Opinion ID: 517671
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: SEVERANCE (Quitian)

Text: 32 Quitian contends that the trial court's refusal to sever his trial from the others denied him a fair trial and limited his ability to cross examine the government's witnesses and corroborate his statement and proof. The government claims that Quitian did not adequately preserve his motion for severance because he did not renew it after Dairo Rios' exculpatory testimony nor at the conclusion of all the evidence, and in any event, argues that denial of severance did not clearly prejudice Quitian. 33 This circuit has stated that failure to renew [a] motion for severance at the end of the government's case or at the conclusion of all the evidence, constitutes a waiver of [a] demand for separate trials. United States v. Shearer, 606 F.2d 819, 821 (8th Cir.1979). See also United States v. Luschen, 614 F.2d 1164 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 939, 100 S.Ct. 2161, 64 L.Ed.2d 793 (1980). Recently, this court modified that rule in United States v. Thornberg, 844 F.2d 573 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2913, 101 L.Ed.2d 944 (1988). In deciding whether a motion for severance is properly preserved the court must look to the principal reasons for requiring the preservation of objection (1) to indicate whether the appealing party consented to the error, and (2) to give the trial court the opportunity to rule on the matter in its concrete form. Applying those principles to the present case, we find that Quitian has failed to properly preserve his motion for severance. 34 Quitian states in his brief that he last moved for severance just after German Rios fled the district. Subsequently, Dairo Rios' testimony exculpated Quitian by implicating German Rios, not Quitian, as the person present in the Skywood parking lot with Dairo Jesus Rios and John Jairo Ochoa-Crespo prior to the delivery of cocaine to the Marriott Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Had German Rios not fled, Dairo Rios may not have taken the stand to implicate him. But Quitian did not move for severance after Dairo Rios testified. Soon after, all parties rested. Quitian acquiesced in the court's decision to try all defendants together by not moving for severance after Dairo Rios' testimony, which was very favorable to him. By failing to renew his motion to sever after favorable testimony, Quitian did not preserve the severance issue. We cannot be sure that he did not consent to the joint trial. Thornberg, id. at 576. It may very well be that having enjoyed the benefits of a trial at which German Rios remained a defendant, albeit an absent one who had implied his own guilt and implied Quitian's innocence by flight, Quitian seeks to second guess his own tactical decision. 35 In any event, denial of Quitian's motion for severance was not error. The general rule is that persons charged in a conspiracy should be tried together, particularly where proof of the charges against the defendants is based upon the same evidence and acts. United States v. Lee, 743 F.2d 1240, 1248 (8th Cir.1984). See also United States v. Krevsky, 741 F.2d 1090, 1094 (8th Cir.1984); United States v. Miller, 725 F.2d 462, 467 (8th Cir.1984). A defendant must show more than that his chances for acquittal would have been better had he been tried separately. Lee, 743 F.2d at 1248. Rather, the defendant must show that he was prejudiced by the denial for severance, and this prejudice must be clear and real. Miller, 725 F.2d at 467. 36 Quitian claims that he was prejudiced by the failure to sever because as a result of the confusing and contradictory identification evidence between he and German Rios, it was difficult to compartmentalize the evidence against Mr. Quitian as against Mr. Rios. Secondly he argues that he was prejudiced by the joint trial because the post-arrest statements of German Rios and Nellie Rios which provide corroboration to Mr. Quitian's post-arrest statement that he was just in Minnesota on vacation were not allowed by the trial court to be presented to the jury. 37 It is not clear that severance would have cleared up any confusion as between German Rios and Quitian. Additionally, we do not agree that German Rios' post-arrest statement would have been admissible in a trial where Rios was not a defendant or that the statement clearly exculpates Quitian. German Rios stated that he had met with Ochoa and Dairo Rios to open a video store. The court suppressed German Rios' statement because he had not waived his constitutional rights prior to making the statement. With a separate trial, Quitian claims that he would have been allowed to introduce the statement under Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(3) as a statement against interest. 38 The statement is not a statement against interest. Rios' statement is not so far contrary to [his] pecuniary or proprietary interest    that a reasonable person in his position would not have made the statement unless [he believed] it to be true. Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3). German Rios's statement constituted an alibi for his presence in Fridley, Minnesota, but would not subject him to criminal liability. He in fact denied knowledge of any cocaine dealings. It is quite clear that a reasonable person in German Rios's position might well have made these statements without believing them to be true. United States v. Tovar, 687 F.2d 1210, 1213 (8th Cir.1982). 39 If Quitian were to offer the statement under another theory to solve the hearsay problem, it still would not be enough to overrule the trial court's denial of Quitian's motion to sever. [T]here must be some appreciable chance that [the defendant] would not have been convicted had the separate trial [he] wanted been granted. United States v. Bostic, 713 F.2d 401, 403 (8th Cir.1983). Quitian's whole purpose in offering this statement was to show that German Rios, not he, met with Ochoa and Dairo Rios in the parking lot at the Skywood on August 31. He accomplished this through other means. Dairo Rios testified to exactly that. Admission of the statements of German and Nellie Rios, to whose statements the same analysis applies, would have added little to the defense. 40 Therefore, we conclude that the district did not abuse its discretion in denying Quitian's motion for severance. 41