U.S. v. Huezo

• Citation: 546 F.3d 174
• Decision Date: 14 October 2008
• Docket Number: Docket No. 07-0031-cr.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Juan Manuel HUEZO, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

546 F.3d 174

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Juan Manuel HUEZO, Defendant-Appellee.

Docket No. 07-0031-cr.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: May 13, 2008.

Decided: October 14, 2008.

Daniel L. Stein, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel (Jeffrey A. Brown, Diane Gujarati, Assistant United States Attorneys, of counsel, on the brief), for Michael J. Garcia, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, N.Y., for Appellant.

Julia L. Gatto, Sercarz & Riopelle, LLP, New York, N.Y., for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: NEWMAN, WALKER, and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.

Judge NEWMAN concurs in a separate opinion.

Judge SOTOMAYOR dissents in a separate opinion.

JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge:

Following a jury trial, defendant-appellant Juan Manuel Huezo was found guilty of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(1) and 2, and conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). The District Court for the Southern District of New York (Samuel Conti, Judge¹) granted Huezo's post-verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29(c)(2), concluding that the evidence was insufficient to support the knowledge and specific intent elements of both offenses.

On appeal, the government challenges the district court's ruling, arguing that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence for a rational juror to find that Huezo knowingly participated in a money laundering conspiracy and acted with the intent to commit the underlying substantive offense. Because we agree with the government, we reverse the judgment of acquittal and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

On June 14, 2005, Huezo was charged with conspiring to launder the proceeds of narcotics transactions and with committing, and aiding and abetting the commission of, the substantive offense of money laundering. At trial, which began on October 4, 2006, the government presented evidence of Huezo's participation in an international money laundering conspiracy whereby millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds were secretly remitted to drug suppliers in Colombia from 2002 to 2005.

On November 5, 2004, co-conspirators Jose Linares and Eric Echevarria drove a Jeep Cherokee registered to Huezo and bearing Connecticut license plates to a meeting in Manhattan with an undercover officer named Robert Del Rio. At the meeting, at which Huezo was not present, Linares and Echevarria discussed the plans for delivering $1 million in two $500,000 installments to Del Rio, who was posing as a money launderer.

On November 8, 2004, the date of the first delivery, Huezo drove Linares to meet Del Rio in Manhattan. When they arrived, Del Rio walked to the back of Huezo's Jeep and removed a black bag from the trunk, presumably opened by Huezo from the driver's seat. The bag contained $500,000, "bundled up in stacks," as is typical for money laundering transactions. After the delivery, surveillance officers followed the Jeep to a house in Stamford, Connecticut, where Huezo and Linares picked up Echevarria and headed downtown for some shopping and dining. The three men then returned to the Connecticut house, where surveillance was discontinued.

On November 10, 2004, at 8:00 AM, the officers resumed surveillance of the Connecticut house. At some point that day, DEA Agent Adamo observed Huezo leave the house holding a small black bag that was "like a camera bag," and place it behind the driver's seat of the Jeep. Huezo got into the Jeep and started the engine. With the engine running, Huezo left the Jeep and positioned himself so that he could see the front of the house. Echevarria then walked out of the house, walked to the Jeep, and placed a black suitcase in the back of the Jeep as Huezo got back behind the wheel. Adamo testified that: "Based on my experience, [Huezo] was basically helping to guard the movement of that bag from the residence to the Jeep." Shortly thereafter, Linares emerged from the house and got into the Jeep, and the three men drove off to make the second delivery.

En route, New York state police stopped the Jeep for speeding. Once the vehicle was pulled over, Senior Investigator Hector Fernandez discovered that although Huezo's paper registration indicated that the Jeep was registered in Huezo's name and to a Stamford address, that registration was not on file with the state's computer system. Investigator Fernandez testified that one possible explanation was that "[i]f it's a newly registered vehicle, it takes a while before the vehicle is into the system."

The officers decided to take the Jeep back to the state police barracks to verify its registration. At the barracks, an inventory search of the vehicle revealed that the suitcase in the trunk contained "[b]locks of money," totaling $500,000, and the small camera bag contained $6000, similarly packaged. Officers also found a hotel receipt in Huezo's name for a three-day stay in Connecticut from October 28 to October 30, 2004. The receipt listed a California address for Huezo. Linares and Echevarria had presented California driver's licenses at the time of the stop.

At the close of the government's case, and again at the close of all of the evidence, Huezo moved for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29. He argued, inter alia, that the government had not presented sufficient evidence to establish his knowledge of, or intent to further, the money laundering conspiracy. The district court reserved decision on the motion.

On October 11, 2006, the jury returned a guilty verdict on both counts, and Huezo renewed his motion for acquittal. On November 6, 2006, the district court granted Huezo's motion, finding that "no rational jury could have found on the basis of the evidence presented that the government proved beyond a reasonable doubt Defendant had the necessary knowledge and intent to be convicted of the crime of money laundering or the crime of conspiracy to commit money laundering, as charged." In particular, the district court found:

The evidence fails to prove: that the Defendant knew the object of the conspiracy was to launder the proceeds of some sort of criminal activity; that he joined the conspiracy with such knowledge and with the specific intent to further that objective; or that he took the actions he did with such knowledge and intent.

The district court first marshaled the evidence against Huezo: that Huezo's Jeep was used to drive to the November 5, 2004 meeting with Del Rio; that Huezo drove his vehicle and transported the money to the November 8 and November 10 drop-offs; that he personally handled the small black bag containing $6000; that he socialized with Linares and Echevarria following the November 8 drop-off; and that he was "watching and guarding" the movement of the larger suitcase from the house to the Jeep on November 10. The district court then noted the lack of direct evidence that Huezo knew the specific purpose of the trips, that he was privy to conversations regarding the details of the money laundering transactions, or that he ever saw the contents of the two suitcases, which would not have appeared to the casual observer to contain money to be laundered. Furthermore, the district court noted, the government had not connected the $6000 that Huezo placed behind the driver's seat to any money laundering transaction.

Thus, the district court reasoned, although the evidence was sufficient for a jury to find that Huezo was "probably guilty of some crime," it was insufficient for a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Huezo knowingly engaged in a money laundering conspiracy with the specific intent to commit money laundering or engaged in the substantive offense of money laundering.

The government now appeals the judgment of acquittal, and we reverse.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

We review de novo the district court's conclusion that the evidence was insufficient to support Huezo's conviction. United States v. Autuori, 212 F.3d 105, 114 (2d Cir.2000). "In so doing, we view the evidence presented in the light most favorable to the government, and we draw all reasonable inferences in its favor. Furthermore, we consider the evidence in its totality, not in isolation, and the government need not negate every theory of innocence." Id. (citation omitted). We must uphold the jury's verdict if "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) (emphasis in original).

II. Requirement of Knowledge and Specific Intent

A. Money Laundering

The substantive offense of "transaction money laundering" requires proof of both knowledge and specific intent. Section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i) of Title 18 imposes punishment on anyone who,

knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity[,] knowing that the transaction is designed in whole or in part to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity.

18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i). We have interpreted the latter element, "knowing that the transaction is designed in whole or in part to conceal or disguise," as requiring "proof of intent to conceal." See United States v. Stephenson, 183 F.3d 110, 121 (2d Cir.1999).

The Supreme Court's recent decision in Cuellar v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 1994, 170 L.Ed.2d 942 (2008), supports this interpretation. In Cuellar, the defendant was convicted under the "transportation money laundering" statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(B)(i), of attempting to transport the proceeds of...