Rodriguez v. United States, 23521.
| Decision Date | 09 March 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 23521.,23521. |
| Parties | Manuel Luis RODRIGUEZ, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Michael A. Lipsky, Miami, Fla., for appellant.
Edward A. Kaufman, North Miami, Fla., William A. Meadows, Jr., U. S. Atty., Miami, Fla., for appellee.
Before MARIS,* BROWN and THORNBERRY, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a conviction by jury verdict of conspiring to sell narcotic drugs in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a). Appellant Rodriguez challenges the conviction on two separate grounds: (1) That the trial court erred in refusing to grant his motion for judgment of acquittal because of insufficient evidence connecting him with the alleged conspiracy; and (2) that the trial court erred in refusing to grant a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence. Convinced, after scrutiny of the record, that neither of these contentions has merit, we affirm.
Extended enumeration and discussion of the various activities of appellant upon which the Government relied to establish his connection with the alleged conspiracy would add little to current judicial guidelines in this area. It is sufficient to say that although appellant appears to have exercised an atypical degree of circumspection and restraint in his overt dealings in furtherance of the conspiracy, the evidence before us demonstrates more than "mere association" on his part with the remaining participants in the conspiracy. Associations formed among those accomplished in criminal endeavor are seldom manifested by clear and direct evidence and, in the majority of instances, proof of the existence of such conspiracies must rest upon inferences drawn from relevant and competent circumstantial evidence. Daily v. United States, 9th Cir. 1960, 282 F.2d 818, 820. The mere fact, therefore, that appellant himself may have never directly handled the drugs in question is not necessarily controlling. See United States v. Wright, 7th Cir. 1962, 309 F.2d 735; United States v. Rossi, 2d Cir. 1955, 219 F.2d 612. Entirely disregarding those declarations of appellant's alleged co-conspirators made outside his presence which may have tended to link him with the alleged conspiracy, see Tripp v. United States, 10th Cir. 1961, 295 F.2d 418, 422, we are of the firm opinion that there remained ample independent evidence whereby the trier of fact could reasonably exclude every reasonable hypothesis other than appellant's active, knowledgeable participation in the proscribed activities. See Delli Paoli v. United States, 1957, 352 U.S. 232, 236 n. 4, 77 S.Ct....
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