U.S. v. Mejia, 89-2243

• Decision Date: 02 August 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-2243,89-2243
• Parties: 30 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1177 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rodrigo MEJIA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 242

909 F.2d 242

30 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1177

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rodrigo MEJIA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 89-2243.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 28, 1990.

Decided Aug. 2, 1990.

Thomas M. Durkin, James Conway, Joan G. Fickinger, Asst. U.S. Attys., Crim. Receiving, Appellate Div., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.

Loraine A. Ray, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellant.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, POSNER and MANION, Circuit Judges.

MANION, Circuit Judge.

Rodrigo Mejia appeals his convictions for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. We affirm.

I.

Elkin Escobar, a Colombian illegally in New York, began transporting cocaine in 1987. Mejia and Escobar were acquaintances having met in South America in 1984. In January 1988, while in Chicago delivering cocaine, Escobar met Mejia at Mejia's home in Park Ridge, Illinois. Escobar badly needed money, so he asked Mejia whether he could "move some things"--"some things" meaning cocaine. Mejia indicated he could. In October, Escobar again contacted Mejia. Mejia told Escobar that he needed six kilograms of cocaine. Escobar could not obtain the cocaine himself, so Mejia gave Escobar the beeper number of Amparo Evans, a woman in New York with access to cocaine.

Escobar subsequently contacted Evans. Sometime later (in late October or early November), Mejia flew to New York and met with Escobar at La Guardia Airport. Escobar told Mejia that he had spoken to Evans, and was willing to transport cocaine to Mejia in Park Ridge. On Mejia's instructions, Escobar again contacted Evans, and arranged with Evans to transport six kilograms of cocaine. On November 23, 1988, Evans gave Escobar a white Toyota van containing six kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment, and $1,000 in expense money. (Escobar, who charged $500 per kilogram for transporting the cocaine, was to be paid after he delivered it.) Along with his girlfriend, Lina Alvarez, Escobar set off in the van for Park Ridge.

Escobar and Alvarez arrived in Park Ridge on November 24. They drove to Mejia's house, but he was not there so they drove to a nearby motel. At the motel, Escobar phoned Mejia, and the two arranged to meet at Mejia's house, which they did the next day. Escobar told Mejia he had "brought six." Mejia replied, "Very well." Escobar did not actually give Mejia the cocaine at that time because he had to call Evans before handing the cocaine over. As it turned out, Escobar never completed the delivery. After spending the day with Mejia (and being observed, part of that time, by DEA agents who were watching Mejia's house as part of a cocaine trafficking investigation), Escobar and Alvarez drove back to their motel. At about 8:00 p.m., DEA agents approached Escobar and Alvarez in the motel parking lot. Escobar and Alvarez consented to a search of the van. The search uncovered the cocaine in a hidden compartment. Upon finding the cocaine, the agents arrested Escobar and Alvarez.

After securing a police wagon to take Escobar and Alvarez to the DEA office in Chicago, the agents went to Mejia's home. When Mejia came to his door, the agents arrested him. The agents also arrested Mejia's son, Jaime. Before leaving Mejia's home, the agents asked him if he had any valuables. Mejia replied that he had some money. The agents found $1,600, which they seized.

The agents took Mejia and his son to the DEA office in Chicago. At the DEA office, one of the agents asked Mejia if he knew Escobar and Alvarez. Mejia replied "No." The agent then pointed out Escobar and Alvarez, who were being held in the same building, to Mejia, and repeated his question. Mejia again replied, "No."

The following day, DEA agents searched Mejia's home and garage pursuant to a warrant. The search turned up no drugs or drug paraphernalia in Mejia's home. However, in the garage the agents searched a 1979 Oldsmobile Toronado that surveillance agents had seen Mejia driving five days before. In the Toronado, the agents found electronically-operated hidden compartments that could be used for transporting drugs. The compartments, however, were empty, containing neither drugs nor even drug residue.

Three days after Mejia was arrested, DEA agents retrieved from the DEA vault the $1,600 they had seized from Mejia. The agents placed the money in a drawer in one of the desks in the office, and then ordered Rex, a certified narcotics dog, to "fetch dope." Rex sniffed around the office, passing several desks. However, when he came to the desk that contained Mejia's money, Rex stopped and began to scratch at the drawer containing the money, a sign that Rex had detected at least the odor of narcotics. When the drawer was opened, Rex began to scratch at the money.

