Opinion ID: 165798
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Westcott's Motion to Sever

Text: 44 The district court refused to sever Westcott's trial from that of the other defendants. We review the district court's refusal to sever for abuse of discretion. United States v. Morales, 108 F.3d 1213, 1219 (10th Cir.1997). Westcott contends that his trial should have been severed because he was prejudiced by evidence relevant only to the activities of the other defendants — in particular, evidence of the same off-hill drug-related activities noted in the above discussion of Defendants' variance contention. 45 The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to sever. As we have already stated, Westcott's involvement with the conspiracy was sufficiently great that the evidence of other drug-related activities in which coconspirators may have been involved was not unduly prejudicial. And the evidence of Windrix's and Mook's hill-conspiracy-related activities was not unduly prejudicial because it could have been introduced in a separate trial of Westcott on a charge of participating in the hill conspiracy. See, e.g., United States v. Yazzie, 188 F.3d 1178, 1193-94 (10th Cir.1999) (aider and abettor not entitled to severance on the ground that evidence against murderer was particularly gruesome because same evidence could have been introduced in separate trial); United States v. Youngpeter, 986 F.2d 349, 353 (10th Cir.1993) (lesser culpability of one defendant relative to others is not ground for reversing denial of request for severance) (collecting cases).