U.S. v. Scott, 81-2397

• Decision Date: 18 June 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-2397,81-2397
• Citation: 678 F.2d 606
• Parties: 10 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1155 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Peter James SCOTT, Don Richard Rainey, Steven Clyde Watson, Daniel Edwin White, Gary Lee Anderson, Charles Joseph Howard, Julio Rodrigues, Pedro Aparicio, Luis Garcia, Charles Thomas Pollard, Fermin Gomea Polo and Lawrence W. Griffith, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 606

678 F.2d 606

10 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1155

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Peter James SCOTT, Don Richard Rainey, Steven Clyde Watson, Daniel Edwin White, Gary Lee Anderson, Charles Joseph

Howard, Julio Rodrigues, Pedro Aparicio, Luis Garcia,

Charles Thomas Pollard, Fermin Gomea Polo and Lawrence W.

Griffith, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 81-2397.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 18, 1982.

Mark Vela, Michael A. Maness, Houston, Tex., for defendants-appellants.

Daniel K. Hedges, U.S. Atty., George O. Jacobs, Asst. U.S. Atty., Houston, Tex., Mervyn Hamburg, Atty., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before THORNBERRY, GEE and GARWOOD, Circuit Judges.

GEE, Circuit Judge:

Twelve appellants seek reversal of their convictions of conspiracy to import and to possess, with intent to distribute, over fifteen tons of marihuana. Their primary complaint is of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the convictions. Concluding that it is sufficient to support five of the convictions only and that the other points raised by these five do not warrant reversal, we affirm as to them and reverse as to the others.

Facts

On March 31, 1981, Appellant Pollard inquired locally regarding pleasure boats available for purchase in the area of Freeport, Texas, inspecting two of them the same day. He indicated an interest in a fishing charter-boat venture, in personal use, and in a possible tax write-off. The following day, after a fifteen-minute tour of the vessel, he agreed to purchase the 41-foot Hattaras class TYRANT III for a total of $78,500.00, payable the following day by cashier's check. On this occasion, he was accompanied by appellant Scott. The next day, an hour late for the closing, he called the seller, advising that he was running late and inquiring if cash would be acceptable. Told that it was, he and another individual arrived and paid in full. The seller offered to accompany Pollard to the Coast Guard station to register the title transfer and to give Pollard a receipt for his cash. Pollard refused both, saying that he trusted the seller by reputation and that he wished to find a place to moor the boat. They agreed to meet the next morning for the seller to remove his personal property from the boat, Pollard taking the ignition keys and unexecuted title papers.

That morning, April 3, found the TYRANT III gone, however, not to return that day or the next. On the evening of April 5, the seller called Pollard's home, reaching his wife, who told him that Pollard had left three days before to fish. In response to the seller's complaints about his missing personal property and expressed intent to contact the Coast Guard, Mrs. Pollard requested that he not do so-an action that seemed strange to the seller in view of Pollard's long absence in rough weather. She promised on Pollard's behalf that the property would be returned by noon the next day. By the afternoon of that day, however, TYRANT III was in the hands of the Coast Guard, as we shall see.

In the meantime, Pollard had purchased yet another small pleasure vessel, the 45-foot DORADO, after a brief inspection. Payment of $107,000.00 cash was made on April 2. Pollard, accompanied again by appellant Scott, accepted a receipt for the sum but postponed transferring title. Next evening, Scott and appellant White departed in it, returning in the early hours of April 5, a Sunday. At that time, they were seen in the company of appellant Griffith. Early that Sunday afternoon, DORADO left the slip, never to return.

Earlier that Sunday morning, the Galveston Coast Guard station had begun to pick up unusual signals on a frequency which it was monitoring, 14.3670 megahertz. These were between two stations described only as "105" and "115," 105 being apparently shore-based and 115 being a vessel trying, with some difficulty, to rendezvous with two others in the Gulf of Mexico. At one point on the morning of Monday, April 6, 105 inquired of 115 whether it had on its radar screen an offshore oil field known as the Buccaneer Rigs. 115 responded affirmatively and stated: "I am at 5622 and 1081.5. You know what I mean." From this communication the Coast Guard operator assumed these numbers referred to partial Loran-C navigational positions; and they plotted 115's gulf location at about 8-10 miles south-southeast of the Buccaneer offshore oil field, beyond Galveston. A Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to the area. Later that morning the Coast Guard also intercepted radio communications on VHF channel 9 apparently between two surface vessels identified only as "Deadend" and "Willie Willie." The name Willie had been mentioned several times during the course of communications between 105 and 115.

