Opinion ID: 763759
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged Spillover Prejudice

Text: 150 Roman argues that admission of evidence concerning alleged crimes by his co-defendants caused him substantial spillover prejudice which could have been avoided by a separate trial. Roman principally notes that although he was only implicated in one of nine murders charged (that of Robinson), he was tried over a three month period before the same jury which heard volumes of evidence that his co-defendants, inter alia, committed eight unrelated murders and other acts of violence, sold narcotics, and maintained and shared weapons for use in their criminal activities. He contends that since this evidence was introduced only to prove the existence of the Latin Kings organization, to which he already conceded, its spillover effect was highly prejudicial and, therefore, warrants a reversal of his conviction. We find there was no substantial spillover prejudice here to constitute a miscarriage of justice. 151 First, the evidence in dispute is relevant to the charges against all RICO defendants because it tended to prove (1) the existence and nature of the Latin Kings and their RICO enterprise; and (2) a pattern of racketeering activity on the part of each RICO defendant by providing the requisite relationship and continuity of illegal activities. See, e.g., DiNome, 954 F.2d at 843-44 (holding that there was no prejudicial spillover effect because contested evidence was relevant to RICO charges and would have been admitted against all defendants); Brady, 26 F.3d at 287 (holding that there was no prejudice from admission of evidence regarding murders as background evidence). Therefore, such evidence would have been admissible against all of these defendants even if each had been tried separately. See Miller, 116 F.3d at 679; Rosa, 11 F.3d at 341; DiNome, 954 F.2d at 844. Even though some of this evidence came in the form of statements from Roman's co-conspirators, tape recorded or otherwise, including statements that were made prior to Roman's joining of the Latin Kings, the result is the same. Such evidence was properly admitted against Roman pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E) as statements in furtherance of the charged racketeering and drug conspiracies. See United States v. Badalamenti, 794 F.2d 821, 826-28 (2d Cir.1986). 152 Further, the district court gave limiting instructions to the jury during the trial and in its final jury charges to assess the evidence against each defendant separately from the evidence presented against other defendants. See United States v. Carson, 702 F.2d 351, 367 (2d Cir.1983) (holding that a judge's instructions to the jury to assess each defendant separately supports a finding of no spillover prejudice). The verdict against Millet, which included acquitting him of one VICAR count and one predicate act of racketeering of the RICO count, indicates that the jury heeded the court's instructions and carefully considered the evidence against each defendant separately. Because Roman has not shown that his joint trial substantially prejudiced him, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying his severance motions.