United States v. Brock

As part of a large drug-distribution operation centered on defendant Joseph Jackson, cooperating witness Jayquis Brock regularly sold wholesale quantities of crack cocaine to James Dickerson (defendant), who also bought large supplies from suppliers entirely outside Jackson's network; Brock testified he had no resale agreement with Dickerson and did not consider him a co-conspirator, though the trial judge denied Dickerson's motion for acquittal on the conspiracy charge, reasoning a jury could infer a conspiratorial stake from the parties' steady supply-and-demand relationship. The jury convicted Dickerson of both the substantive drug offense and conspiracy, and he appealed the conspiracy conviction.