The Coast Guard helicopter arrived in the vicinity at about 2:16 p. m. Initially, the helicopter crew observed a workboat tied up to the southernmost production platform in the Buccaneer field. Later the crew observed what was subsequently identified as the vessel LITTLE AL, a somewhat battered shrimper, approximately five miles south-southeast of the Buccaneer rigs and the TYRANT III and DORADO some ten miles further east. As the helicopter overflew LITTLE AL at approximately 2:25 p. m., shore-based Coast Guard radio operators overheard the following communication from "115": "Red stripe is here. The same dude." (Obviously a reference to the red stripe marking borne by all Coast Guard surface vessels and aircraft.) Moments later Coast Guard officers overheard "Deadend" inform "Willie Willie" that "Red stripe is here." A short time thereafter, 105 instructed 115 to "go take a ride" with Willie Willie and "take all the papers off."

The Coast Guard helicopter remained in the vicinity to observe the movements of the three vessels. TYRANT III proceeded directly to LITTLE AL and came alongside the larger vessel at approximately 3:09 p. m., remaining alongside for about five minutes. It then departed to the southwest. The Coast Guard helicopter departed the vicinity for refueling shortly thereafter.

In the meantime, the Coast Guard diverted another aircraft, a C-131 stationed at Corpus Christi, to the area. The C-131 was on the scene when the helicopter returned from refueling. The C-131 observed the movements of LITTLE AL, TYRANT III, and DORADO from approximately 3500 feet altitude. Shortly after 4 p. m., the C-131 observed TYRANT III and DORADO come stern to stern. While they were so rendezvoused, crewmembers on the C-131 observed an object being thrown overboard between the two vessels. After jettisoning the object, the two vessels proceeded away from each other; then after some erratic course maneuvers they again met briefly for a second time. The Coast Guard helicopter subsequently retrieved the object, a roll of heavy plastic sheeting.

While Coast Guard aircraft continued to observe the movements of the vessels, a 41-foot Coast Guard surface vessel arrived, and officers boarded LITTLE AL, which was found to be unmanned but laden with 30,000 pounds of marihuana. They also discovered maps charting a nautical course from the Colombian coast to the vessel's location. Thereupon, the 41-foot Coast Guard vessel moved to intercept TYRANT III and to board her as well. The helicopter intercepted DORADO, which was at that time some four to five miles distant from TYRANT III and instructed it to return to the location of the Coast Guard vessel and TYRANT III to prepare for boarding by the Coast Guard. Officers of the Coast Guard then boarded both vessels. No violations of Coast Guard safety regulations or illegal contraband were found on either, although officers noted that the cabin areas of both vessels had been "stripped," i.e., that there was very little furniture in the cabin areas. Officers also observed sophisticated radio equipment on board.

The captain of the 41-foot Coast Guard vessel did not elect to seize the two sport fishing vessels and their crew at that time, however. Instead, he was returning to LITTLE AL to retrieve a crewmember left to stand watch when orders were received from the Coast Guard station in Galveston to take TYRANT III, DORADO, and their passengers into custody and escort the vessels back to Galveston.

Sufficiency of the Evidence: Law

Appellants attack the record evidence as insufficient to support these convictions, laying stress on its character as chiefly circumstantial, as indeed it is. Its character as such was once of key significance in our circuit: at one time we tested such evidence by an objective rule, applied by our judges, that to support a conviction such evidence must of itself exclude every reasonable hypothesis other than that of guilt. See, e.g., Riggs v. United States, 280 F.2d 949, 955 (5th Cir. 1960). Such evidence was thus subjected to a severe test, one of an all but mathematical quality. This is, however, our law no longer. Over a decade ago, in United States v. Warner, 441 F.2d 821, 825 (5th Cir. 1971) (per Wisdom, J.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 829, 92 S.Ct. 65, 30 L.Ed.2d 58 (1971), we recognized the command of the Supreme Court ¹ that "circumstantial evidence is intrinsically no different from testimonial evidence ...." Thus the rule by which it is to be tested is the same as the rule obtaining as to evidence generally: whether a reasonably-minded jury could accept the record evidence as adequate and sufficient to support the conclusion of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Warner, supra. We therefore suggest to counsel that in future such differential attacks on evidence as circumstantial be abandoned. As our decision should serve to indicate, they proceed from no specially advantageous ground. Bearing these observations in mind, then, we turn to the quality and quantity of evidence supporting the convictions in hand.

Sufficiency of the Evidence: Facts

Appell...