Case: 17-20230 Document: 00514610328 Page: 1 Date Filed: 08/21/2018 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED No. 17-20230 August 21, 2018 Lyle W. Cayce UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Clerk Plaintiff - Appellee v. ISRAEL ARQUIMIDES MARTINEZ, Defendant - Appellant Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Before STEWART, Chief Judge, and JONES and ENGELHARDT, Circuit Judges. CARL E. STEWART, Chief Judge: After a months-long investigation into hiring practices at Waste Management Incorporated (“WMI”), the Government charged Defendant- Appellant Israel Arguimides Martinez and several co-defendants with various immigration crimes stemming from their participation in efforts to recruit and retain undocumented immigrants for employment at WMI in Houston, Texas. Martinez was later also charged by Superseding Indictment with several counts of identity-theft stemming from the same underlying scheme. After a nine-day jury trial, Martinez was convicted of all 18 counts charged in the Superseding Indictment and was sentenced to 87 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. He now challenges the sufficiency of the Case: 17-20230 Document: 00514610328 Page: 2 Date Filed: 08/21/2018 No. 17-20230 evidence supporting his conviction, arguing primarily that he was never involved in the scheme giving rise to his charges. Because the Government presented sufficient evidence to support the jury’s guilty verdict, we AFFIRM. I. BACKGROUND WMI is a waste disposal and environmental services company headquartered in Houston, Texas. WMI maintained a facility on Afton Road in Houston (“Afton Road location”) where employees held various positions, including those of “helpers,” 1 drivers, commercial route managers, technicians, maintainers, welders, hazardous material experts, and landfill gas operators. Martinez worked as the residential operations lead driver for WMI for several years leading up to his arrest. WMI hired its employees through Associated Marine and Industrial Staffing Company (“AMI”), a staffing and payroll services company contracted by WMI to provide part-time employees. Mary Louise Flores (“Flores”) and Fernando Emmanuel Bustos (“Bustos”) were on-site supervisors for AMI at WMI’s Afton Road location. Flores had worked for AMI for 12 years before her arrest, and she began working at the Afton Road location in 2011 as AMI’s onsite representative. She held that position for 11 months. Applicants who sought employment at WMI would submit their applications, in addition to an identification or resident card and a Social Security card, through AMI. AMI was responsible for conducting employment eligibility verification through the Department of Homeland Security’s E- Verify/Basic Pilot Program (“E-Verify”). 2 AMI was also required to examine 1 “Helpers” are WMI employees who ride on the back of waste disposal trucks during trash pickup routes. 2 E-Verify is an internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on a prospective employee’s Employment Eligibility Verification Form (“I-9”), to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. 2 Case: 17-20230 Document: 00514610328 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/21/2018 No. 17-20230 documentation provided by prospective employees for genuineness at the time of hire ...
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