The government brought a two-count indictment against Mejia, charging him with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 846, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1). Escobar, who had pleaded guilty, was the government's star witness at trial. The jury also heard testimony from various DEA agents and other witnesses for the government. Jaime Mejia, Mejia's son, testified in his father's behalf, contradicting much, but not all of, Escobar's and the agents' testimony. After hearing all the evidence, the jury found Mejia guilty on both counts.

II.

On appeal, Mejia contends that the evidence was not sufficient to convict him because Escobar's testimony was inherently unreliable. This is so, says Mejia, because Escobar had ample motive to lie. Escobar pleaded guilty and agreed to testify in exchange for the government's agreement to recommend a lenient sentence. Also, Escobar did not implicate Mejia in the conspiracy until after several times stating that Mejia was not involved. Escobar pointed the finger at Mejia only after his attorney had told him that to get a favorable deal, he had to give the government the name of "somebody in Chicago." Because of the unreliability of Escobar's testimony, Mejia asserts that testimony could not support a verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Even assuming that Escobar's testimony was the only evidence that implicated Mejia (it was not, but we need not detail the other evidence that corroborated Escobar), Mejia's sufficiency argument is meritless. We have repeatedly rejected arguments like Mejia's. See, e.g., United States v. Sophie, 900 F.2d 1064, 1079 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Dunigan, 884 F.2d 1010, 1013 (7th Cir.1989); United States v. Muskovsky, 863 F.2d 1319, 1323-24 (7th Cir.1988). Credibility is for the jury, not this court, to determine. Escobar's testimony was not inherently unbelievable; it did not contradict the laws of nature or other indisputably true evidence. See Sophie, 900 F.2d at 1079. The jury was entitled to believe Escobar's testimony, and to base a guilty finding on it.

Besides challenging the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him, Mejia challenges several evidentiary rulings by the trial judge. Mejia first contends that the judge erroneously admitted testimony by a DEA agent that the Toronado found in Mejia's garage contained secret compartments. Mejia argues that the testimony about the secret compartments was irrelevant. Evidence is relevant if it tends "to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." Fed.R.Evid. 401. Testimony that Mejia possessed a car with secret compartments at the time Escobar arrived at his doorstep was undoubtedly relevant. Vehicles used to transport drugs commonly contain secret compartments in which to hide the drugs; evidence of the secret compartments tended to show the Toronado could be used as a "load car" for drug transactions. The fact that Mejia possessed a load car which could be used to transport any cocaine he received was relevant to show his intent to distribute cocaine. Cf. United States v. Savinovich, 845 F.2d 834, 836-37 (9th Cir.1988) (evidence of possession of scales and guns, common tools of the drug dealing trade, relevant to show intent to distribute). Moreover, the testimony that Mejia possessed a load car tended to show his participation in the conspiracy with Escobar. As the government noted during closing argument, common sense would lead one to wonder why Mejia would happen to have a load car in his garage at the same time a load of cocaine arrived in front of his house, unless he was going to receive and further transport that cocaine.

Mejia also argues that the trial judge should not have admitted the testimony about the secret compartments because the testimony's potential for unfair prejudice substantially outweighed its probative value. See Fed.R.Evid. 403. Testimony that Mejia possessed a load car was certainly prejudicial, but all relevant evidence prejudices the party against whom it is introduced. See Sophie, 900 F.2d at 1076; Cook v. Hoppin, 783 F.2d 684, 689 (7th Cir.1986). Most of the prejudice from the load car testimony comes from its probative value--its tendency to show that Mejia was going to receive cocaine and intended to distribute it. Mejia argues that the testimony about the Toronado also insinuated that Mejia had been involved in past drug transactions, and that the jury might improperly hold that against him. However, the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in concluding that any possibility of unfair prejudice was slight, and that the testimony's probative value outweighed this slight possibility.

Mejia next contends that the district court erred in allowing testimony about the details of a trip he took in the Toronado shortly before his arrest. A DEA officer testified that he had observed Mejia drive the Toronado to the south side of Chicago five days before Mejia's arrest. The agent also testified in detail about the stops Mejia made on the trip and about...