United States First Circuit

Conviction for committing a carjacking resulting in death is affirmed where: 1) the court properly denied defendant's motion for acquittal as the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that defendant had the intent to kill or seriously harm the victim when he took control of her car; 2) the court did not err in excluding tape recordings of the victim as the recordings did not contradict the victim's hearsay allegations of abuse; 3) the court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow defendant to present expert witness testimony regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification; 4) the court did not abuse its discretion denying defendant's motion for a mistrial as the brief mention of the possibility of a polygraph examination did not warrant a mistrial; and 5) the court erroneously admitted certain statements made by the victim's friend and mother, but the error was harmless.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/23/2009
• Published 07/23/2009

Judges

• LIPEZ, Circuit Judge., Before TORRUELLA, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• G. Richard Strafer, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Vijay Shanker, Attorney, United States Department of Justice, with whom Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, United States Attorney, and Nelson Prez-Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief, for appellee.