United States v. Joseph Gullity

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

United States v. Joseph Gullity

Opinion

USCA1 Opinion









December 14, 1992 [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]
[NOT FOR PUBLICATION]
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT




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No. 92-1586

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Appellee,

v.

JOSEPH GULLITY,

Defendant, Appellant.

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APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

[Hon. Ernest C. Torres, U.S. District Judge]
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Before

Selya, Circuit Judge,
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Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge,
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and Stahl, Circuit Judge.
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Dana A. Curhan for appellant.
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Lincoln C. Almond, United States Attorney, and Gerard B.
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Sullivan, Assistant United States Attorney, on brief for
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appellee.

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Per Curiam. Defendant-appellant Joseph Gullity, a/k/a
Per Curiam
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Feme Adedotun, was charged with possessing heroin with intent to

distribute the drug, 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), and conspiring to

possess heroin with an intent to distribute it. 21 U.S.C. 846.

A jury found him guilty on both counts. Gullity appeals. We

affirm.

Gullity's appeal advances only a solitary assignment of

error: "Whether the evidence was sufficient, when viewed in the

light most favorable to the government, to establish (a) that the

defendant possessed the contraband found in the vicinity of the

car in which he had been a passenger, and (b) that he

participated in a conspiracy with codefendant Akinola."

Appellant's Brief at 1. However, Gullity never moved for

judgment of acquittal in the district court and, therefore, never

preserved this issue for appeal. It is firmly settled that,

under such circumstances, "the defendant forfeits the benefit of

the customary standard of review, thereby negating any claim of

evidentiary insufficiency unless affirming the conviction would

work a 'clear and gross injustice.'" United States v. Castro-
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Lara, 970 F.2d 976, 980 n.2 (1st Cir. 1992), quoting United
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States v. Cheung, 836 F.2d 729, 730 n.1 (1st Cir. 1988) (per
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curiam). Having carefully reviewed the parties' briefs and the

trial transcript, we see no hint of injustice here. Indeed, even

under the ordinary standard of review applicable to sufficiency-

of-the-evidence challenges, see, e.g., United States v. Maraj,
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947 F.2d 520, 522-23 (1st Cir. 1991), we have no doubt but that


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the evidence would be judged sufficient to convict.

We need go no further. Because it clearly appears that

this appeal presents no substantial question, we summarily affirm

the judgment below. See 1st Cir. Loc. R. 27.1.
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Affirmed.
Affirmed
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Reference

Status
Published