United States First Circuit

Sentence and convictions on three federal counts, conspiracy to commit arson, wire fraud, and mail fraud, related to defendant's alleged participation in a scheme to burn down a tenement house that defendant owned so he could collect the insurance proceeds, are affirmed over defendant's contentions that: 1) the District Court erred by conducting a portion of a Daubert hearing in his absence; 2) a correction that the government was allowed to make, post-trial, to a statutory citation that was contained in Count I of the superseding indictment affected his decision not to plead guilty and to proceed to trial; and 3) the District Court erred in its refusal to appoint new counsel at sentencing and instead to give defendant the choice only either of proceeding pro se or of keeping the appointed counsel that he had at the time and with whom he was then allegedly in serious conflict.

Appellate Information

• Published 2016/10/28

Judges

• BARRON

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel