Opinion ID: 203518
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Constructive Amendment of Indictment at Trial

Text: Defendant argues his indictment was constructively amended at trial because the district court allowed the government to introduce blank forms found in the search of the storage unit and because of the prosecutor's statements in his closing argument that the defendant was impersonating someone else. He contends that this broadened the bases on which the jury could convict him to include identity theft or impersonation, rather than the more limited crime charged in the indictment. In determining whether there has been constructive amendment of the indictment, we generally evaluate whether the defendant has demonstrated that the alleged alteration in the indictment did in fact change the elements of the offense charged, and whether he was convicted of a crime not charged in the grand jury indictment. United States v. Kelly, 722 F.2d 873, 876 (1st Cir.1983). Because the defendant failed to adequately raise this issue before the trial court, however, we review for plain error. United States v. Brandao, 539 F.3d 44, 57 (1st Cir.2008). Here, the introduction of the blank forms and the prosecutor's suggestion of impersonation neither altered the elements of the charged offense nor allowed the jury to convict him of an uncharged crime. Under 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(6), the government was required to prove that the defendant knowingly and willfully provided false information with the intent to deceive. The blank forms and the prosecutor's theory that the defendant was impersonating someone else helped to establish that he had the requisite mens rea to be convicted of the crime charged. That defendant possessed forms that he could freely fill in and was trying to use someone else's identity to obtain a duplicate Social Security card made it more likely that he could have provided the information on his SSA application with the intent to deceive.