Opinion ID: 677446
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Count Five Evidence

Text: 31 Corona argues the district court erred by initially denying his motion to sever count five and by allowing the government to present evidence in support of this count before ultimately granting the severance motion. We do not agree. 32 We review a district court's decision whether to sever for abuse of discretion. United States v. Cuozzo, 962 F.2d 945, 949 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 475, 121 L.Ed.2d 381 (1992). Evidentiary rulings will be reversed for abuse of discretion only if such nonconstitutional error more likely than not affected the verdict. United States v. Chu Kong Yin, 935 F.2d 990, 994 (9th Cir.1991). 33 Corona claims he was unfairly prejudiced by the testimony of two deputy United States Marshals who testified that Corona fled from them. However, the district court struck this testimony from the record and instructed the jury a number of times in great detail to disregard what they had heard. [O]ur court assumes that the jury listened to and followed the trial judge's instructions. United States v. Baker, 10 F.3d 1374, 1388 (9th Cir.1993) (internal quotations omitted); see also Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 206, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 1706-07, 95 L.Ed.2d 176 (1987) (recognizing the almost invariable assumption of the law that jurors follow their instructions). Furthermore, [t]he district court's careful and frequent limiting instructions militate against finding an abuse of discretion. Baker, 10 F.3d at 1388; see also Cuozzo, 962 F.2d at 950. Finally, the evidence relating to count five was only a very small portion of the government's evidence against Corona. We conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting this evidence before ultimately striking it and granting Corona's severance motion. III