Opinion ID: 772486
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plot to Murder Sarvjeet

Text: 82 The decision to murder Sarvjeet was the result of Sarvjeet's cooperation with the police in an investigation of a homicide allegedly committed by Gogi in 1991. A few weeks after Gogi was arrested at Dhinsa's Citygas offices in Brooklyn based on Sarvjeet's identification, Gurdial, Dhinsa's cousin and a Citygas employee, rented an apartment directly across from where Sarvjeet lived. Notably, Dhinsa was listed as the guarantor on the lease for that apartment. Numerous witnesses, including the person living in Sarvjeet's home, testified that Dhinsa was actively looking for Sarvjeet around that same time. Further, Samuels and Powell testified that Dhinsa instructed them to kill Sarvjeet, taking them to Sarvjeet's home and directing their escape route following the murder. Samuels and Powell also testified as to the manner in which Dhinsa instructed them to carry out Sarvjeet's murder. 83 Even excluding the piece of paper bearing Sarvjeet's address that was discovered during the search of Dhinsa's car, the evidence of Dhinsa's role in the plot to murder Sarvjeet was overwhelming. Similar to the items relating to the murders of Manmohan and Satinderjit, the piece of paper with Sarvjeet's address merely corroborated the testimony of Samuels and Powell, Dhinsa's co-conspirators in that murder plot, and numerous witnesses that testified regarding Dhinsa's efforts to locate Sarvjeet following Gogi's arrest in May 1997. Dhinsa's status as the guarantor on the lease for the apartment across from where Sarvjeet lived that was presumably used to monitor Sarvjeet's movements is further evidence of his involvement in the plot to murder Sarvjeet. Contrary to Dhinsa's description of the paper bearing Sarvjeet's address as a smoking gun, a careful reading of the record reveals that the piece of paper constituted but a small part of the government's proof. United States v. Langford, 990 F.2d 65, 70 (2d Cir. 1993); see also United States v. Nivica, 887 F.2d 1110, 1115 (1st Cir. 1989). Given the strength of the government's proof on Dhinsa's involvement in the plot to kill Sarvjeet, we conclude that any error resulting from the district court's admission of the evidence relating to that crime obtained during the search of Dhinsa's car amounted, at most, to harmless error.