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Venue, Suppression, Sentencing Claims Rejected

By Shari Allison

U.S. v. Hamilton, 2009 WL 3647929 (11/5/09) (Published) - The 10th finds the evidence sufficient to establish venue in Kansas, which, in turn, depended on establishing the interdependence between the defendant's acts and those of a co-conspirator. The defendant was responsible for overt acts committed before he joined the conspiracy. Mr. Barker had been arrested when he was found with hundreds of pounds of marijuana in Kansas. The defendant agreed to travel to Cleveland to try to collect on Mr. Barker's drug debts to help defray Mr. Barker's bail and legal costs.. This was meant to further Mr. Barker's drug operation, was not a separate conspiracy and was interdependent with Mr. Barker's acts, even if the defendant's participation was a one-time incident, did not directly pertain to drug distribution and the defendant did not profit financially [the defendant felt morally obligated to help out his half-brother]...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on November 11, 2009 (boomark / email).