Opinion ID: 444351
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Spillover Claim

Text: In a case involving several defendants, the court must take care that evidence against one defendant is not misinterpreted by the jury and used as the basis for convicting another defendant not connected to that evidence. United States v. Flaherty, 668 F.2d at 582. Alba claims that because he did not participate in the second smuggle and was not charged with those crimes, only a severance could save him from the danger of being found guilty by association with others who had participated in the two smuggling transactions. In evaluating whether convictions were the result of confusion on the part of the jury, the reviewing court must look to the number of defendants involved and the trial judge's efforts to reduce the possibility of spillover. Id. See also Blumenthal v. United States, 332 U.S. 539, 560, 68 S.Ct. 248, 257-58, 92 L.Ed. 154 (1947). In this case, the trial court was careful to differentiate between Alba and the other conspirators. The trial judge issued a special Alba jury instruction in which he specifically directed the jurors not to take any of the evidence of the November smuggle into consideration in determining Alba's guilt or innocence. Thereafter, the judge named each of the witnesses and every exhibit that the jury was to exclude from its deliberation of Alba. The trial court's careful segregation and the ample evidence against Alba on all charges of which he was convicted lead us to conclude that Alba's spillover claim is without merit. DeFeo's claim of spillover prejudice is more difficult to comprehend since he was acquitted of the substantive charges relating to the second smuggle. His partial acquittal is, itself, a clear demonstration that the jury was not indiscriminately stirring the defendants together in a conspiracy soup. The evidence amply supports DeFeo's conviction for his part in the first smuggle, and we find no error in the trial court's denial of severance.