United States v. Gerardo Herrera-Gonzalez

This is a drug conspiracy case in which the main issue is sufficiency of evidence of participation in the conspiracy.

I. FACTS

This case was tried and the jury convicted. We therefore report the facts based on the evidence introduced at trial.

Herrera-Gonzalez was apprehended at a ranch where methamphetamine was being manufactured. The evidence established overwhelmingly that several people were acting together to manufacture large quantities of methamphetamine. But he testified that he did not know about the methamphetamine and that he did not help in its manufacture. The jury was required to determine whether Herrera-Gonzalez knew what the others at the ranch were doing and intentionally participated in their conspiracy, or whether he just had the misfortune of being there when the arrest took place.

The methamphetamine laboratory was concealed behind stacked bales of hay in the center of a barn. Herrera-Gonzalez, twenty-two years old at trial and about twenty when the events occurred, took the stand. He testified that he had never been in the part of the barn where the manufacturing took place, did not know the hidden area was there, and had never been to the ranch prior to…