United States v. Quinones-Alvarado, 71-3391.

• Decision Date: 25 September 1972
• Docket Number: No. 71-3391.,71-3391.
• Citation: 464 F.2d 12
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lorenzo QUINONES-ALVARADO and Roberto I. Ferrer-Vega, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

464 F.2d 12 (1972)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lorenzo QUINONES-ALVARADO and Roberto I. Ferrer-Vega, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 71-3391.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

July 20, 1972.

Rehearing Denied September 25, 1972.

Louis C. LaCour, New Orleans, La. (court-appointed), for Alvarado.

John E. Unsworth, Jr., New Orleans, La. (court-appointed), for Vega.

Gerald J. Gallinghouse, U. S. Atty., Patrick C. McGinity, Mary Williams Cazalas, Asst. U. S. Attys., New Orleans, La. for plaintiff-appellee.

Before TUTTLE, MORGAN and RONEY, Circuit Judges.

RONEY, Circuit Judge:

Appellants were indicted in Count I for illegally importing approximately 88.7 pounds of hashish into the United States, and in Count II for receiving, concealing, and facilitating the transportation of hashish. 21 U.S.C. § 176a and 18 U.S.C. § 2. The jury found Quinones-Alvarado (Alvarado) guilty of both counts. Ferrer-Vega (Ferrer) was convicted under Count II. We affirm.

Both appellants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence. Although circumstantial, we find the evidence sufficient to support the jury verdicts.

Viewed in a light most favorable to the government, Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942), we find that the circumstantial evidence was such that the jury could find that every reasonable hypothesis except that of guilt was excluded beyond a reasonable doubt. Surrett v. United States, 421 F.2d 403 (5th Cir. 1970). The test is not whether in our opinion the evidence excludes every reasonable hypothesis of innocence, but rather whether the jury might so conclude from the inferences which it was entitled to draw from the evidence. United States v. Sidan-Azzam, 457 F.2d 1309 (5th Cir. 1972) and cases cited therein.

The evidence showed the following: Manuel Santos, the key government witness but not a defendant, and Alvarado were shipmates on the SS STONEWALL JACKSON which docked at New Orleans on July 30, 1970, after a voyage to the Middle East which included stops at Bombay and Karachi. On the night of July 30th Santos went to a bar in New Orleans where he met Alvarado. They were joined later by Ferrer. Sometime between 5:00 and 6:00 A.M. on July 31st, after Santos had returned to the vessel to complete some work, he observed Alvarado and Ferrer leaving the SS STONEWALL JACKSON with two black leather suitcases which they placed in the open trunk of an automobile parked by the gangway. He observed them drive off in the automobile. Later that day Santos again met both appellants at the same bar. Alvarado asked Santos to take a suitcase to New York and after some hesitation, Santos agreed.

The next day, Alvarado met Santos as he departed the ship. Upon lifting one of the suitcases that Alvarado had brought for him to take to New York, Santos said it was too heavy and refused to take it. Alvarado became agitated and asked Santos for his New York address which Santos gave as the Greystone Hotel, 221 West 91st Street, New York, New York. Santos then took a plane to New York without the suitcases.

Two days later Alvarado and Ferrer took a footlocker to the Greyhound Bus Station in New Orleans for shipment to New York. Upon weighing the footlocker, the agent said that it weighed 135 pounds and was too heavy for shipment, 100 pounds being the maximum allowed. Alvarado and Ferrer then left but returned shortly thereafter with the same footlocker and a suitcase. Ferrer identified himself to the agent as Manuel Santos and filled out tags for the footlocker and suitcase as being sent to M. Santos in New York from Manuel Santos in New Orleans.

On August 4, 1970, the next day, an agent of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in New York was notified by his regional office that baggage believed to contain a large quantity of hashish was being shipped from New Orleans to New York via a Greyhound bus. The footlocker and suitcase were placed under surveillance at the Greyhound terminal in New York after their arrival on August 5th. On August 7th the agent received information that someone had attempted to claim the baggage but had left without waiting for it. The agent did not see the individual because the claims office and the baggage were on different levels of the terminal building.

On or about August 7th Alvarado, who was then in New York, telephoned Santos at the Greystone Hotel and stated that he had sent his baggage to New York by Greyhound but that the station refused to permit him to pick it up because he did not have the notice sent by the company. Alvarado asked Santos to check his mail at the hotel for the notice. When the hotel manager gave Santos the notice from Greyhound, Alvarado asked Santos to meet him at the terminal with the notice so that the baggage could be obtained.

Santos went to the station with Paulino Flores...