Opinion ID: 1036611
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Closing Arguments, Conviction, and

Text: Sentence The Government began its summation by painting Smith as a drug dealer with “turf” to protect. App. 338. The prosecutor twice argued that on the night of September 2010 Smith meant to threaten the people in the car because, even if the jury believed Smith’s statement that there had been a shooting two weeks prior, Smith wanted to menace the 6 individuals in the car for “the shoot-up of [his] turf.” App. 343. In rebuttal, the Government also asked the jury to think: “What’s [Smith] doing standing on a corner? There is no house there, what’s he doing staring at a car? What’s he doing over there? . . . He’s been on that block before, hasn’t he? And not just two years ago.” App. 365. The jury convicted Smith on all counts. He was adjudicated a career offender based on the 2008 heroin sale that was the subject of the 404(b) motion and an unrelated drug possession charge, and sentenced to consecutive sentences of 240 months on the assault charge, 84 months on the use of the gun charge, and 36 months on the felon in possession charge, for a total of 360 months’ imprisonment.