United States v. Reyes-Rosario

Court of Appeals for the First Circuit·Decided July 2, 2025·No. 23-1277·Published

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

No. 23-1277 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,

v.

CARLOS J. REYES-ROSARIO,

Defendant, Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

[Hon. Daniel R. Domínguez, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Barron, Chief Judge,

Thompson and Gelpí, Circuit Judges.

Edgar L. Sánchez-Mercado, for appellant.

Julia M. Meconiates, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney, and Mariana E. Bauzá-Almonte, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, were on brief, for appellee.

June 5, 2025

BARRON, Chief Judge. Carlos Reyes-Rosario ("Reyes") was convicted of five federal offenses in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico in connection with his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy. He then received concurrent sentences for those convictions. On appeal, he contends that one of those convictions must be reversed, or at least vacated. He also challenges his sentences for all but one of those convictions. We affirm.

I.

In December 2017, Reyes and 43 co-conspirators were named in a six-count indictment handed up by a District of Puerto Rico grand jury. The indictment charged Reyes with (1) conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, including cocaine, cocaine base, heroin, and marijuana, among other controlled substances, within 1,000 feet of a protected location, under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, and 860 (Count One); (2) possession with intent to distribute heroin within 1,000 feet of a protected location, under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 860, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count Two); (3) possession with intent to distribute cocaine base within 1,000 feet of a protected location, under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 860, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count Three); (4) possession with intent to distribute cocaine within 1,000 feet of a protected location, under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 860, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count Four); (5) possession with intent to distribute

marijuana within 1,000 feet of a protected location, under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 860, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 (Count Five); (6) and possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A) (Count Six).

Reyes proceeded to trial on all the counts. After several weeks of trial in August and September 2022, the jury returned a guilty verdict on Counts One, Two, Three, Four, and Five -- the controlled substance offenses. It found Reyes not guilty, however, as to Count Six -- the firearms offense.

In October of that year, Reyes filed a motion for judgment of acquittal under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 as to his five controlled substance offense counts. Specifically, as to Count One, Reyes argued that the government presented no evidence of Reyes's words or actions that could establish that he willfully joined the conspiracy charged in that count. As to Count Two, Reyes argued that he was convicted of aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute heroin within 1,000 feet of a protected location, but that the government failed to show he had the requisite intent or knowledge to be convicted as an accomplice. Further, he argued that the government had not shown that any events relevant to that count of conviction occurred within 1,000 feet of a protected location, as required by the statute of conviction. Finally, as to Counts Three, Four, and Five, Reyes argued that the government failed to prove that anyone

committed the principal offenses and further failed to prove that Reyes had participated as an accomplice or that the offenses took place within 1,000 feet of a protected location.

The District Court denied Reyes's motion for judgment of acquittal in full in December 2022. The District Court then held a sentencing hearing in March 2023, and sentenced Reyes to 168 months for his convictions on Counts One, Two, Three, and Four, and 120 months for his conviction on Count Five, with the sentences to be served concurrently.

Reyes timely appealed. He challenges the denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal only as to Count Two. He also contends that the District Court's asserted trial errors, if established, would warrant the vacatur of his conviction on that same count. In addition, he challenges the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his concurrent 168-month sentences for his convictions on Counts One, Two, Three, and Four.

II.

We begin with Reyes's contention that his conviction on Count Two must be reversed because the District Court erred in denying his Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal as to that count. Reyes contends, in essence, that the District Court erred in denying this motion because "[t]he evidence at trial did not show that [he], []either as a principal []or as an aider and abettor, possessed with intent to distribute heroin."

The District Court ruled, however, that the evidence was sufficient to convict Reyes of Count Two as not only an aider and abettor but also based on his liability for the actions of his co-conspirators under Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640 (1946). The District Court explained as follows:

In the alternative, the jury was instructed that if they found [Reyes] guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as to the conspiracy count (Count One), "then [they] may also, but [] are not required to, find him guilty of the substantive crime charged in Counts Two (2), Three (3), Four (4), Five (5), or Six (6) . . . ." However, in order to do so, the jury must have found all of the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt, even if he did not personally participate in the acts constituting the crime or did not have actual knowledge of them. Namely,

First, that someone committed the substantive crime charged in Count (1) one, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances as related to Carlos Reyes-Rosario;

Second, that the person you find actually committed the charged substantive crime was a member of the conspiracy of which you found that Carlos Reyes-Rosario was a member;

Third, that this co-conspirator committed the charged substantive crime in furtherance of the conspiracy;

Fourth, that the defendant was a member of this conspiracy at the time the charged substantive crime was committed and had not withdrawn from it; and

Fifth, that the defendant could reasonably have foreseen as a necessary or natural consequence of the unlawful agreement that one or more of his co-conspirators would commit the charged substantive crime.

Here, the jury heard testimony as to the operations of the drug points in broad daylight, and saw video evidence in support thereof. They were the triers of fact who evaluated the evidence and made determinations as to its weight and the credibility of the witnesses. As a matter of fact, the jury, exercising its duty, found [Reyes] not guilty as to Count Six of the Indictment. Therefore, the Court finds that a reasonable jury could have concluded that Reyes-Rosario and his coconspirators would sell the controlled substances charged in Counts Two through Five in furtherance of the drug trafficking conspiracy while he was a member of the organization.

(Alterations in original) (internal citations omitted).

Reyes does not challenge this aspect of the District Court's decision in any respect. For example, he does not argue that the District Court inaccurately stated the law in so ruling, that it was inappropriate for the District Court to rely on Pinkerton liability in this manner, or that his conviction on the conspiracy count charged in Count One was also based on insufficient evidence. Nor does he argue that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to find that he was criminally liable for his co-conspirators' possession of heroin with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a protected location. See United States v. Salvador-Gutierrez, 128 F.4th 299, 309 (1st Cir.

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