United States v. Gonzalez, No. 15-1706 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseA drug-dealer-turned-informant (Weil) identified Hernandez and Gonzalez his suppliers. Weil had sold methamphetamine provided by Gonzalez, who lived in California but had designated Hernandez as a local go-between. The men had discussed the arrangement in recorded phone calls. After a controlled buy, arranged by Weil, a search of Hernandez’s apartment revealed four pounds of methamphetamine found in the lining of a cooler. Both Hernandez and Gonzalez were present in the apartment. Gonzalez was convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. 846, 841(a)(1), possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. 924(c)(1)(A). He was sentenced to concurrent terms of 360 months in prison for the drug crimes plus a consecutive 60 months for the firearm offense. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting a challenge to the sufficiency of evidence that he possessed the methamphetamine. A rational jury could find from the evidence at trial both that the drugs recovered were the same drugs discussed in the recordings—the shipment that Gonzalez planned to send by courier from California ahead of his own his arrival—and that Gonzalez retained control over those drugs after they arrived in Illinois.
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