United States Eighth Circuit

Defendant's sentence for wire fraud, mail fraud, making, possessing, and uttering a forged security, and money laundering is affirmed where: 1) it was not plain error for the district court to hear defendant's family member's statement because the statement concerned defendant's background, character, and conduct; 2) given the fact that the victims of defendant's wills-and-estate-planning scheme overlapped with the victims of other schemes, and that defendant used those seminars to find new victims for his other crimes and assess their financial situations, it was not clearly erroneous for the district court to determine they were part of the same course of conduct; and 3) the district court was aware of defendant's mental health issues and there was no evidence it disregarded them in varying upward.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/05/2010
• Published 08/05/2010

Judges

• Kermit M. Bye

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel