Opinion ID: 223527
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Crowder's Separate Claim

Text: Crowder presents only one separate issue, alleging that the district court abused its discretion during the trial phase by admitting evidence that the government presented solely to inflame the jury. He argues that the challenged evidence, all of which was introduced by the government ostensibly to show the connection between Crowder and the Insane Deuce racketeering conspiracy, was either irrelevant or unduly prejudicial. Specifically, he complains that the evidence of where two of his victims were returning from  a Blockbuster video store  and who was also in the vehicle when he shot at them was inadmissible because it painted a picture of a wholesome family outing disrupted by a violent shooting. (Crowder Br. at 5.) He also complains that the government presented evidence of him shooting a victim outside of a children's music recital when the location was immaterial, as well as testimony from a witness whose stated reason for recalling the date of another shooting was that she was returning a pan to her neighbor who had baked a cake for her after a death in her family. We review the district court's evidentiary decisions for abuse of discretion, disturbing its ruling only if no reasonable person could agree with them. Dinga, 609 F.3d at 908. We find no merit to Crowder's arguments, and we dispose of them summarily. The government presented evidence of the shootings in order to show that he undertook the violent actions on behalf of the Insane Deuces and that they were not mere random acts. Crowder believed each of his targets and victims to be Latin Kings. The shooting victims and other witnesses were called to identify Crowder as the shooter and to describe the circumstances of the shootings; those circumstances, in turn, provided the basis for forensic evidence linking Crowder to the gang through his use of Nation guns. The facts Crowder complains of were referred to only momentarily and were elicited to provide foundation for the witnesses' memories of the events. Further, we do not require parties to sterilize their testimony, purging it of all human detail; such details may be relevant and even essential to a jury's evaluation of the witnesses' credibility. Crowder has not demonstrated that he was unfairly prejudiced, let alone that the district court abused its discretion by admitting the testimony he challenges. United States v. Hanna, 630 F.3d 505, 511 (7th Cir.2010). We will therefore affirm his conviction.