Opinion ID: 2995593
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: 2d 1302, 1321 (7th Cir. 1992); Fed. R.

Text: Civ. P. 8(b). Regarding their Rule 14 misjoinder challenge, the key question is whether the jury was able to sort out the evidence against Johnson, Boddie, Thompson, and Walker, and fairly judge their actions. See United States v. Thornton, 197 F.3d 241, 255 (7th Cir. 1999). We believe that the jury was able to do so; the district court instructed the jury to give each defendant separate consideration and we normally presume that the jury followed the court’s instruction. See United States v. Johnson, 248 F.3d 655, 665 (7th Cir. 2001). Furthermore, it is clear that this presumption proved to be true in this case because the jury hung with respect to Johnson on the drug conspiracy charge and also acquitted several defendants not part of this appeal. We cannot imagine that a jury able to distinguish between defendants for this purpose could not also distinguish between the differing levels of participation attributable to each defendant. The jury also acquitted Spradley, Jones, and White of the murder- related charges, making it highly unlikely that the remaining defendants were prejudiced by the joinder of the murder-related charges with the conspiracy charge. Therefore, Johnson, Boddie, Thompson, and Walker have not shown that they were actually prejudiced by the district court’s refusal to sever and, accordingly, their challenge fails. See United States v. Pigee, 197 F.3d 879, 891 (7th Cir. 1999). F. Other Acts Evidence The defendants argue that the district court abused its discretion by admitting, under the intricately related theory, evidence of several violent acts alleged to have been perpetrated upon or committed by conspiracy members. Evidence that is so blended or connected that it incidentally involves, explains the circumstances surrounding, or tends to prove any element of, the charged crime is excluded from Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b)’s prohibition against other acts evidence admitted to show action in conformity therewith and, therefore, may be admitted at trial. United States v. Bogan, 267 F.3d 614, 622 (7th Cir. 2001) (internal citation omitted). So if the evidence is intricately related, connected, or intertwined in this manner, the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the evidence. See id. The evidence challenged by the defendants can be broken into two groups, each of which we believe was properly admitted. Group one includes evidence relevant to the murder of Marcus Willis: (a) the shooting of an unrelated person at Spradley’s night club whose blood was later found in White’s Yukon, the vehicle in which Willis was murdered; and (b) the state murder charges against Spradley and White that were dismissed in favor of federal prosecution. This evidence was introduced to fill a conceptual void for the jury. Evidence of the shooting at Spradley’s night club explained why another individual’s blood was found in White’s Yukon. The jury would have been left to question the source of the blood had this evidence not been admitted, because the blood did not match that of any of the conspirators. The documents pertaining to Spradley’s and White’s state murder charges were introduced only to clarify the timing of the events surrounding the murder. Because the jury acquitted Spradley and White of all murder-related charges, we know the jury did not improperly infer action in conformity therewith from the state murder charging documents. Therefore, we conclude that this evidence was properly admitted because it completed the story of and provided context for the murder- related charges. See United States v. Jackson, 33 F.3d 886, 874 (7th Cir. 1994). The second group of disputed evidence includes evidence of several non-fatal shootings and an alleged kidnaping. The government introduced evidence that Spradley’s girlfriend, who then served as the safekeeper of the conspiracy’s proceeds, had been shot by an attempted robber. This evidence was introduced to explain why Robert Johnson, a coconspirator not part of this appeal, took over the role of safekeeper, providing background for the jury to judge the credibility of this important witness’s testimony. Other shootings were alleged to have been committed by conspiracy members in retaliation for the attempted robbery of Spradley and a purchaser’s failure to fully repay Spradley for fronted cocaine, among other reasons. For similar reasons, several conspiracy members allegedly kidnaped a supplier who failed to procure the cocaine he promised./11 This kind of evidence is intricately related to the drug conspiracy charge because it shows how the conspiracy conducted its business. See United States v. Diaz, 176 F.3d 52, 79 (7th Cir. 1999) (affirming admission of evidence of violence committed on behalf of drug conspiracy because it explained the mutual trust between coconspirators); United States v. Molina, 75 F.3d 600, 602 (10th Cir. 1996) (affirming admission of evidence of defendant’s repossession of car at gunpoint because it showed his organizational role in the drug conspiracy); United States v. Rodrequez, 859 F.2d 1321, 1327 (8th Cir. 1988) (affirming admission of evidence that defendant beat a person with a pistol for failure to repay a loan because it showed how conspiracy operated)./12 Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting this evidence. As a fallback position, the defendants argue that the evidence of violent acts was unduly prejudicial under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. They assert that the cumulative impact of the evidence improperly aroused the jury members’ emotions and encouraged them to conclude that the defendants were bad characters that must be guilty. We agree with the general proposition that evidence of kidnapings and shootings can be gruesome and shocking, though we question whether the scant evidence of violence presented here fits that description. In any event, we cannot imagine that this jury, which acquitted Spradley, Jones, and White of the murder-related charges and was presented with abundant, non-violent evidence of the drug conspiracy and each defendant’s participation in it, decided the case on an emotional basis rather than upon the evidence presented. See Bogan, 267 F.3d at 623; United States v. Thomas, 155 F.3d 833, 836 (7th Cir. 1998) (applying harmless error analysis to Rule 403 evidentiary question). The defendants’ conclusory assertions to the contrary do not provide us with any basis for reversal given the great amount of deference we must accord the district court’s evidentiary ruling. See United States v. Foster, 939 F.2d 445, 457 (7th Cir. 1991).