Roosevelt Miller and Katherine Mae Joseph AKA Katherine Jones Joseph v. United States

Roosevelt Miller and Katherine Mae Joseph were charged in a single count indictment with wilfully and knowingly conspiring with Mario Cardenas-Vega and others to import, receive, conceal, or to facilitate the transportation of or the concealment of, heroin in violation of the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act, 35 Stat. 614 (1909), as amended, 21 U.S.C. §§ 173-74 (1964). At the close of the Government’s case in chief, and again at the close of all the evidence, defendants moved for a judgment of acquittal, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to show that either engaged in the alleged conspiracy. The trial court denied both motions and the jury found both defendants guilty. This joint appeal followed.

As their sole specification of error, defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to show an unlawful conspiracy. In considering this argument we must view the evidence, and all reasonable inferences which may be drawn from it, in the light most favorable to sustain the Government. Moody v. United States, 9 Cir., 376 F.2d 525, 527 . Once the facts are ascertained, the test is whether “reasonable minds could find that the evidence excludes every hypothesis but that…