Opinion ID: 3001998
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Maildrops

Text: Watts first argues that the district court abused its discretion by admitting evidence that he was renting and Nos. 05-4595 & 06-1386 15 using commercial mailboxes in alias names. He contends that this evidence served no legitimate purpose and amounted to inadmissible “prior bad acts” evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b). As before, we review the court’s ruling for abuse of discretion. Id. This argument borders on frivolous. As the government pointed out at trial, Watts used the mailboxes to further his role in the conspiracy and conceal his connection to it. The “Mailboxes 4 U” address, obtained with a fake driver’s license and false address, hid Watts’s identity as the originator of four packages of stolen Treasury checks sent to Vaughn, as well as the payments he received from Vaughn in exchange. And Watts used the “Road Runner” maildrop, also created in a way that concealed his true identity, to open his Wells Fargo account and receive $62,900 in proceeds from the fraudulently cashed checks. Other mailboxes admitted into evidence were used by Watts as cross-references in connection with both the “Mailboxes 4 U” and “Road Runner” boxes. This evidence not only made Watts’s participation in the conspiracy “more probable” than it would have been without the evidence, see FED. R. EVID. 401, but it also played an important role in identifying Watts as the person who committed the crimes in question since Vaughn could not positively identify him based on their one meeting, see United States v. Lindemann, 85 F.3d 1232, 1237 (7th Cir. 1996) (explaining that identification of defendant is “an essential element of any offense”). Further, the evidence helped demonstrate that Watts intended to conceal his receipt and use of proceeds from the stolen-check scheme, a point relevant to the conspiracy charge under § 1956(h). See 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h); see also Ross, 510 F.3d at 713. Finally, although the “Whitegate” mailbox had little to do with the others, the district 16 Nos. 05-4595 & 06-1386 court’s decision to admit it into evidence was harmless in light of the evidence connecting the other mailboxes to Watts’s role in the conspiracy. Thus, the evidence was properly admitted.