Opinion ID: 654623
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Challenges Raised by Ramirez

Text: 11
12 Prior to trial, Ramirez asked the district court to grant him a separate trial. The court denied his request. Ramirez argues that the court's decision amounts to reversible error for two reasons. First, he claims that his trial with Chaidez precluded him from calling Chaidez as a witness. At trial, Chaidez invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify. Ramirez contends that Chaidez would have testified to exculpate him (Ramirez) at a separate trial. Second, Ramirez asserts that the evidence of criminal wrongdoing against his co-defendant Chaidez unduly prejudiced the jury against him (Ramirez). We find neither argument persuasive. 13 We begin with the presumption that co-defendants who are indicted together are normally tried together. United States v. Smith, 995 F.2d 662, 670 (7th Cir.1993); United States v. Atterson, 926 F.2d 649, 657 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2909, 115 L.Ed.2d 1072 (1991). Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure authorizes the district court to grant a severance if it appears to the district court that a criminal defendant or the government will be unduly prejudiced by joinder of co-defendants for trial together. 3 United States v. Schweihs, 971 F.2d 1302, 1320 (7th Cir.1992). Criminal defendants who claim that a district court abused its discretion by denying a severance motion bear a heavy burden on appeal. Id. at 1321. We will reverse a district court's decision to deny severance only when the court's decision results in actual prejudice to the party appealing its decision. Smith, 995 F.2d at 670. To show actual prejudice, a defendant must demonstrate that he or she was unable to obtain a fair trial without severance, not just that a separate trial would have offered a better chance for acquittal. Atterson, 926 F.2d at 658. 14 The district court in this case conducted a hearing to consider Ramirez's motion for severance. As to Ramirez's first argument for severance--the possibility that Chaidez would testify at a separate trial to exculpate Ramirez--the district court commented, quite correctly, that even if the court were to grant a severance as to Mr. Ramirez, Mr. Chaidez still may exercise his Fifth Amendment right and not testify against Mr. Ramirez if Mr. Ramirez were tried separately. Transcript of Motion for Severance at 5. Ramirez's motion for severance included an affidavit from Ramirez's attorney which told the court [t]hat affiant has been informed by Francisco Chaidez' counsel that Chaidez would be available to testify in a separate trial for and on behalf of Artemio Ramirez after his case has been disposed of and he is no longer subject to jeopardy. Ex. A to Record in No. 92-3521 Doc. 21. 15 This clearly is not sufficient to require a district court to grant a severance. When a criminal defendant seeks a severance in order to obtain exculpatory testimony a co-defendant would offer, the district court must consider three factors: (1) whether the co-defendant's testimony would in fact be exculpatory; (2) whether the co-defendant would in fact testify; and (3) whether the testimony would bear on defendant's case. United States v. Tolliver, 937 F.2d 1183 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 329, 614, 116 L.Ed.2d 269 (1991); Atterson, 926 F.2d at 657-58. 16 Ramirez fails to satisfy the second part of this three-part test. We point out, as the district court did, that Chaidez himself did not submit an affidavit. Ramirez merely offered the unsupported statement of his attorney that his attorney had been informed that Chaidez would testify. At most, Ramirez presented only a possibility that Chaidez would testify to exculpate him at a separate trial. That is not enough to require severance. See United States v. Studley, 892 F.2d 518, 525 (7th Cir.1989) (mere possibility of a co-defendant's exculpatory testimony insufficient for severance). We held in Studley that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied appellant's motion for severance. Id. The only difference in this case is the assertion by Ramirez's lawyer that Chaidez would testify once he is no longer subject to jeopardy. If Chaidez himself had said this, we might have reason to pause. But Chaidez did not so state and the lack of any affidavit from Chaidez stands as a glaring omission in the record. Like the district court, we are not persuaded that Chaidez would testify. 17 The district court also properly rejected Ramirez's second argument--that evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Chaidez unduly prejudiced the jury against Ramirez. To succeed on this claim, a criminal defendant must rebut the dual presumptions that a jury will (1) capably sort through the evidence and (2) follow instructions from the court to consider each defendant separately. Smith, 995 F.2d at 671; United States v. Goines, 988 F.2d 750, 781 (7th Cir.1993). Mere speculation of spill over guilt is not enough to rebut these twin presumptions. United States v. Doerr, 886 F.2d 944, 972 (7th Cir.1989). 18 We begin, then, by examining the jury instructions. The district court instructed the jury that 19 [a]lthough the defendants are being tried jointly, you must give separate consideration to each defendant. In so doing, you must analyze what the evidence in the case shows with respect to each defendant, leaving out of consideration any evidence admitted solely against some other defendant or defendants. Each defendant is entitled to have his or her case decided on the evidence and the law applicable to him or her. 20 Record in No. 92-3522 Doc. 36 at 4. The instruction on this point was entirely proper, but, equally significant are the verdicts the jury returned. The jury, as we have noted, acquitted two of the four defendants. See supra note 2. It also found Ramirez guilty of distributing cocaine, found him innocent of conspiring to distribute cocaine, and found Chaidez guilty on all counts. The verdicts illustrate that the jury contemplated each count of the indictment and each defendant separately. See Goines, 988 F.2d at 781 (where jury acquitted one defendant of all charges, acquitted some defendants of a particular count, and convicted others, verdict proved that jury contemplated each count and each defendant separately). We conclude, therefore, that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Ramirez's motion for severance.
21 Ramirez's second argument is that the evidence is not sufficient to sustain his conviction for knowingly and intentionally distributing cocaine. Like his first argument, Ramirez faces an uphill battle. We will reverse Ramirez's conviction only if Ramirez persuades us that the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the jury could find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Easley, 994 F.2d 1241, 1247 (7th Cir.1993). We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and we defer to the reasonable inferences drawn by the jury from the evidence. Id. 22 The evidence, mostly in the form of testimony by Carr and Fontanez, indicated that, on January 17, 1992, Ramirez and Chaidez drove Fontanez to a bar, then proceeded to another location where Ramirez carried a blue plastic laundry basket to Chaidez's blue Corsica. The blue plastic laundry basket contained cocaine. After picking up the laundry basket, Fontanez, Ramirez, and Chaidez proceeded to their rendezvous point. Ramirez, Chaidez, and Fontanez were arrested shortly thereafter. Additionally, other evidence showed that Ramirez possessed a loaded handgun and a small scale, items typically associated with the drug trade. This evidence sufficiently supports the jury's finding that Ramirez knowingly and intentionally distributed cocaine on January 17, 1992.