United States v. Pablo Mayans

On January 14, 1992, Los Angeles police officers arrested ten persons subsequently charged in an eight-count drug trafficking indictment. The five cocaine buyers and the sellers’ “mule,” Andres Ortiz, were all arrested in the act of consummating a drug deal; three others belonging to the cocaine selling group were arrested at or in the course of leaving an apartment, located on Otis Avenue, which Ortiz had visited just before the deal. Appellant Pablo Mayans was arrested as he drove up and down the street in front of the Otis apartment several hours after the first group of defendants had been arrested. Mayans’ family owned the apartment.

Most of the defendants pled guilty; Mayans, along with two others, went to trial. The government’s case against Mayans was largely circumstantial. The government showed that both the Otis apartment and another residence owned by Mayans’ family had been used as stash houses by the cocaine sellers; that on January 9 and January 14, 1992, Mayans was observed in heated conversation with Ortiz at Benji’s Auto Sales, where Ortiz appeared to work; that on the afternoon of January 14, Mayans went to the Otis apartment while Ortiz was there; and that…