstantial evidence, and “the evidence need not exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.” United States v. Gonzales, 79 F.3d 413, 423 (5th Cir. 1996).

To prove a conspiracy, the government must show “(1) an agreement existed between two or more persons to violate federal narcotics law, (2) the defendant knew of the existence of the agreement, and (3) the defendant voluntarily participated in the conspiracy.” United States v. Ochoa, 667 F.3d 643, 648 (5th Cir. 2012). “No evidence of overt conduct is required. A conspiracy agreement may be tacit, and the trier of fact may infer agreement from circumstantial evidence.” United States v. Thomas, 12 F.3d 1350, 1356 (5th Cir. 1994) (quotations omitted). “An agreement may be inferred from concert of action, voluntary participation may be inferred from a collection of circumstances, and knowledge may be inferred from surrounding circumstances.” United States v. Grant, 683 F.3d 639, 643 (6th Cir. 2012).

*173 Preston and Sonny maintain the evidence showed only “conscious parallelism” between an “uncoordinated group of loosely connected people” who sold drugs in an area where such transactions are common. Although, as they suggest, “mere presence or association alone are not sufficient to support a conspiracy conviction,” 3 there is evidence from which a rational jury could infer more than mere presence.

Police Officer Brian Pollard testified that, while he was assigned as a liaison officer to a housing development across the street from the grandmother’s house, he witnessed Preston and Sonny engaging in “hand-to-hand transactions ... five to seven days a week from sunup to sundown.” The defendants sold drugs while “physically close together” and “would sit on the porch together, talk together, ride in vehicles together, [and] walk together.” Eugene Allen (a cousin and indicted co-conspirator) testified that he, Preston, and Sonny sold crack from the house. Isaac Thompson (a purchaser), Emanuel Casame (an indicted co-conspirator), and Mark Rayfield (an indicted co-conspirator) testified that they saw all three defendants selling crack there. Nukema Frith (a purchaser) and Brandy Dwyer (a purchaser) testified that they bought crack from Sonny and Preston at the house.

Although the defendants did not explicitly agree to sell together and did not share profits, and one co-conspirator testified he was “hustling for [himjself,” the jury was entitled to weigh the remaining evidence. For example, Rayfield and Casame testified that Sonny and Preston stored their cash and drugs in the grandmother’s backyard. Casame also said that “every time [the defendants] g[o]t ready to re-up” between 2007 and 2011 they would pool their money. Moreover, Dwyer testified that the defendants sold crack at the same time in front of the house, and Frith stated that they never competed for a sale. Finally, Casame and Rayfield testified that Bur-nell, Sonny, and Preston would sell or give crack to each other. Based on the foregoing, non-exhaustive evidence—including the “significant factor” of their mutual presence and the “context of the circumstances under which it occur[ed]” 4 —a rational jury could have found all three guilty of conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt. 5

*174 Defendants contend as well that the evidence was insufficient to prove the conspiracy involved more than 280 grams of crack. That claim is meritless. Isaac Thompson testified that he sold them “a half ounce” 6 of powder cocaine “every other week” for a year. 7 A rational jury could infer from that testimony alone—the credibility and weight of which is for the jury, Grant, 683 F.3d at 642—that the conspiracy involved more than 280 grams, 8 Additionally, even if it is true that the defendants sold only 0.1 grams of crack per transaction, Officer Pollard, Eugene Allen, and Emanuel Casame testified that the defendants “constant[ly]” sold crack “from sunup to sundown” “every day probably'’ or “seven days a week” for years. A rational jury could infer that the conspiracy involved sales of more than 280 grams.

B.

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Bluebook (online)
659 F. App'x 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gie-preston-ca5-2016.