Controlled Substances; Sufficiency of the evidence

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Controlled Substances; Sufficiency of the evidence

Where the defendant was arrested as a passenger in a tractor-trailer truck filled with controlled substances en route from Phoenix to Illinois, the evidence was sufficient to convict him of possession with intent to distribute.

“It is hard to imagine that any jury would have bought Heron’s unwitting-passenger defense, given the evidence presented at trial: Heron was arrested in the cab of a tractor-trailer whose sleeper berth was packed to the gills with marijuana and cocaine. The quantity of drugs made it impossible to crawl into the sleeper berth.

Multiple witnesses testified that it was against trucking industry rules to put cargo in the sleeper berth and also that industry rules required that drivers traveling straight through with a co-driver use the sleeper berth for resting. Heron was indisputably an experienced truck driver, and it can be assumed that he was aware of these rules and would have understood the irregularity of traveling with a sleeper berth packed with cargo. Heron also was observed interacting with T-Mex and Wyatt, the seller and the broker in the drug transaction. The jury had ample basis for concluding that Heron played more than a passive role in transporting the drugs found in the truck and was not an innocent passenger who simply happened to be along for the ride.”

Affirmed.

11-3471 U.S. v. Heron

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Stiehl, J., Wood, J.

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