Opinion ID: 625721
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Del Valle's Severance

Text: Sanchez's co-defendant in this case is Aaron Del Valle, a coordinator who worked for Sanchez in the HDO. Del Valle argues that he was denied a fair trial by virtue of being joined with Sanchez. The Court reviews a district court's denial of severance under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 14 for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Morales, 655 F.3d 608, 624 (7th Cir.2011). The standard for severance is that when defendants have been properly joined under Rule 8(b), a district court should grant a severance under Rule 14 only if there is a serious risk that a joint trial would compromise a specific trial right of one of the defendants, or prevent the jury from making a reliable judgment about guilt or innocence. Zafiro v. United States, 506 U.S. 534, 539, 113 S.Ct. 933, 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993). Here, Del Valle challenges only the district court's denial of his motions for severance thus denying him the right to a fair trial. This falls well short of establishing a serious risk as required to meet the Supreme Court standard. Del Valle argues that the disparity in weight of evidence against Sanchez and himself and the complex nature of the evidence denied him the right to a fair trial. However, the existence of a disparity in weight of evidence against a moving defendant and co-defendants does not itself amount to grounds for severance. United States v. Serpico, 320 F.3d 691, 696 (7th Cir.2003). This fear of spill-over can be mitigated sufficiently when there is ample evidence to convict the moving defendant and when jury is given instructions to assess each defendant individually. United States v. Alviar, 573 F.3d 526, 539 (7th Cir.2009). The disparity in evidence here is apparent as a majority of the evidence pertained to Sanchez. However, it is clear from the record that there was ample evidence to support Del Valle's conviction for perjury based on his answers to the grand jury. Additionally, the government was required to put Del Valle's answers into context in order to show how he perjured himself. This required presentation of witnesses and evidence that were used against both himself and Sanchez and the jury was instructed to assess the evidence separately as to each defendant. The district court properly considered each request for severance by Del Valle, and its conclusion in denying them does not constitute an abuse of discretion. Because we find that there was no abuse of discretion by the district court, we need not address whether Del Valle waived his severance argument for failing to raise it at the close of evidence.