Opinion ID: 721171
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Pablo Escobar

Text: 15 During the course of the IRS investigation, Thomas made several inconsistent statements to explain why his payroll taxes were never paid. One of these statements was that Pablo Escobar was involved with paying the tax. Although this statement was relevant to prove a string of inconsistent excuses given by Thomas for failure to pay withholding taxes, we conclude the unfair prejudice from this evidence linking Thomas to a drug cartel substantially outweighed its probative value. See Fed.R.Evid. at 403. However, this does not end our inquiry. 16 We will reverse a district court's nonconstitutional error admitting evidence only when it is more likely than not that the error affected the verdict. United States v. Yin, 935 F.2d 990, 994 (9th Cir.1991). Here, the evidence of Thomas's guilt was overwhelming. Moreover, the court gave the jury a limiting instruction telling the jury that Thomas was only on trial for the charged crimes. In these circumstances, we conclude the district court's error in admitting the statement about Pablo Escobar more likely than not did not affect the verdict. It was error, but not reversible error. 17