Controlled Substances – conspiracy — sufficiency of the evidence

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Controlled Substances – conspiracy — sufficiency of the evidence

The evidence was sufficient to support a conviction of the defendants for conspiracy, and that they had more than a buyer-seller relationship with the co-conspirators.

“We disagree and find sufficient evidence on the record to establish that McDowell conspired with Harris, Cooper, and Presley to buy and sell heroin. Donia testified, in the excerpt of her grand jury statement admitted at trial, that McDowell, Harris, Cooper, and Presley all sold drugs together, that she heard McDowell discuss the conspiracy’s drug operations with them, and that she knew McDowell financed their drug buys twice a week. Add Breedlove’s testimony that the bags of heroin he received from Harris, Cooper, and Presley out of McDowell’s mother’s apartment were similar to the drug packages he had previously received from McDowell himself and that McDowell was able to take control whenever there was a problem with the drugs Breedlove bought from Longwood, and a reasonable jury could conclude that McDowell participated in the heroin distribution conspiracy with Harris, Cooper, and Presley.”

Affirmed.

12-3349 & 13-1524 U.S. v. Cooper

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Kapala, J., Williams, J.