U.S. v. Byfield

• Decision Date: 30 May 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-3082,90-3082
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Wayne BYFIELD, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 1163

928 F.2d 1163

289 U.S.App.D.C. 71

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Wayne BYFIELD, Appellee.

No. 90-3082.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Feb. 25, 1991.

Decided March 29, 1991.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc

Denied May 30, 1991.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Criminal No. 89-322).

Stevan E. Bunnell, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty., John R. Fisher and Roy W. McLeese, III, Washington, D.C., Asst. U.S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellant.

Jensen E. Barber, Washington, D.C., for appellee.

Before MIKVA, Chief Judge, D. H. GINSBURG and SENTELLE, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Chief Judge MIKVA.

MIKVA, Chief Judge:

After a jury found Wayne Byfield guilty on one count of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, the district court granted his motion for judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict. See Memorandum Opinion (D.D.C. Feb. 16, 1990) (hereinafter "Mem. Op."). The trial judge concluded that there was insufficient evidence, as a matter of law, to prove that the defendant had constructively possessed the cocaine found in a tote bag carried by a young girl apparently travelling with him. Because the district court applied the incorrect standard for judging a motion for acquittal brought after the verdict, and therefore failed to consider all of the evidence supporting a jury verdict based on constructive possession, we reverse.

I. BACKGROUND

On August 18, 1989, Wayne Byfield and a young girl took Amtrak's "Night Owl" train from New York to Washington, D.C. Thomas Maher, an Amtrak detective, testified that Byfield and the young girl sat together and talked quietly during the trip. Maher followed them off the train and into Union Station. He testified that they looked "very nervous." Byfield had no luggage, but the young girl carried a tote bag. They stood next to each other and talked as they rode an escalator from the train platform. Byfield then moved ahead of the girl in the station, but she approached him again and had a brief conversation while they walked "very swiftly." Byfield went ahead, looking back at the girl and pushing downward with both hands, evidently motioning her to stay back away from him. Maher observed Byfield repeat these furtive hand gestures at least two more times.

Detective Maher alerted two Metropolitan Police Department ("MPD") detectives on duty at Union Station. Maher and Detective Zattau approached the girl, who was approximately 20-30 feet behind Byfield at this time. Zattau described her as "very hesitant and very nervous" when they talked with her, and testified that "[s]he would look in front of her and ... up ahead of her towards Mr. Byfield." When asked if she had a ticket, the girl apparently pointed to Byfield. During a consensual search of her tote bag, the detectives found a shoe box for Etonics Transam trainers (size 8- 1/2 men's, white and light grey) containing an old pair of New Balance shoes and six plastic bags holding over 600 grams of crack cocaine. The tote bag also contained men's clothing (all size extra-large), but no women's clothing.

William Buss, the other MPD detective, approached Byfield outside the station near the taxicab waiting area. When questioned, Byfield said that he lived in New York and was planning to stay in Washington, D.C. for a couple of days. Byfield added that he had travelled alone and carried no luggage because he had clothing at the place he was going to visit. Byfield consented to a pat-down search and left after Buss found nothing on him. About 15 minutes later, Detective Maher saw Byfield sitting on a wall across the street and proceeded to arrest him. Byfield was wearing a "muscle shirt" (like those found in the tote bag), shorts, and new Etonic running shoes matching the model, size and color of those identified on the shoe box found in the tote bag. (Byfield insists that the government never tried to definitively link the shoes he was wearing with the shoe box in the tote bag.)

Wayne Byfield was charged, inter alia, with one count of possession with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1) & (b)(1)(A)(iii). At a jury trial commencing on December 6, 1989, the government presented testimony from the detectives involved in the case, along with expert testimony to the effect that it is "a very common practice" for adults to use young people as drug couriers because of the lesser penalties faced by juveniles. At the conclusion of the government's case, Byfield moved for a judgment of acquittal. The district court denied this motion.

The defense then presented several witnesses in an attempt to support its theory that appellee knew nothing about the drugs in the tote bag. Shawn Chambers testified that Byfield had spent part of the previous day in New York City with a friend known only as "Larry," at the home of Rhonda Williams. Ms. Williams had a couple of girls with her, one of whom (called "Shirley") was identified as the girl who accompanied Byfield on the train. Chambers testified that he saw Larry talk to Shirley and that he saw saw Byfield talk with Rhonda Williams (though not with Shirley). Byfield's brother testified that he saw Larry inside the family's home late that night, "looking for something" in Byfield's closet a few hours before the train left. Byfield's brother and girlfriend both testified that they did not recognize the men's clothing found in the tote bag. After the defense rested, the district court again rejected Byfield's motion for acquittal, and the jury thereupon found Byfield guilty. However, the district court then issued an order and opinion granting Byfield's motion for acquittal notwithstanding the verdict.

In granting Byfield's motion, the district court expressly stated that it would look only to "the evidence presented as part of the government's case-in-chief." Mem. Op. at 16 (citing United States v. Pardo, 636 F.2d 535, 547 (D.C.Cir.1980)). Noting that proof of constructive possession requires some action or conduct that "links the individual to the narcotics and indicates that he had a stake in them, some power over them," Mem. Op. at 17, the court ruled that "none of the officers testified as to any gesture, action, or word demonstrating that Byfield owned, possessed, or had an ability to control the tote bag or its contents." Id. at 21. The court dismissed the fact that the Etonics shoes worn by Byfield at the time of arrest matched the shoe box in which the narcotics were found ("at best" this created "a possible connection" between Byfield and the girl, according to the trial judge), and also noted that Byfield was "fully cooperative" with the police and "did not act in any manner consistent with knowledge of guilt." Id. at 22.

II. ANALYSIS

A judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict is appropriate "only when there is no evidence upon which a reasonable mind might find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Hernandez, 780 F.2d 113, 120 (D.C.Cir.1986). The evidence must be viewed "in the light most favorable to the Government." United States v. Singleton, 702 F.2d 1159, 1163 (D.C.Cir.1983). Although a motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of the government's case-in-chief is decided on the basis of only that evidence so far introduced at trial, see Pardo, 636 F.2d at 547, this court recently revised the law of the circuit to hold that a court must look at the entire record when ruling on the same motion made after trial. See United States v. Foster, 783 F.2d 1082, 1085 (D.C.Cir.1986) (en banc) ("[A]ppellate review of denial of the later motion would take into account all evidence introduced to that point."). In Foster we overruled Austin v. United States, 382 F.2d 129, 138 & n. 20 (D.C.Cir.1967), bringing this court into accord with all the other circuit courts. On review, "we do not defer to the district court, because we must make...