United States v. Jeffery Moore, No. 22-2733 (8th Cir. 2023)
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Defendant was indicted on four drug-related charges stemming from his involvement in a narcotics-distribution ring in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which culminated in the overdose deaths of two individuals. Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and two counts of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. The district court sentenced Defendant to 240 months imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute heroin and 420 months imprisonment on each count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, with all terms to run concurrently. On appeal, Defendant argued (1) that the district court erroneously admitted text messages between one of the victims and himself and (2) that the evidence is insufficient to convict him on any of the three counts of conviction.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The court explained that the night before her overdose, the victim texted Defendant—her primary if not only supplier of narcotics—at 6:58 p.m. “presumably to make arrangements to purchase heroin.” Per their typical arrangement, the victim then withdrew the necessary funds from an ATM and drove to Defendant’s house, texting him at 7:48 p.m. that she was in his backyard. Her subsequent text messages to family members reveal that she then went home. The victim’s body was found the next day. Under these facts, a reasonable jury could conclude that Defendant distributed the fentanyl that resulted in the victim’s death.
Court Description: [Shepherd, Author, with Erickson and Grasz, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. The district court did not err in admitting text messages between defendant and woman to whom he sold drugs who subsequently died of an overdose, as the evidence was sufficient to show the phone was in substantially the same condition as when the crime was committed; while the phone had reset after the victim's death and reloaded backed-up messages, the restored text messages were in exactly the same state as they were when law enforcement first seized the phone; evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for conspiracy to distribute heroin and two counts of distributing heroin resulting in death. [ June 26, 2023 ]
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