Opinion ID: 172566
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Severance Motions Filed During Trial

Text: On the second day of trial, Mr. Pursley orally renewed his motion to sever. Mr. Pursley argued that the testimony of Mr. Shields and Mr. Templeman was even more vital in light of the government's assertion that they were not legitimate witnesses in the tax-fraud case. The district court denied this oral motion for the same reasons it had denied Mr. Pursley's earlier motions. On the last day of witness testimony, Mr. Wardell and Mr. Pursley filed their final motion to sever. This motion provided new, somewhat more expansive declarations from Mr. Shields and Mr. Templeman. For the most part, each declaration identified specific inculpatory statements that Mr. Cluff and Mr. Hoskins attributed at trial to Mr. Wardell and Mr. Pursley. Mr. Shields and Mr. Templeman then agreed to testify, upon severance, that neither Mr. Wardell nor Mr. Pursley made any such statements on the day of the assault. Again, the district court denied this motion. We perceive no abuse of discretion in either decision. As an initial matter, Mr. Pursley's last two motions were filed after the commencement of trial. A Rule 14 motion to sever must be raised before trial. Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b)(3)(D); United States v. Baker, 432 F.3d 1189, 1239 (11th Cir.2005) (holding that severance motion to permit exculpatory testimony of codefendant filed nine days after start of trial was untimely). Thus, both were untimely. Even if they had been timely, the denial of these motions was justifiable for similar reasons to those given by the district court for denying the previous motions.