Court Opinion

ID: 9437903
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 04:59:50.88245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:25:10.741992
License: Public Domain

HENRY, Chief Judge,
concurring:
I join the majority’s careful opinion but write separately to note the closeness of this case. In United States v. Evans, 970 F.2d 663, 674 (10th Cir.1992), we observed, “The tactic of charging many defendants with a single massive conspiracy is fraught with the potential for abuse.” Here, apparently undaunted by a paucity of evidence supporting its theory that a single, massive wheel conspiracy existed, the government chose to prosecute Ms. Carnagie and Mr. Hilaire together. In my view, the government’s presentation of evidence at trial came dangerously close to Evans’s concern that the jury would be “so overwhelmed with evidence of wrongdoing by other alleged coeonspirators that it [would] fail to differentiate among particular defendants.” Id.
However, I am persuaded by the majority opinion’s conclusion that Ms. Carnagie and Mr. Hilaire were not substantially prejudiced by the joint prosecution. In particular, I agree that they were adequately informed of the charges against them. See United States v. Windrix, 405 F.3d 1146, 1154 (10th Cir.2005) (“A defendant’s substantial rights are not prejudiced merely because the defendant is convicted upon evidence which tends to show a narrower scheme than that contained in the indictment, provided that the narrower scheme is fully included within the indictment.”). Moreover, my review of the record does not lead me to conclude that guilt was more likely than not imputed from one defendant to another. See id. (observing that substantial prejudice has occurred “if the evidence adduced against co-conspirators involved in separate conspiracies was more likely than not imputed to the defendant by the jury in its determination of the defendant’s guilt”) (quoting United States v. Harrison, 942 F.2d 751, 758 (10th Cir. 1991) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Rather, the jury was presented with evidence that tended to show Ms. Carnagie and Mr. Hilaire’s involvement in smaller conspiracies, which were distinct from the massive conspiracy alleged, and the district court properly instructed the jury to separately consider the evidence against each defendant. Thus, I concur.