Opinion ID: 436120
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of the Requested Severance

Text: 22 Under Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, a court is authorized to grant a severance if it appears that a defendant or the government is prejudiced by a joinder of offenses or of defendants. Fed.R.Crim.P. 14. The severance decision on such a motion rests with the sound discretion of the trial court. United States v. Solomon, 609 F.2d 1172, 1175 (5th Cir.1980). In order to demonstrate an abuse of discretion by the trial court, the defendant has the very heavy burden of establishing that he was unable to obtain a fair trial without a severance and that he suffered compelling prejudice which the trial court could not prevent. United States v. Wilson, 657 F.2d 755, 765 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 951, 102 S.Ct. 1456, 71 L.Ed.2d 667 (1982). 23 The remaining defendants moved to sever their trial from that of their codefendants Ibarra-Estrgryn and Carrasquilla-Lombano against whom the government had expressed an intention to and in fact did use prior similar offense evidence at trial. The failure to grant the severance on the basis of the intended use of that evidence, in light of the difficulty experienced by the trial court in distinguishing between the Spanish speaking defendants (all of whom had Spanish surnames and similar appearances), they argue rendered compelling in this case the prejudice of guilt by association that normally exists when codefendants are tried together. They argue that the prejudice resulting from the failure to grant the severance made it impossible for them to receive a fair trial. The defendants argue that, therefore, the district court abused its discretion by denying the requested severance. 24 We find no abuse of discretion in the district court's denial of the motion to sever. At trial, the moving (non-prior act) defendants were ostensibly represented by a different trial counsel (see below) than the defendants against whom the government intended to use prior similar act evidence. Further, the district court took great pains to aid the jury in distinguishing the defendants. Moreover, the district court gave limiting instructions prior to the introduction of the similar offense evidence and in the charge to the jury. For the reasons stated, we feel that the compelling prejudice that might have resulted in this situation was averted by the district court and that, accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the requested severance.